Deuteronomy 3:15

And I gave Gilead unto Machir.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 3:15-16. Gilead — That is, the half part of Gilead. To Machir —

That is, unto the children of Machir, son of Manasseh, for Machir was now dead. Half the valley — Or rather, to the middle of the river: for the word rendered half, signifies commonly middle, and the same Hebrew word means both a valley and a brook, or river. And this sense is 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; see Joshua 12:2, where the same thing is expressed in the same words, in the Hebrew, though our translators render them there, from the middle of the river, and here, half of the valley.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:12-20 This country was settled on the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh: see Nu 32. Moses repeats the condition of the grant to which they agreed. When at rest, we should desire to see our brethren at rest too, and should be ready to do what we can towards it; for we are not born for ourselves, but are members one of another.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These Geshurites held territory adjoining, if not included within, Bashan. They are not to be confounded with those mentioned in Joshua 13:2, who were neighbors of the Philistines 1 Samuel 17:8.

The exact position of Maachah like that of Geshur cannot be ascertained; but it was no doubt among the fastnesses which lay between Bashan and the kingdom of Damascus, and on the skirts of Mount Hermon.

Unto this day - This expression, like our "until now," does not, as used in the Bible, necessarily imply that the time spoken of as elapsed is long. It may here denote the duration to the time then present of that which had been already some months accomplished.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. I gave Gilead unto Machir—It was only the half of Gilead (De 3:12, 13) which was given to the descendants of Machir, who was now dead.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. The half part of Gilead, as appears from Deu 3:12,13. See Poole "Numbers 32:40". Unto Machir, i.e. unto the children of Machir son of Manasseh, for Machir was now dead.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I gave Gilead unto Machir. The son of Manasseh; not to him personally, who cannot be thought to have been living at this time, but to his posterity, to the Machirites; see Numbers 32:40.

Geneva Study Bible

And I gave Gilead unto Machir.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. And I gave Gilead unto Machir] Not irreconcilable with Deuteronomy 3:12 where the N. half of Gile‘ad is assigned to half-Manasseh, for Machir was held to have been the first and only son of Manasseh, and, apparently, is even taken for all Manasseh (Jdg 5:14; Numbers 26:29?). Yet there is force in Dillm.’s contention that the author who had just written 12 f. could hardly have immediately added the variant Deuteronomy 3:15; hence the latter is reasonably taken as, like Deuteronomy 3:14, a later insertion derived from Numbers 32:40.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - Cf. Numbers 32:40; 1 Chronicles 2:22.) Deuteronomy 3:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Machir received Gilead (see Numbers 32:40). - In Deuteronomy 3:16 and Deuteronomy 3:17 the possession of the tribes of Reuben and Gad is described more fully according to its boundaries. They received the land of Gilead (to the south of the Jabbok) as far as the brook Arnon, the middle of the valley and its territory. הנּחל תּוך is a more precise definition of ארנן נחל, expressive of the fact that the territory of these tribes was not to reach merely to the northern edge of the Arnon valley, but into the middle of it, viz., to the river Arnon, which flowed through the middle of the valley; and וּגבוּל (and the border) is an explanatory apposition to what goes before, as in Numbers 34:6, signifying, "viz., the border of the Arnon valley as far as the river." On the east, "even unto Jabbok the brook, the (western) border of the Ammonites" (i.e., as far as the upper Jabbok, the Nahr Ammn: see at Numbers 21:24); and on the west "The Arabah (the Ghor: see Deuteronomy 1:1) and the Jordan with territory" (i.e., with its eastern bank), "from Chinnereth" (i.e., the town from which the Sea of Galilee received the name of Sea of Chinnereth: Numbers 34:11; see at Joshua 19:35) "to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea under the slopes of Pisgah (see at Numbers 21:15 and Numbers 27:12) eastward" (i.e., merely the eastern side of the Arabah and Jordan). - In Deuteronomy 3:18-20 Moses reminds them of the conditions upon which he had given the two tribes and a half the land referred to for their inheritance (cf. Numbers 32:20-32).