Numbers Chapter 32 verse 19 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 19. - On yonder side Jordan. מֵעֵבֶר לַיַּרְדֵּן. Septuagint, ἀπὸ τοῦ πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου. This phrase is here used in what is apparently its more natural sense, as it would be used by one dwelling in the plains of Moab (see on Numbers 22:1, and on next verse). Or forward. וָהָלְאָה. Septuagint, καὶ ἐπέκεινα, i.e., onwards towards the west and south and north, as the tide of conquest might flow. Our inheritance is fallen to us on this side Jordan eastward. It does not appear on what ground they spoke so confidently. They do not seem to have received any Divine intimation that their lot was to be on the east of Jordan, but rather to have been guided by their own preference. If so, they cannot be acquitted of a certain presumptuous willfulness in action, and of a certain want of honesty in speech. The phrase here rendered "on this side Jordan" (מֵעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּז) cannot be distinguished grammatically from that which bears an opposite signification in the preceding verse. In itself it is perfectly ambiguous without some qualifying word or phrase, and it is very difficult to know what the ordinary use of it was in the time of Moses. In later ages, no doubt, it came to mean simply the trans-Jordanic territory, or Peraea, without reference to the position of the speaker. The difficulty here is to decide whether the expression, as further defined by "eastward," would actually have been used at that time and in that place, or whether the expression is due to a writer living on the west of Jordan. All we can say is, that the awkward use of the phrase in two opposite meanings, with words of clearer definition added, points more or less strongly towards a probability that the passage as it stands was written or revised at a later date.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(19) For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, or forward . . . on this side Jordan eastward.--This is one of the critical passages which determine the meaning of the word which is rendered "on yonder side" in the first clause of the verse, and "on this side" in the second clause. It is true that the meaning of the word in the first clause is defined by the addition of the word which is rendered "or forward," and which is more correctly rendered and forward--i.e., "further off," or "to a greater distance; "and that its meaning in the second clause is defined by the addition of the word "eastward," or "towards the sun-rising;" but the application of the same word to the country on both sides of the Jordan shows that it cannot be inferred, with any degree of certainty, from the use of this word, whether the position of the writer was on the eastern or western side of the river. (See Numbers 32:32, where the same word occurs without any addition.) The language of the Gadites and the Reubenites must not be interpreted as if it were spoken in a defiant spirit, but as disclaiming their right to any portion of the inheritance on the west of the Jordan if they obtained their request to settle on the eastern side.