 | Re'eh |  |
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| | 11:30 |
They are across the Jordan, just beyond the Sunset Highway on the way to Gilgal, near the Plains of Moreh, in the territory of the Canaanites who live in the flood plain.
Halo-hemah be'ever haYarden acharey derech mevo hashemesh be'erets haKna'ani hayoshev ba'Aravah mul haGilgal etsel eloney Moreh. |
| 11:31 |
[You must do this] because you are crossing the Jordan to come to the land which God your Lord is giving you and occupy it. When you have occupied it and you live there,
Ki atem ovrim et-haYarden lavo lareshet et-ha'arets asher-Adonay Eloheychem noten lachem virishtem otah vishavtem-bah. |
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Commentary:
Sunset Highway
From context, this appears to be the ancient highway running from north to south through the mountains. This highway passed just to the east of Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival, they were 'beyond this mountain.' It may have been called 'Sunset Highway' (Derekh Mavo HaShemesh), because from where the Israelites were, the sun appeared to set on the mountain through which the road ran.
| Gilgal
(cf. Sotah 33b). This is not Gilgal mentioned in Joshua 4:19, 5:9 (Ibn Ezra; HaKethav VeHaKabbalah), but a city some 20 miles west of Shechem, now known as Jiljulieah, possibly in Joshua 12:23 (cf. Septuagint ad loc.), and perhaps also in, 2 Kings 2:1, Nehemiah 12:29. In ancient times, a road led from Shechem to this Gilgal.
| Plains of Moreh
Abraham's first stop in the Holy Land, near Shechem (Genesis 12:6).
| flood plain
Aravah in Hebrew. This would indicate that although the Canaanites' main base was in the Jordan flood plain, their territory extended some 20 miles east toward Shechem.
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