Deuteronomy 11:30
Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?
Are they not on the other side Jordan,.... Opposite to that where Moses now was in the plains of Moab, even in Samaria; so in the Misnah {t} it is said,
"as soon as Israel passed over Jordan, they came to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, which are in Samaria;''
but those mountains were not near Jordan nor Jericho, to which the people of Israel came first, but sixty miles from thence; though they were, as Moses says, on the other side from the place they now were:
by the way wherewith the sun goeth down; or, as the Targum of Jonathan,
"after the way of the sun setting;''
following that, or taking their direction from thence, signifying that they lay to the west of Jordan:
in the land of the Canaanites; of that particular tribe or nation which were eminently called Canaanites, for these dwelt by the sea by the coast of Jordan, Numbers 13:29 or as further described,
that dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal; in the plain open champaign country opposite to Gilgal; not that Gilgal Joshua encamped at before he came to Jericho, which in Moses's time was not known by that name, but another, as Dr. Lightfoot {u} observes, and he thinks Galilee is meant:
beside the plains of Moreh; near to Shechem, Genesis 12:6 and that Gerizim, one of these mountains, was not far from Shechem, is evident from Judges 9:6 and so in the Misnah {w} it is said, that these mountains were on the side of Shechem, which is in the plains of Moreh, as in Deuteronomy 11:30 as the plains of Moreh here denote Shechem, so there: Benjamin of Tudela says {x} there is a valley between them, in which lies Shechem; and in his time there were on Mount Gerizim fountains and orchards, but Mount Ebal was dry like stones and rocks. The Targum of Jonathan here, instead of Moreh, reads Mamre; see
{t} Sotah, c. 7. sect. 5.
{u} Chorograph. Cent. c. 48.
{w} Sotah, c. 7. sect. 5.
{x} Itinerarium, p. 38, 40.