Deuteronomy 3:10 MEANING



Deuteronomy 3:10
(10) Salchah.--"The present large town Salkhad, east of Bashan" (Conder). (See also Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 75.)

Verse 10. - The different portions of the conquered territory are here mentioned.

1. The plain (הַמִּישׁור, the level country); the table-land south of Mount Gilead, as far as the Arnon.

2. The whole of Gilead; the hilly country north of the Jabbok, between Heshbon and Bashan, between the northern and southern table-land.

3. All Bashan, as far eastward as Salchah, the modern Szal-khat or Szarkhad, about seven hours to the east of Busra, and northwards to Edrei, hod. Edra, Ezra or Edhra, an extensive ruin to the west of Busra, still partially inhabited.

3:1-11 Og was very powerful, but he did not take warning by the ruin of Sihon, and desire conditions of peace. He trusted his own strength, and so was hardened to his destruction. Those not awakened by the judgments of God on others, ripen for the like judgments on themselves.br>All the cities of the plain,.... There was a plain by Medeba, and Heshbon and her cities were in a plain, with some others given to the tribe of Reuben, Joshua 13:16.

and all Gilead; Mount Gilead, and the cities belonging to it, a very fruitful country, half of which fell to the share of the Reubenites, and the rest to the half tribe of Manasseh:

and all Bashan; of which Og was king, called Batanea, a very fertile country, as before observed:

unto Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan; which seem to be frontier cities of the latter: see Deuteronomy 1:4. The former, Adrichomius (p) says, was situated by the city Geshur and Mount Hermon, and was the boundary of the country of Bashan to the north; and according to Benjamin of Tudela (q), it was half a day's journey from Gilead: as Edrei seems to be its boundary to the south.

(p) Thestrum Terrae Sanct. p. 94. (q) Itinerar. p. 57.

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