Judges 11:21-25

Judges 11:21

And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

 

Since Sihon chose to go to war against the Israelites, he suffered loss against them and as a result Israel had possessed the land of the Amorites by means of winning a legal battle against them.  1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;  2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:  (Deuteronomy 7:1-2, KJV)  Back in Deuteronomy 7, the takeover of the land was already prophesied through Moses.   The Amorites were one of the seven nations the Lord wanted Israel to destroy upon taking the land.

 

Judges 11:22

And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.

 

Once the battle against Sihon was completed, the Israelites now possessed the coasts of the Amorites.  The distance from the River Arnon to the River Jabbok was about 50 miles (80 km) and it was on the coast of the Dead Sea and along the banks of the Jordan northward.  Then they also possessed the land east of the Jordan River into the wilderness of Arabia.

 

Judges 11:23

So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?

 

The question is now posed to the king that it was the Lord God of Israel who had prophesied the victory and then brought it to pass and now since it was promised to the children of Israel, why then do you believe it is yours to possess?

 

Judges 11:24

Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.

 

Then the king is given a question and a declarative statement.  He is asked that why do you not possess what your god Chemosh will give you in victory?  Then he gives the reality statement that whatever the Lord God of Israel allows them to possess, they will possess.  Chemosh was the chief god of the Ammonites and Moabites.  He was basically telling them that if the Ammonites had claimed lands they took in the name of their god, then Israel had the right to claim lands in the name of the Lord God.

 

Judges 11:25

And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them,

 

Balak was a previous king of Moab which may indicate that the king of the Ammonites was also the king of the Moabites.  He is asked if he is any wiser than Balak, the king of Moab?  When Israel won the land from Sihon in battle, did Balak make any attempt to try and retake the land from Israel?  He is then asked a second question which dovetails the first.  Did Balak ever physically fight against Israel?  The answer of course is no.  What he did was to employ Balaam, a false prophet, to curse Israel which did not work.

Back