---
title: "John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible"
author: "John Wesley"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 48 of 398
url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/48/
cite: "John Wesley, John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible, section 48. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/48/"
---

# John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible

*John Wesley*

Wesley's short, plain notes on the Old and New Testaments, verse by verse.

## 48. Deuteronomy · 1 of 12

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/48/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/48/#p-N

[¶0] All Israel - Namely, by the heads or elders of the several tribes, who were to communicate these discourses to all the people. In the wilderness - In the plain of Moab, as may appear by comparing this with Deu 1:5, and Num 22:1, and Deu 34:8. The word Suph here used does not signify the Red - Sea, which is commonly called jam - suph, and which was at too great a distance, but some oiher place now unknown to us, (as also most of the following places are) so called from the reeds or flags, or rushes (which that word signifies) that grew in or near it. Paran - Not that Num 10:12, which there and elsewhere is called the Wilderness of Paran, and which was too remote, but some other place called by the same name. Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab - These places seem to be the several bounds, not of the whole country of Moab, but of the plain of Moab, where Moses now was.

[¶1] There are eleven days journey - This is added to shew that the reason why the Israelites, in so many years were advanced no farther from Horeb, than to these plains, was not the distance of the places but because of their rebellions. Kadesh - barnea - Which was not far from the borders of Canaan.

[¶2] The eleventh month - Which was but a little before his death. All that the Lord had given him in commandment - Which shews not only that what he now delivered was in substance the same with what had formerly been commanded, but that God now commanded him to repeat it. He gave this rehearsal and exhortation by divine direction: God appointed him to leave this legacy to the church.

[¶3] To the mount of the Amorites - That is, to the mountainous country where the Amorites dwelt, which is opposed to the plain, where others of them dwelt. And this is the first mentioned, because it was in the borders of the land.

[¶4] Before you - Heb. Before your faces; it is open to your view, and to your possession; there is no impediment in the way.

[¶5] At that time - That is, about that time, namely, a little before their coming to Horeb.

[¶6] Your burden - The trouble of ruling and managing so perverse a people. Your strife - Your contentions among yourselves, for the determnination whereof the elders were appointed.

[¶7] Officers - Inferior officers, that were to attend upon the superior magistrates, and to execute their decrees.

[¶8] The stranger - That converseth or dealeth with himn. To Such God would have justice equally adtninistred as to his own people, partly for the honour of religion, and partly for the interest which every man hath in matters of common right.

[¶9] Respect persons - Heb. Not know, or acknowledge faces, that is, not give sentence according to the outward qualities of the person, as he is poor or rich, your friend or enemy, but purely according to the merit of the cause. For which reason some of the Grecian law - givers ordered that the judges should give sentence in the dark where they could not see mens faces. The judgment is God's - It is passed in the name of God, and by commission from him, by you as representing his person, and doing his work; who therefore will defend you therein against all your enemies, amid to whom you must give an exact account.

[¶10] All the things which ye shall do - I delivered unto you, and especially unto your judges, all the laws, statutes, and judgments revealed unto me by the lord in Horeb.

[¶11] Eshcol - That is, of grapes, so called from the goodly cluster of grapes which they brought from thence.

[¶12] Greater - In number and strength and valour.

[¶13] Bare thee - Or, carried thee, as a father carries his weak and tender child in his arms, through difficulties and dangers, gently leading you according as you are able to go, and sustaining you by his power and goodness.

[¶14] Ye did not believe the Lord - So they could not enter in, because of unbelief. It was not any other sin shut them out of Canaan, but their disbelief of that promise, which was typical of gospel grace: to signify that no sin will ruin us but unbelief, which is a sin against the remedy; and therefore without remedy.

[¶15] Your words - That is to say, your murmurings, your unthankful, impatient, distrustful and rebellious speeches.

[¶16] Save Caleb - Under whom Joshua is comprehended, though not here expressed, because he was not now to be one of the people, but to be set over them as a chief governor.

[¶17] For your sakes - Upon occasion of your wickedness and perverseness, by which you provoked me to speak unadvisedly.

[¶18] Who standeth - Who is now thy servant.

[¶19] As bees - As bees which being provoked come out of their hives in great numbers, and with great fury pursue their adversary and disturber.

[¶20] Mount Seir - The mountainous country of Seir or Edom. Many days - Even for thirty eight years.

[¶21] Northward - Towards the land of the Amorites and Canaanites.

[¶22] Buy meat - For thongh the manna did yet rain upon them, they were not forbidden to buy other meats when they had opportunity, but only were forbidden greedily to hunger after them when they could not obtain them. Buy water - For water in those parts was scarce, and therefore private persons did severally dig pits for their particular use.

