13 These are the commandments and the ordinances which Yahweh commanded by Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
These are the commandments, etc. - See these different terms analyzed and explained, Leviticus 26:15 (note).
Thus ends the book of Numbers, containing a series of astonishing providences and events. Scarcely any piece of history in the sacred writings is better calculated to impress the mind of a serious reader with a sense of the goodness and severity of God. In every transaction his holiness and justice appear in closest union with his benevolence and mercy. From such a Being what have the wicked not to fear! From such a Father and Friend what have the upright not to hope! His justice requires him to punish iniquity, but his mercy inclines him to pardon all who truly repent and believe in the Son of his love.
The journeyings of this people, from the time they left Egypt, exhibit a series of providential wonders. Every where, and in every circumstance, God appears: and yet there is no circumstance or occasion that does not justify those signal displays of his Grace and his Justice. The genuine history of God's providence must be sought for in this book alone; and as every occurrence happened as an example, we have authority to conclude that in every case where his own glory and the salvation of man are interested, he will interfere and give the fullest proofs that he is the same to-day that he was yesterday, and will continue unchangeable for ever and ever. Reader, are these matters ensamples to thee? Art thou, like the Israelites, come into the plains of Moab, on the very verge of the promised land? Jordan alone separates thee from the promised inheritance. O, watch and pray, that thou come not short of the glory of God. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death; see then that the sting of death, which is sin, be extracted from thy soul, that, being justified by Christ's blood, thou mayest be made an heir according to the hope of an eternal life. Amen, amen.
"I will bring you into the Wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the Wilderness of the land of Egypt. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and bring you into the bond of the covenant," Ezekiel 20:35-37.
"He (Christ) is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance," Hebrews 9:15.
Sections In the Book of Numbers, carried on from Leviticus, which ends with the Thirty-Third.
The Thirty-Fourth, called במדבר bemidbar, begins Numbers 1:1, and ends Numbers 4:20.
The Thirty-Fifth, called נשא nasa, begins Numbers 4:21, and ends Numbers 7:89.
The Thirty-Sixth, called בהעלתך behaalothecha, begins Numbers 8:1, and ends Numbers 12:16.
The Thirty-Seventh, called שלח shelach, begins Numbers 13:1, and ends Numbers 15:41.
The Thirty-Eighth, called קרח korach, begins Numbers 16:1, and ends Numbers 18:32.
The Thirty-Ninth, called חקת chukkath, begins Numbers 19:1, and ends Numbers 22:1.
The Fortieth, called בלק balak, begins Numbers 22:2, and ends Numbers 25:9.
The Forty-First, called פינחס pinechas, begins Numbers 25:10, and ends Numbers 30:1.
The Forty-Second, called מטות mattoth, begins Numbers 30:2, and ends Numbers 32:42.
The Forty-Third, called מסעי masey, begins Numbers 33:1, and ends Numbers 36:13.
These [are] the (f) commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan [near] Jericho.
(f) Concerning the ceremonial and judicial laws.
These are the commandments and the judgments,.... The judicial laws concerning the division of the land of Canaan, the case of inheritances in it, and the cities of refuge:
which the Lord commanded by, the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel, in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho; where the Israelites had been ever since they were first observed by Balak king of Moab, and where the various things had been done recorded in the preceding chapters from that time.
These are the judgments the Lord commanded in the plains of Moab. Most of them related to the settlement in Canaan, into which the Israelites were now entering. Whatever new condition God, by his providence, brings us into, we must beg him to teach us the duties of it, and to enable us to do them, that we may do the work of the day in its day, the duty of a place in its place.
These are the commandments and the judgments, which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab--The Israelitish encampment was on an extensive plateau north of the Arnon, which, though wrested from the Moabites by Sihon and Og, still retained the name of its original possessors. The particular site, as indicated by the words "Jordan near Jericho," is now called El-Koura--a large plain lying not far from Nebo, between the Arnon and a small tributary stream, the Wael [BURCKHARDT]. It was a desert plain on the eastern bank, and marked only by groves of the wild, thorny acacia tree.
The conclusion refers not merely to the laws and rights contained in Numbers 33:50-36:13, but includes the rest of the laws given in the steppes of Moab (ch. 25-30), and forms the conclusion tot he whole book, which places the lawgiving in the steppes of Moab by the side of the lawgiving at Mount Sinai (Leviticus 26:46; Leviticus 27:34) and bring sit to a close, though without in any way implying that the explanation (בּאר, Deuteronomy 1:5), further development, and hortatory enforcement of the law and its testimonies, statutes, and judgments (Deuteronomy 1:5; Deuteronomy 4:44., Numbers 12:1.), which follow in Deuteronomy, are not of Mosaic origin.
*More commentary available at chapter level.