1These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2(It takes eleven days to get from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.) 3And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that Jehovah had given him commandment concerning them, 4after he had struck Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei. 5On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this Law, saying, 6Jehovah our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. 7Turn and set out, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. 8Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which Jehovah has sworn to your fathers; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; to give to them and their seed after them. 9And I spoke to you at that time, saying: I alone am not able to bear you. 10Jehovah your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of the heavens in multitude. 11May Jehovah the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you as He has promised you! 12How can I alone bear your burdens and your loads and your disputes? 13Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you. 14And you answered me and said, The thing which you have spoken to us is good to do. 15So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, rulers of tens, and officials for your tribes. 16And I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the sojourner. 17You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid of any man's presence, for the judgment is God's. And any matter that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it. 18And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do. 19So we set out from Horeb, and went through all that great and dreadful wilderness which you have seen on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as Jehovah our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea. 20And I said to you, You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which Jehovah our God is giving to us. 21Behold, Jehovah your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as Jehovah the God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be dismayed. 22And all of you came near to me and said, Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come. 23And the thing was good in my eyes; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. 24And they turned and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and explored it. 25They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, It is a good land which Jehovah our God is giving to us. 26Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the mouth of Jehovah your God; 27and you murmured in your tents, and said, Because Jehovah hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28Where shall we go up? Our brethren have caused our hearts to melt, saying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to the heavens; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there. 29Then I said to you, Do not be terrified, nor afraid of them. 30Jehovah your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31and in the wilderness where you have seen how Jehovah your God has carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place. 32Yet, for all that, you did not believe Jehovah your God, 33who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to encamp, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day. 34And Jehovah heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying, 35Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land which I have sworn to give to your fathers, 36except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land upon which he has walked, because he has wholly followed Jehovah. 37Jehovah was also angry with me on account of you, saying, You also shall not go in there. 38Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39Moreover your little ones and your children, whom you say will be prey, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. 40But as for you, turn and set out into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. 41Then you answered and said to me, We have sinned against Jehovah; we will go up and fight, just as Jehovah our God commanded us. And each of you girded on his weapons of war, and were ready to go up into the mountain. 42And Jehovah said to me, Say to them, Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be struck down before your enemies. 43So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the mouth of Jehovah, and presumptuously went up into the mountain. 44And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you as bees do, and shattered you in pieces from Seir to Hormah. 45And you returned and wept before Jehovah, but Jehovah would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. 46So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained there.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 MOSES' SPEECH AT THE END OF THE FORTIETH YEAR. (Deu. 1:1-46)
These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel--The mental condition of the people generally in that infantine age of the Church, and the greater number of them being of young or tender years, rendered it expedient to repeat the laws and counsels which God had given. Accordingly, to furnish a recapitulation of the leading branches of their faith and duty was among the last public services which Moses rendered to Israel. The scene of their delivery was on the plains of Moab where the encampment was pitched
on this side Jordan--or, as the Hebrew word may be rendered "on the bank of the Jordan."
in the wilderness, in the plain--the Arabah, a desert plain, or steppe, extended the whole way from the Red Sea north to the Sea of Tiberias. While the high tablelands of Moab were "cultivated fields," the Jordan valley, at the foot of the mountains where Israel was encamped, was a part of the great desert plain, little more inviting than the desert of Arabia. The locale is indicated by the names of the most prominent places around it. Some of these places are unknown to us. The Hebrew word, Suph, "red" (for "sea," which our translators have inserted, is not in the original, and Moses was now farther from the Red Sea than ever), probably meant a place noted for its reeds (
Num 21:14).
Tophel--identified as Tafyle or Tafeilah, lying between Bozrah and Kerak.
Hazeroth--is a different place from that at which the Israelites encamped after leaving "the desert of Sinai."
2 There are eleven days' journey from Horeb--Distances are computed in the East still by the hours or days occupiesd by the journey. A day's journey on foot is about twenty miles--on camels, at the rate of three miles an hour, thirty miles--and by caravans, about twenty-five miles. But the Israelites, with children and flocks, would move at a slow rate. The length of the Ghor from Ezion-geber to Kadesh is a hundred miles. The days here mentioned were not necessarily successive days [ROBINSON], for the journey can be made in a much shorter period. But this mention of the time was made to show that the great number of years spent in travelling from Horeb to the plain of Moab was not owing to the length of the way, but to a very different cause; namely, banishment for their apostasy and frequent rebellions.
mount Seir--the mountainous country of Edom.
3 in the fortieth year . . . Moses spake unto the children of Israel, &c.--This impressive discourse, in which Moses reviewed all that God had done for His people, was delivered about a month before his death, and after peace and tranquillity had been restored by the complete conquest of Sihon and Og.
4 Ashtaroth--the royal residence of Og, so called from Astarte ("the moon"), the tutelary goddess of the Syrians. Og was slain at
Edrei--now Edhra, the ruins of which are fourteen miles in circumference [BURCKHARDT]; its general breadth is about two leagues.
5 On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law--that is, explain this law. He follows the same method here that he elsewhere observes; namely, that of first enumerating the marvellous doings of God in behalf of His people, and reminding them what an unworthy requital they had made for all His kindness--then he rehearses the law and its various precepts.
