the heart of the people into rebellion through their unfavourable account of the inhabitants of Canaan, and brought so severe a judgment upon the congregation. מן את־לב הניא, to hold away the heart, i.e., render a person averse to anything. The Keri תּניאוּן, as in Num 32:9, is unquestionably to be preferred to the Kal תּנוּאוּן, in the Kethib of Num 32:7. - In Num 32:8-13, Moses reminds them of the occurrences described in ch. 13 and 14. On the expression, “wholly followed Jehovah,” cf. Num 14:24. The words, “He drove them about in the desert,” caused them to wander backwards and forwards in it for forty years, point back to Num 14:33-35.
Verse 14
“Behold, ye rise up instead of your fathers,” i.e., ye take their place, “an increase (תּרבּוּת, from רבה; equivalent to a brood) of sinners, to augment yet the burning of the wrath of Jehovah against Israel.” על ספה, to add to, or increase.
Verse 15
“If ye draw back behind Him,” i.e., resist the fulfilment of the will of God, to bring Israel to Canaan, “He will leave it (Israel) still longer in the desert, and ye prepare destruction for all this nation.”
verses 16-19
The persons thus reproved came near to Moses, and replied, “We will build sheep-folds here for our flocks, and towns for our children; but we will equip ourselves hastily (חשׁים, part. pass. hasting) before the children of Israel, till we bring them to their place” (i.e., to Canaan). צאן גּדרת, folds or pens for flocks, that were built of stones piled up one upon another (1Sa 24:4).[1]
By the building of towns, we are to understand the rebuilding and fortification of them. טף, the children, including the women, and such other defenceless members of the family as were in need of protection (see at Exo 12:37). When their families were secured in fortified towns against the inhabitants of the land, the men who could bear arms would not return to their houses till the children of Israel, i.e., the rest of the tribes, had all received their inheritance: for they did not wish for an inheritance on the other side of Jordan and farther on, if (כּי) their inheritance was assigned them on this side Jordan towards the east. The application of the expression היּרדּן מעבר to the land on the east of the Jordan, as well as to that on the west, points to a time when the Israelites had not
- ↑ According to Wetstein (Reiseber. p. 29), it is a regular custom with the nomads in Leja, to surround every place, where they pitch their tents, with a Sira, i.e., with an enclosure of stones about the height of a man, that the flocks may not be scattered in the night, and that they may know at once, from the noise made by the falling of the smaller stones which are laid at the top, if a wolf attempts to enter the enclosure during the night.
