Numbers 32:14

_AND WHEREFORE DISCOURAGE YE THE HEART OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FROM GOING OVER INTO THE LAND WHICH THE LORD HATH GIVEN THEM?_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

14._And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers’ stead. _He signifies that, by their evil doings, they were “filling up the measure” of their fathers, as Jesus spoke of the Jews of His own time. In this sense he calls them an addition _(accessio,) _which word I take to mean a climax _(cumulus.) _For their translation is a poor one, who render it education, or offspring, or foster-children. With the Hebrews, תרבות, (217) _tarbuth, _is literally an increase, or multiplication; and thus is applied to usury. This passage, however, requires that it should be explained as a heap, as much as to say that a new body of persons were springing up afresh, who carried impiety to its very height. In a word, he intimates that fuel was added to the fire which was now smouldering, whereby a new flame was excited: for he says that they were furnishing materials for God’s wrath

6-15 The proposal showed disregard to the land of Canaan, distrust of the Lord's promise, and unwillingness to encounter the difficulties and dangers of conquering and driving out the inhabitants of that land. Moses is wroth with them. It will becomes any of God's Israel to sit down unconcerned about the difficult and perilous concerns of their brethren, whether public or personal. He reminds them of the fatal consequences of the unbelief and faint-heartedness of their fathers, when they were, as themselves, just ready to enter Canaan. If men considered as they ought what would be the end of sin, they would be afraid of the beginning of it....

EXPOSITION THE TWO AND A HALF TRIBES BEYOND JORDAN (Numbers 32:1). NUMBERS 32:1 THE CHILDREN OF REUBEN AND THE CHILDREN OF GAD. Reuben and Gad had both been camped on the same (southern) side of the tabernacle, but had not apparently been neighbours, since Simeon intervened on the march (see on Numbers 2:10-4). Simeon, however, was at this time enfeebled and disgraced, and was not likely to assert himself in any way. The "great multitude of cattle" belonging to the two tribes probably point to pastoral habits of long standing, since the cattle o

AND, BEHOLD, YE ARE RISEN UP IN YOUR FATHERS' STEAD,.... Succeeded them in their families, of which they were now the heads; and in their substance, their flocks, and herds; and he suggests also, in their manners amid evil dispositions: AN INCREASE OF SINFUL MEN; this new generation was greatly increased, for when the number was taken, as it was but a little before this time, they were pretty near the same number as of those that came out of Egypt; but then they were not only an increase of men, but of sinful men, like fathers like sons: TO AUGMENT YET THE FIERCE ANGER OF THE LORD TOWARD ISRAEL; to make it greater and fiercer towards that nation than even their fathers had by their many sins and transgressions....

8. THE TRIBES OF REUBEN, GAD, HALF-MANASSEH AND THEIR PORTION CHAPTER 32 _ 1. The petition of Reuben and Gad (Numbers 32:1)_ 2. The rebuke by Moses (Numbers 32:6) 3. Their answer (Numbers 32:16) 4. Moses' reply (Numbers 32:20) 5. The final agreement (Numbers 32:25) Failure is now again manifested. Reuben and Gad looked upon the beautiful territory which had been taken from the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og. As Reuben and Gad were especially rich in cattle and the territory was one of great

A REQUEST BY REUBEN AND GAD FOR PERMISSION TO SETTLE ON THE E. OF JORDAN. The character of the high moorland S. of the Jabbok still bears out the description of it as suitable for pasturage (Numbers 32:1; Numbers 32:4); and a traveller declares, We should never have believed the amount of (the) flocks, had we not seen and attempted to count them. The pastoral associations of Reuben are alluded to in Judges 5:16. NUMBERS 32:1. GILEAD: the term here denotes the country S. of the Jabbok, for the towns enumerated in Numbers 32:3 are all thus situated.

BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos_ (App-6), to emphasize what follows. INCREASE. a crew, multitude, or brood. SINFUL. Hebrew. _chat'a._ App-44....

_an increase of sinful men a_ BROOD _of sinful men_. In angry rebuke Moses uses a contemptuous term. The subst. is not found elsewhere in the O.T.; but a similar word (R.V. -increase") occurs in 1 Samuel 2:33....

AND MOSES SAID, &C.— Those two tribes had applied to Moses for a settlement in the country where they were, and desired that they might not be _brought over Jordan,_ Numbers 32:5. This justly irritated the spirit of Moses, who, with a proper indignation, said unto them, _shall your brethren go to war,_ and shall ye sit here? He remarked, that their ill example would certainly much dishearten the rest of their brethren; in which view he tells them that they are acting the part of their predecessors, the spies, who discouraged the rest of the people by their fears, and so kindled the Lord's anger against that generation, that they were all, for their mutinous and distrustful spirit, excluded from the land of Canaan. He, therefore, exhorts them to beware of the same spirit, lest the same evil consequences should follow, and the people be left to perish in the wilderness;...