Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

From Aroer - See on Joshua 12:2; (note).

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

From Aroer, that is on the bank of the river Arnon,.... A city belonging to Moab, from whence the description begins, the river Arnon, on which it was situated, being the border between Moab and the Amorites, Numbers 21:13,

and the city that is in the midst of the river; or "even the city"; meaning the same city of Aroer, it lying both on the bank of it, and in the middle of it, or it was a double city, as may seem from Isaiah 17:2; and so differently situated at that river:

and all the plains of Medeba unto Dibon; of these two places, see Numbers 21:30; between them lay a plain, which some take to be the plain of Moab; but it rather seems to be a plain that was between these two places, and, according to Joshua 13:17, Dibon itself was in a plain.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

From Aroer, that is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon;

Medeba unto Dibon — Two cities anciently belonging to the Moabites, and taken from them by the Amorites, Numbers 21:30, and from them by the Israelites; and after the Israelites were gone into captivity, recovered by the first possessors, the Moabites.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Joshua 13:9 From Aroer, that [is] upon the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that [is] in the midst of the river, and all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon;

Ver. 9. From Aroer, that is upon the bank.] Besides which, it may seem there was another Aroer, in the midst of the river, [Isaiah 17:2] as Venice in the midst of the sea, and taking for her motto,

“ Media insuperabilis unda. ”

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

The city that is in the midst of the river; of which see Poole "Deuteronomy 3:16", and see Poole "Joshua 12:2". Either this is the same city now mentioned, even Aroer, which is said to have been a double city, as the very name seems to import, whereof one part was on the bank of the river, and the other in the middle of it, whence we read of the cities of Aroer, Isaiah 17:2; or it is another city, possibly Ar, as it is elsewhere named.

Medeba and

Dibon; two cities anciently belonging to the Moabites, and taken from them by the Amorites, Numbers 21:30, and from them by the Israelites; and after the Israelites were gone into captivity, recovered by the first possessors the Moabites, as may seem from Isaiah 15:2.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Aroer, and part of the town of Dibon, belonged to Gad, Numbers xxxii. 34.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

From Aroer, that is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon;

From Aroer, that is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river. This city was situated on the north side of the river-the southern extremity of the country conquered by the Israelites-where its site is still traceable both in the modern name Ara'ir and from the head of ruins that mark the spot. But Aroer, like Rabbah, consisted of two portions, one on the bank and the other in the bed of the stream (cf. 2 Samuel 24:5). [Septuagint, en mesoo tees farangos, in the midst of the valley or wady.] This latter portion must have been, as Porter ('Handbook, Syria and Palestine,' p. 301) conjectures, 'some fortress (air) in the bed of the Arnon, at or near to Aroer.' There is no trace of any, nor indeed is there room for one, at this spot; but Burckhardt states that about one hour eastward, at the junction of Wady Lejum with the Arnon, there is a level tract of pasture ground, in the midst of which stands a hill with some ruins upon it, and this may probably be the site of "the city that is in the midst of the river."

All the plain of Medeba. This city, the ruins of which occupy a little hill, and are about one and a-half mile in circumference, is one hour fifteen minutes toward the southeast of Heshbon.

Unto Dibon - now Dhiban, the ruins of which are extensive, situated in the low-lying plains of Kura, about three miles northeast from the Arnon (Mojib). Though rebuilt by the Gadites (Numbers 32:34), it was afterward assigned to the Reubenites. Isaiah and Jeremiah rank it in later times as a Moabite town (Isaiah 15:1-9; Jeremiah 48:18-22). "All the plain of Medeba unto Dibon" (Joshua 13:9); "all the plain by Medeba" (Joshua 13:16); "all the cities of the plain" (Joshua 13:21; Deuteronomy 3:10) = 'the country or field of Moab' (Numbers 21:20).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Aroer

16; 12:2; Deuteronomy 3:12,16

all the plain

Numbers 21:30; Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 48:18,22