1These the words which Moses spake to all Israel on the other side Jordan in the desert, in the sterile region over against the sedge between Paran and between Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2Eleven days from Horeb the way of mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea. 3And it shall be in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, in one to the Month, Moses spake to the sons of Israel according to all which Jehovah commanded him to them. 4After his smiting Sihon, king of the Amorites, who will dwell in Hesh-bon, and Og, king of Bashan, who will dwell in Ashtaroth in Edrei: 5In the other side Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses was first to declare this law, saying, 6Jehovah our God spake to us in Horeb, saying, It was enough to you to dwell in this mount: 7Turn ye and remove for yourselves, and go to the mountain of the Amorite, and to all his neighbors in the sterile region, in the mountain, and in the low country, and in the south and in the coast of the sea, the land of the Canaanites and of Lebanon to the great river, the river Phrath 8See, I gave the land before you: go in and possess the land which Jehovah sware to your fathers, to Abraham to Isaak and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them. 9And I spake to you at that time, saying, I shall not be able alone to bear you: 10Jehovah your God multiplied you, and behold, you this day as the stars of the heavens for multitude. 11Jehovah the God of your fathers will add to you as ye a thousand times, and he will bless you as he spake to you. 12How shall I bear alone your burden and your lifting up and your strife 13Give to yourselves men wise and known to your tribes, and I will set them for your heads. 14And ye will answer me and say, Good the word which thou spakest to do. 15And I will take the heads of your tribes, men wise and known, and I will give them heads over you, captains of thousands, and captains and hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens, and scribes for your tribes. 16And I shall command your judges in that time, saying, Hear between your brethren, and judge justice between a man and between his brother and between his stranger. 17Ye shall not look upon faces in judgment; as the small so the great shall ye hear; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is to God; and the word which shall be hard for you, ye shall bring to me and I heard it 18And I will command you in that time all the words which ye shall do. 19And we shall remove from Horeb and we shall go all that great and fearful desert which ye saw, the way of the mountain of the Amorite, as Jehovah our God commanded us; and we shall come to Kadesh-Barnea. 20And I said to you, Ye came to the mountain of the Amorite which Jehovah our God gave to us. 21See, Jehovah thy God gave the land before thee: go up, possess, as Jehovah the God of thy fathers spake to thee; thou shalt not fear and thou shalt not be pressed down. 22And ye shall come near to me all of you, and ye will say, We will send men before us, and they shall search out for us the land, and shall turn us back word the way which we shall go up into it, and the cities which we shall come into them. 23And the word will be good in mine eyes: and I will take from you twelve men, one man to a tribe. 24And they will turn and go up to the mountain, and they will come to the valley of Eshcol, and will search it out 25And they will take in their hand from the fruit of the land, and they will come down to us and will turn us back word, and will say, A good land which Jehovah our God gave to us. 26And ye were not willing to go up, and ye will rebel against the mouth of Jehovah your God, 27And ye will murmur in your tents, and say, In Jehovah's hating us he brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorite to destroy us. 28Whither are we going up? our brethren melted our heart, saying, A people great and high above us; cities great and fortified to the heavens; and also, the sons of the Anakims, we saw there. 29And I said to you, Ye shall not be terrified, and ye shall not be afraid of them. 30Jehovah your God went before you; he will fight for you according to all that he did to you in Egypt before your eyes. 31And in the desert where thou sawest that Jehovah thy God lifted thee up, as a man will lift up his son, in all the way that ye went till your coming to this place. 32And in this word ye are not believing in Jehovah your God. 33He going in the way before you to search out for you a place for you to encamp, in fire by night, to cause you to see in what way ye shall go in it, and in a cloud by day. 34And Jehovah will hear the voice of your words, and he will be angry, and he will swear, saying, 35If a man among these men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I sware to give to your fathers, 36Except Caleb, son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him I will give the land which he trod upon it, and to his sons, because that he filled up after Jehovah. 37Also with me was Jehovah angry on account of you, saying, Also thou shalt not come in there. 38Joshua son of Nun, standing before thee, he shall come in there: strengthen him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it 39And your little ones which ye said shall be for a spoil, and your sons which knew not that day good and evil, they shall go in there, and to them will I give it, and they shall possess it 40And you, turn for yourselves and remove to the desert the way of the sea of sedge. 41And ye will answer and say to me, We sinned against Jehovah, we will go up and fight according to all that Jehovah our God commanded us. And ye will gird on each the weapon of his fighting, and ye will act lightly to go up to the mountain. 42And Jehovah will say to me, Say to them, Ye shall not go up, and ye shall not fight; for I am not in the midst of you and ye shall not be smitten before your enemies. 43And I shall speak to you, and ye heard not; and ye will rebel against the mouth of Jehovah, and ye will act proudly, and will go up to the mountain. 44And the Amorite dwelling in that mountain will come forth to your meeting, and will pursue you as bees will do, and they will beat you in Seir to Hormah. 45And ye will turn back and will weep before Jehovah; and Jehovah heard not to your voice and gave not ear to you. 46And ye shall dwell in Kadesh many days according to the days that ye dwelt.
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.