[¶23] The Lord hath blessed thee - By God's blessing thou art able to buy thy conveniences, and therefore thy theft and rapine will be inexcusable, because without any pretence of necessity. He knoweth - Heb. He hath known, that is, observed, or regarded with care and kindness, which that word often notes. Which experience of God's singular goodness to thee, should make thee rely on him still, and not use any unjust practice to procure what thou wantest or desirest.

[¶24] We turned - From our direct road which lay through Edom.

[¶25] The Emims - Men terrible for stature and strength, as their very name imparts, whose expulsion by the Moabites is here noted as a great encouragement to the Israelites, for whose sake he would much more drive out the wicked and accursed Canaanites.

[¶26] Which the Lord gave - The past tense is here put for the future, will give after the manner of the prophets.

[¶27] The Caphtorim - A people a - kin to the Philistines, Gen 10:14, and confederate with them in this enterprize, and so dwelling together, and by degrees uniting together by marriages, they became one people. Caphtor - Which is by the learned thought to be Cappadocia: whither these people might make an expedition out of Egypt, either because of the report of the great riches of part of that country which drew others thither from places equally remote, or for some other reason now unknown.

[¶28] Under heaven - The following words rest rain the sentence to those nations that heard of them.

[¶29] On my feet - Or, with my company who are on foot: which is added significantly, because if their army had consisted as much of horsemen as many other armies did, their passage through his land might have been more mischievous and dangerous.

[¶30] As the children of Esau did - They did permit them to pass quietly by the borders, though not through the heart of their land, and in their passage the people sold them meat and drink, being it seems more kind to them than their king would have had them; and therefore they here ascribe this favour not to the king, though they are now treating with a king, but to the people, the children of Esau.

[¶31] Hardened his spirit - That is, suffered it to be hardened.

[¶32] Utterly destroyed - By God's command, these being a part of those people who were devoted by the Lord of life and death, to utter destruction for their abominable wickedness.

[¶33] Of Jabbok - That is, beyond Jabbok: for that was the border of the Ammomites.

[¶34] On this side Jordan - So it was when Moses wrote this book; but afterward when Israel passed over Jordan it was called the land beyond Jordan.

[¶35] Sirion - Elsewhere called Mount Gilead, and Lebanon, and here Shenir, and Sirion, which several names are given to this one mountain partly by several people, and partly in regard of several tops and parts of it.

[¶36] All Gilead - Gilead is sometimes taken for all the Israelites possessions beyond Jordan, and so it comprehends Bashan; but here for that part of it which lies in and near mount Gilead, and so it is distinguished from Bashan and Argob.

[¶37] In Rabbath - Where it might now be, either because the Ammonites in some former battle with Og, had taken it as a spoil: or because after Og's death, the Ammonites desired to have this monument of his greatness, and the Israelites permitted them to carry it away to their chief city. Nine cubits - So his bed was four yards and an half long, and two yards broad.

[¶38] Unto this day - This must be put among those passages which were not written by Moses, but added by those holy men, who digested the books of Moses into this order, and inserted some few passages to accommodate things to their own time and people.

[¶39] Gilead - That is, the half part of Gilead. To Machir - That is, unto the children of Machir, son of Manasseh, for Machir was now dead.

[¶40] Half the valley - Or rather to the middle of the river: for the word rendered half signifies commonly middle, and the same Hebrew word means both a valley and a brook or river. And this sense is agreeable to the truth, that their land extended from Gilead unto Arnon, and, to speak exactly, to the middle of that river; for as that river was the border between them and others, so one half of it belonged to them, as the other half did to others, Jos 12:2. The same thing is expressed in the same words in the Hebrew which are here, though our translators render the self - same words there, from the middle of the river, which here they render, half of the valley. There the bounds of Sihon's kingdom, which was the same portion here mentioned as given to Reuben and Gad, are thus described, from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river of Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half Gilead, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon.

[¶41] The plain - The low country towards Jordan. The sea of the plain - That is, that salt sea, which before that dreadful conflagration was a goodly plain.

[¶42] You - Namely, the Reubenites and Gadites. All that are meet - In such number as your our brethren shall judge necessary. They were in all above an hundred thousand. Forty thousand of them went over Jordan before their brethren.

[¶43] I besought the Lord - We should allow no desire in our hearts, which we cannot in faith offer unto God by prayer.

[¶44] Thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness - Lord, perfect what thou hast begun. The more we see of God's glory in his works, the more we desire to see. And the more we are affected with what we have seen of God, the better we are prepared for farther discoveries.