Matthew Poole and continuators on Deuteronomy 3:16

16 And unto the Reubenite, and unto the Gadite I gave from Gilead even unto the River Arnon, half the valley , and the border, even unto the river Jabbok , which is the border of the children of Ammon ▪

Or rather to the middle of the River: for the word rendred half signifies commonly middle, and the same Hebrew word signifying both a valley and a brook or river, it seems more reasonable to understand it of a River, as the same word is here rendred in the next foregoing clause of this verse, than of a valley, which was not mentioned before, especially seeing there is here an article added which seems to be emphatical, and to note that River, to wit, now mentioned. Adde to this, that there was no such valley, much less any half-valley, belonging both unto the Reubenites and Gadites. But according to the other translation the sense is plain and 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. And that this is no subtil device, as some may think it, but the truth of the thing and the reall meaning of the place, will appear by comparing this place with two others, 1. with Ios. 12. 2. where the same thing is expressed in the same words in the Hebrew which are here, though our translatours render the self-same words there, from the middle of the River, which here they render, half of the valley; and where the bounds of Sihons Kingdom, which was the same portion here mentioned as given to Reuben and Gad, are thus described, from Aroer, which is upon the ba[illegible: 1+ letters]k of the River of Arnon, and from the middle of the River, and from half Gilead, even unto the river Iabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon. 2. With Deut. 2. 36. From Aroer, which is by the brink of the River of Arnon, and from the city that is by the River, or rather, as the Hebrew hath it, in the River, i. e. from Ar, which was the chief city of the Moabites, and therefore denied to the Israelites, as is here implyed, and more fully expressed Deut. 2. 9. which City was seated in an Island in the middle of the River. So that here we have a just and full reason why the border of this Land given to Reuben and Gad is so nicely and critically described here, even to the middle of a River, which although in truth and strictness it be the bound of those Lands which are divided by a River, yet is not usually expressed in the deleription of borders, either in Scripture or other Autnours▪ because here was an eminent City of the Meabites in the middle of this River, which by this curious and exact description is excepted from their possession, as God would have it to be.

The meanning seems to be this, And the border, to wit, of their Land, was. which [illegible: 1 word] substantive is commonly understood, or went [illegible: 1 word] ▪ (as the phrase is I[illegible: 1+ letters]. 15. 6, 7, &c.) from thence, to [illegible: 1 word], from the River Ar[illegible: 1+ letters]on, even unto the River Iabbok, for so indeed their border did proceed.

Object. This was the border between them and the [illegible: 1 word], as is evident▪ and therefore not the border of the Ammonites. [illegible: 1 word]. It bordered upon the [illegible: 1 word] in one part, and upon the Ammonites in another part, to wit, in that part which is remoter from Iordan, and so both are true.

Marginal references: Num 21. 24. Josh. 12. [illegible: 1+ letters].