(1)  These  be  the  words  which  Moses  spake
unto  all  Israel.^The  first  two  verses  and  the  three
that  follow  form  a  kind  of  double  mtrodnction  to
the  book,  and  perhaps  more  especiaUv  to  the  first
portion  of  it,  which  ends  with  chap.  iv.  lO.
On  this  side  Jordan. — Literally,  on  the  other
aide  Jordan  from  the  writer's  or  reader's  point  of
view.
In  the  wilderness. — ^These  words  define  still
further  the  expression  which  precedes:  '*on  the  wil-
derness side  01  Jordan,"  or  "before  they  crossed  the
Jordan,  while  they  were  still  in  the  wilderness."
Strictly  speaking,  the  words  "in  the  wilderness"
cannot  be  connected  with  what  follows,  for  "the
pliun"  described  is  on  neither  side  of  Jordan,  but
below  the  southern  end  of  the  Dead  Sea.
In  the  plain — i.e.,  the  'Ardbah.  Usually  the  plain
of  Jordan ;  here  the  vaUey  that  extends  from  the  lower
end  of  the  Dead  Sea  to  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of
Akabah.
Over  against  the  Bed  Sea.— Heb.,  opposite
BUtph.  In  all  other  places  in  the  Old  Testainent,
when  we  read  of  the  Red  Sea,  it  is  Yam  Suph.  Here
we  have  Suph  only.  On  these  grounds  some  take  it
as  the  name  of  a  place.  (Gomp.  Yaheb  in  Siiphah,
Num.  xxi.  14,  margin.)  But  we  do  not  know  the  place ;
and  as  the  Jewish  paraphrasts  and  commentators  find
no  difficulty  in  accepting  S{iph  by  itself  as  the  sea,  we
may  take  it  of  the  Gmf  of  Akabah.  The  plain  be-
tween Paran  and  Tophel  looks  straight  down  to  that
gulf.
Between  'PsxfLn^  and  Tophel  •  .  .—Literally,
between  Paran,  and  between  Tophel  and  Lahan,  Ac:
that  is,  between  Paran  on  the  one  side,  and  Tophel
and  Laban  and  Hazeroth  and  Dizahab  on  the  other.
