Matthew Poole and continuators on Joshua 12

NOW these are the kings of the Land, which the children of Israel smote, and possessed their land on the other side Jordan, toward the rising of the Sun: from the river Arnon, unto mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east .

On the East of Iordan, called the Plain, Deut. 1. 1. and the Plains of Moab, Deut. 34. 1.

2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and ruled 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:

It is not unusual even amongst us, for a River to be divided between two Lords, and for their Territories or Jurisdictions to meet in the middle of the River: And besides, here is a very particular reason for this expression, because the city Ar, which was no part of Sihons Dominions, but belonged to the Moabites, Deut. 2. 9, 18. was in the middle of the River Arnon, Deut. 2. 36. and 3. 16. and therefore the middle of the River is most fitly and properly here mentioned, as the bound of Sihons Dominion on that side.

Heb. and the half Gilead, i. e. half of the Country of Gilead; the particle from is not in the Original, and this doth not seem to denote the term or bound from which his Dominion begun, as our Version implies, for so indeed it was not, but the place or Country, in and over which his Dominion was, which, as is here said, began at Arnon, and took in half Gilead, and ended at Iabbok, beyond which was the other half of Gilead, which belonged to Og, as is expresly said, v. 5. where the words being wholly the same that are here, it is most reasonable to understand and translate them in the same manner.

Marginal references: Numb. 21. 24. Deut. 3. 6.

3 And from the plain unto the sea of Cinneroth on the east , and unto the sea of the plain , even the salt sea on the east, the way to Beth-jeshimoth: and from the south under † Ashdothpisgah.

Which words describe the scituation not of the sea of Cinneroth, which was part of the Western border of Sihons Dominion, but of the Plain, which is here said to lye eastward from the sea of Cinneroth, and also eastward from the Salt Sea, as it here follows. And this was indeed the scituation of the Plains of Moab, which are here spoken of, to wit, that they lay between the two Seas, that of Cinneroth and the Salt Sea, and eastward to them both.

The Salt Sea is so called because it was a famous Plain, pleasant and fruitful, before it was turned into a Salt Sea.

Or, on, or towards the South.

Marginal references: Deut. 3. 17.; Or, Teman.; Deut. 3. 17. and 4. 49.; ‡ Or, the springs of Pisgah, or the hill.

4 ¶ And the coast of Og king of Bashan which was of the † remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth, and at Edrei .

To wit, successively, sometimes at the one, sometimes at the other City; both being his Royal Mansions.

Marginal references: Deut. 1. 4.; ‡ Deut. 3. 11. Chap. 13. 12.

5 And reigned in mount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, unto the border of the Geshurite , and the Maacathite, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

Of which see Deut. 3. 13. Jos. 13. 13. 2 Sam. 13. 37. and 15. 8.

8 In the mountain, and in the vale, and in the plain, and in the springs, and in the wilderness , and in the south countrey; the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

This word here and elsewhere in Scripture notes not a Land wholly desart and uninhabited, but one thin of Inhabitants, as 1 King. 2. 34. and 9. 18. Mat. 3. 1, 3.

9 ¶ The king of Jericho, one: the king of Ai which is beside Beth-el , one:

This is added to distinguish it from Ai of the Ammonites, of which Ier. 49. 3.

Marginal references: Chap. [illegible: 1 word]; Chap. [illegible: 1 word]

23 The king of Dor , in the coast of Dor, one: the king of the nations of Gilgal , one:

Of which Ios. 11. 2.

Not of that Gilgal where Ioshua first Lodged after his passage over Iordan; where it doth not appear, that there was either King or City; but of another City of the same Name, (as was frequent in those parts) probably in Galilee towards the Sea, whither divers people might possibly resort for Trade and Merchandise, over whom this was King, as formerly Tidal seems to have been, Gen. 14. 1.

Marginal references: Gen. [illegible: 1 word]

24. The king of Tirzah, one: all the kings thirty and one .

Each being confined to a narrow compass, and being King only of one City or small Province belonging to it, which was by the wise and singular Providence of God, that they might be more easily and successively conquered by the Israelites one after another, as they were.