Numbers 33:50-56

50 On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho the LORD said to Moses,
51 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan,
52 drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places.
53 Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.
54 Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.
55 “ ‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live.
56 And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.’ ”

Numbers 33:50-56 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 33

This chapter gives an account of the journeys of the people of Israel, from their first coming out of Egypt, to their arrival in the plains of Moab by Jordan, and the names of the various stations where they rested are given, Nu 33:1-49 and they are ordered, when they passed over Jordan, to drive out the Canaanites, destroy their idols, and divide the land among their families in their several tribes, Nu 33:50-54 or otherwise it is threatened the Canaanites should be troublesome and vexatious to them, even those that remained; and it might be expected God would do to the Israelites as he thought to do to those nations, Nu 33:55,56.

Cross References 10

  • 1. ver 48
  • 2. Numbers 34:2; Joshua 3:17
  • 3. Exodus 23:24; Exodus 34:13; S Leviticus 26:1; Deuteronomy 7:2,5; Deuteronomy 12:3; Joshua 11:12; Psalms 106:34-36
  • 4. Deuteronomy 11:31; Deuteronomy 17:14; Joshua 1:11; Joshua 21:43
  • 5. S Leviticus 16:8; Numbers 36:2
  • 6. Numbers 26:54
  • 7. Numbers 35:8
  • 8. Joshua 18:10
  • 9. Joshua 23:13; Judges 2:3; Psalms 106:36; Isaiah 55:13; Ezekiel 2:6; Ezekiel 28:24; Micah 7:4; 2 Corinthians 12:7
  • 10. Numbers 14:28
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