C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Exodus 3:7-10

Exo 3:7-10

Jehovah had seen the affliction of His people, had heard their cry under their taskmasters, and had come down (ירד, vid., Gen 11:5) to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up to a good and broad land, to the place of the Canaanites; and He was about to send Moses to Pharaoh to bring them forth. The land to which the Israelites were to be taken up is called a “good” land, on account of its great fertility (Deu 8:7.), and a “broad” land, in contrast with the confinement and oppression of the Israelites in Egypt. The epithet “good” is then explained by the expression, “a land flowing with milk and honey” (זבת, a participle of זוּב in the construct state; vid., Ges. §135); a proverbial description of the extraordinary fertility and loveliness of the land of Canaan (cf. Exo 3:17; Exo 13:5; Exo 16:14, etc.). Milk and honey are the simplest and choicest productions of a land abounding in grass and flowers, and were found in Palestine in great abundance even when it was in a desolate condition (Isa 7:15, Isa 7:22; see my Comm. on Jos 5:6). The epithet broad is explained by an enumeration of the six tribes inhabiting the country at that time (cf. Gen 10:15. and Gen 15:20, Gen 15:21).