Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
Not a stretch of sand, an utterly barren waste, but a wild, uninhabited region. The words rendered
in the Authorized Version by “desert,” when used in the historical books denote definite localities.
•Arabah. This word means that very depressed and enclosed region—the deepest and the hottest
chasm in the world—the sunken valley north and south of the Dead Sea, but more particularly the
former. [Arabah] Arabah in the sense of the Jordan valley is translated by the word “desert” only
in (Ezekiel 47:8)
•MIDBAR. This word, which our translators have most frequently rendered by “desert,” is accurately
“the pasture ground.” It is most frequently used for those tracts of waste land which lie beyond
the cultivated ground in the immediate neighborhood of the towns and villages of Palestine, and
which are a very familiar feature to the traveller in that country. (Exodus 3:1; 6:3; 19:2)
•CHARBAH appears to have the force of dryness, and thence of desolation. It is rendered “desert”
in Psal 102:6; Isai 48:21; Ezek 13:4 The term commonly employed for it in the Authorized Version
is “waste places” or “desolation.”
•Jeshimon, with the definite article, apparently denotes the waste tracts on both sides of the Dead
Sea. In all these cases it is treated as a proper name in the Authorized Version. Without the article
it occurs in a few passages of poetry in the following of which it is rendered; “desert:” (Psalms
78:40; 106:14; Isaiah 43:19,20)
Deuel, Or Deuel
(invocation of God), father of Eliasaph, the “captain” of the tribe of Gad at the time of the
numbering of the people at Sinai. (Numbers 1:14; 7:42,47; 10:20) (B.C. 1491.) The same man is
mentioned again in (Numbers 2:14) but here the name appears as Ruel.
Deuteronomy
—which means “the repetition of the law”—consists chiefly of three discourses delivered by
Moses shortly before his death. Subjoined to these discourses are the Song of Moses the Blessing
of Moses, and the story of his death.
•The first discourse. (1:1; 4:40) After a brief historical introduction the speaker recapitulates the
chief events of the last forty years in the wilderness. To this discourse is appended a brief notice
of the severing of the three cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan. (4:41-43)
•The second discourse is introduced like the first by an explanation of the circumstances under
which it was delivered. (4:44-49) It extends from chap. (5:1-26) 19 And contains a recapitulation,
with some modifications and additions of the law already given on Mount Sinai.
•In the third discourse, (27:1-30) 20 The elders of Israel are associated with Moses. The people are
commanded to set up stones upon Mount Ebal, and on them to write “all the words of this law.”
Then follow the several curses to be pronounced by the Levites on Ebal, (27:14-26) and the
blessings on Gerizim. (28:1-14)
•The delivery of the law as written by Moses (for its still further preservation) to the custody of
the Levites, and a charge to the people to hear it read once every seven years, Deut. 31; the Song
of Moses spoken in the ears of the people, (31:30; 32:44) and the blessing of the twelve tribes.
(33:5) The book closes, Deuteronomy 34, with an account of the death of Moses, which is first
announced to him ch. (32:48-52) The book bears witness to its own authorship, (31:19) and is
expressly cited in the New Testament as the work of Moses. (Matthew 19:7,8; Mark 10:3; Acts
3:22; 7:37) The last chapter, containing an account of the death of Moses, was of course added
by a later hand, and probably formed originally the beginning of the book of Joshua. [Pentateuch,
The]
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William Smith