6 The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount--Horeb was the general name of a mountainous district; literally, "the parched" or "burnt region," whereas Sinai was the name appropriated to a particular peak [see on
Exod 19:2]. About a year had been spent among the recesses of that wild solitude, in laying the foundation, under the immediate direction of God, of a new and peculiar community, as to its social, political, and, above all, religious character; and when this purpose had been accomplished, they were ordered to break up their encampment in Horeb. The command given them was to march straight to Canaan, and possess it [
Deut 1:7].
7 the mount of the Amorites--the hilly tract lying next to Kadesh-barnea in the south of Canaan.
to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon--that is, Phśnicia, the country of Sidon, and the coast of the Mediterranean--from the Philistines to Lebanon. The name "Canaanite" is often used synonymously with that of "Phśnician."
8 I have set the land before you--literally, "before your faces"--it is accessible; there is no impediment to your occupation. The order of the journey as indicated by the places mentioned would have led to a course of invasion, the opposite of what was eventually followed; namely, from the seacoast eastward--instead of from the Jordan westward (see on
Num 20:1).
9 I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone--a little before their arrival in Horeb. Moses addresses that new generation as the representatives of their fathers, in whose sight and hearing all the transactions he recounts took place. A reference is here made to the suggestion of Jethro (
Exod 18:18). In noticing his practical adoption of a plan by which the administration of justice was committed to a select number of subordinate officers, Moses, by a beautiful allusion to the patriarchal blessing, ascribed the necessity of that memorable change in the government to the vast increase of the population.
10 ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude--This was neither an Oriental hyperbole nor a mere empty boast. Abraham was told (
Gen 15:5-
Gen 15:6) to look to the stars, and though they "appear" innumerable, yet those seen by the naked eye amount, in reality, to no more than three thousand ten in both hemispheres. The Israelites already far exceeded that number, being at the last census above six hundred thousand [
Num 26:51]. It was a seasonable memento, calculated to animate their faith in the accomplishment of other parts of the divine promise.
19 we went through all that great and terrible wilderness--of Paran, which included the desert and mountainous space lying between the wilderness of Shur westward, or towards Egypt and mount Seir, or the land of Edom eastwards; between the land of Canaan northwards, and the Red Sea southwards; and thus it appears to have comprehended really the wilderness of Sin and Sinai [FISK]. It is called by the Arabs El Tih, "the wandering." It is a dreary waste of rock and of calcareous soil covered with black sharp flints; all travellers, from a feeling of its complete isolation from the world, describe it as a great and terrible wilderness.
22 ye came . . . and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land--The proposal to despatch spies emanated from the people through unbelief; but Moses, believing them sincere, gave his cordial assent to this measure, and God on being consulted permitted them to follow the suggestion (see on
Num 13:1). The issue proved disastrous to them, only through their own sin and folly.
28 the cities are great, and walled up to heaven--an Oriental metaphor, meaning very high. The Arab marauders roam about on horseback, and hence the walls of St. Catherine's monastery on Sinai are so lofty that travellers are drawn up by a pulley in a basket.
Anakims--(See on
Num 13:33). The honest and uncompromising language of Moses, in reminding the Israelites of their perverse conduct and outrageous rebellion at the report of the treacherous and fainthearted scouts, affords a strong evidence of the truth of this history as well as of the divine authority of his mission. There was great reason for his dwelling on this dark passage in their history, as it was their unbelief that excluded them from the privilege of entering the promised land (
Heb 3:19); and that unbelief was a marvellous exhibition of human perversity, considering the miracles which God had wrought in their favor, especially in the daily manifestations they had of His presence among them as their leader and protector.
34 the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth--In consequence of this aggravated offense (unbelief followed by open rebellion), the Israelites were doomed, in the righteous judgment of God, to a life of wandering in that dreary wilderness till the whole adult generation had disappeared by death. The only exceptions mentioned are Caleb and Joshua, who was to be Moses' successor.
37 Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes--This statement seems to indicate that it was on this occasion Moses was condemned to share the fate of the people. But we know that it was several years afterwards that Moses betrayed an unhappy spirit of distrust at the waters of strife (
Ps 106:32-
Ps 106:33). This verse must be considered therefore as a parenthesis.
39 your children . . . who in that day had no knowledge between good and evil--All ancient versions read "to-day" instead of "that day"; and the sense is--"your children who now know," or "who know not as yet good or evil." As the children had not been partakers of the sinful outbreak, they were spared to obtain the privilege which their unbelieving parents had forfeited. God's ways are not as man's ways [
Isa 55:8-
Isa 55:9].
40 turn you, and take your journey into the . . . Red Sea--This command they disregarded, and, determined to force an onward passage in spite of the earnest remonstrances of Moses, they attempted to cross the heights then occupied by the combined forces of the Amorites and Amalekites (compare
Num 14:43), but were repulsed with great loss. People often experience distress even while in the way of duty. But how different their condition who suffer in situations where God is with them from the feelings of those who are conscious that they are in a position directly opposed to the divine will! The Israelites were grieved when they found themselves involved in difficulties and perils; but their sorrow arose not from a sense of the guilt so much as the sad effects of their perverse conduct; and "though they wept," they were not true penitents. So the Lord would not hearken to their voice, nor give ear unto them.
46 So ye abode at Kadesh many days--That place had been the site of their encampment during the absence of the spies, which lasted forty days, and it is supposed from this verse that they prolonged their stay there after their defeat for a similar period.