1These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan; in the wilderness, in the Arabah, opposite to Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban and Hazeroth, and Dizahab; 2eleven days from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. 3And it happened, in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month on the first of the month, Moses spoke to the sons of Israel according to all that Jehovah had commanded him concerning them; 4after he had stricken Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth in Edrei, 5beyond 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 had enough of dwelling in this mountain; 7turn and pull up stakes and go into the hills of the Amorites, and to all its neighboring places in the Arabah, in the hills, and in the low country, and in the Negeb, and in the shore of the sea, the land of the Canaanites and of Lebanon, to the great river, the Euphrates River. 8Behold! I have given before you the land; go in and possess the land which Jehovah has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them, and to their seed after them. 9And I spoke to you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you by myself. 10Jehovah your God has multiplied you, and, behold, today you are as the stars of heaven for multitude. 11May Jehovah the God of your fathers add to you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you as He has spoken to you! 12How can I by myself bear your pressure and your burden, and your strife? 13Give wise and understanding men, and those known to your tribes, and I will appoint them rulers over you. 14And you answered me and said, The thing which you have spoken is good to do. 15And I took the chiefs of your tribes, wise and noted men, and I gave them to be rulers over you, commanders over thousands, and commanders over hundreds and commanders over fifties, and commanders over tens, and officers, for your tribes. 16And I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Hear between your brothers; and judge with righteousness between a man and his brother, and his alien. 17You shall not recognize persons in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid because of the face of a man, for the judgment is God's; and the thing too hard for you, you shall bring near to me, and I shall hear it. 18And at that time I commanded you all the things which you were to do. 19And we pulled up stakes from Horeb and went through all that great and fearful wilderness which you have seen, the way of the hills of the Amorites, as Jehovah our God commanded us. And we came into Kadesh-barnea. 20And I said to you, You have come into the hills of the Amorites, which Jehovah our God is giving to us. 21See, Jehovah your God has given the land before you; go up, possess it, as Jehovah the God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be afraid. 22And you came near to me, every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us, and they shall search out the land for us, and they shall bring us back word as to the way in which we shall go up, and the cities to which we shall come. 23And the thing was good in my eyes, and I took twelve men of you, one man for each tribe. 24And they turned and went up to the hills and came into the valley of Eshcol, and searched it. 25And they took of the fruit of the land with their hands and brought it down to us, and brought us back word, and said, The land which Jehovah our God has given us is good. 26And you were not willing to go up; yea, you rebelled against the mouth of Jehovah your God, 27and murmured in your tents, and said, Because of Jehovah's hating of us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorite to destroy us. 28Where shall we go up? Our brothers have melted our hearts, saying, We have seen there a people greater and taller than we, cities great and walled up to the heavens, and also the sons of Anak. 29And I said to you, do not be terrified; nor be afraid of them; 30Jehovah your God who goes before you shall 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 borne you as a man bears his son, in all the way which you have gone until you have come to this place. 32Yet in this thing you are not believing in Jehovah your God, 33who went before you in the way to seek out a place for your camping, in fire by night, to show you the way in which you should go, and in a cloud by the 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 the good land which I have sworn to give to your fathers, 36except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it, and I shall give the land on which he has walked to him, and to his sons, because he has fully followed Jehovah. 37And Jehovah was angry with me for your sake, saying, Also you shall not go in there. 38Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there; you shall strengthen him; for he shall cause Israel to inherit. 39And your infants, of whom you said, They are a prey, and your sons who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. 40And you, turn yourselves and pull up stakes toward the wilderness, the way of the Sea of Reeds. 41And you answered and said to me, We have sinned against Jehovah; we shall go up, and we shall fight, according to all that which Jehovah our God has commanded us. And you each one girded on his weapons of war, and you thought it easy to go up to the hill country. 42And Jehovah said to me, Say to them, You shall not go up, nor fight, for I am not in your midst; lest you be struck before your enemies. 43And I spoke to you, and you did not listen, and rebelled against the mouth of Jehovah, and acted proudly, and went up into the hills. 44And the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out to meet you and they chased you, as the bees do, and struck you in Seir, to Hormah. 45And you returned and wept before Jehovah, but Jehovah did not listen to your voice, nor did He give ear to you. 46And you lived many days in Kadesh, 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.
