Deuteronomychapter 1
46 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by way of Mount Seir.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
This chapter opens the last book of the Law as a spoken address. Moses addresses a new generation on the edge of the land, most of whom were children when their parents refused to enter it. He begins his final teaching by telling them their own family history. Listen for the distance between how short the road was and how long it took. Listen also for the way Moses tells the story against himself and his hearers. Read it as the warning the whole book is built to prevent from happening twice.
Context
- Who
- The generation born in the wilderness, camped and waiting to cross
- What
- The opening of Moses' first address, which retells the road from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea and the refusal that cost Israel forty years.
- Where
- The plains of Moab east of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, where Israel camped across the river from Jericho.
- When
- The fortieth year after the exodus, about 1406 BC on the traditional dating, or late in the thirteenth century BC on the later dating, on the first day of the eleventh month by the chapter's own date.
- Why
- To show the new generation why their parents died in the wilderness, so that they would trust God where their parents had refused.
Historical context
The chapter is spoken by Moses in the first person. He is a man of about a hundred and twenty who has led this people out of Egypt, has just taken two kingdoms east of the river, and has been told he will not cross it.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The date is given inside the text, the fortieth year, the eleventh month, the first day. The place is the country east of the Jordan, and the occasion is the last address of a leader to a nation on the edge of the land.
A first hearer knew the shape of the speech before it began. When a great king bound a smaller nation to himself, the document opened by naming him and then rehearsed what he had already done for the small one, before any demand was made. Kenneth A. Kitchen and Meredith G. Kline both read Deuteronomy on that pattern, and chapter 1 is the opening of its history section.
The place names in the first verses are the markers of a forty year detour. Horeb is Sinai. Kadesh-barnea is an oasis on the southern edge of the land, eleven days from the mountain by the hill road, which the text states and John Gill reckons at about two hundred and twenty miles.
The judges appointed in verses 13 to 15 are ranked by thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Those are the units a nation on the march used to muster and move people, and the same chain carried quarrels upward until a hard case reached Moses.
The scouting party was ordinary military practice. Twelve men went up the ridge route through the Negev to see the land, its towns and whether the towns had walls. They came back with fruit from the Valley of Eshcol and a report about the Anakim, a people remembered for great height, whose name attached to the hill country around Hebron.
Significance
Everyone listening was either a child at Kadesh or born afterward. Moses is telling them why they are standing on the far side of the river at all, and the reason he gives is their parents' unbelief.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The detail that stung was the picture at verse 31 of God carrying them the way a man carries his son. They had been carried the whole time and still refused to go up. The generation about to cross is being told plainly that the walls are the same height.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter sets judges over the tribes, and the classical commentary on it carries the rules a Jewish court keeps. Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:16:1 gives the charge as a command to be deliberate in judgment. Where a point of law has already come before the court once, twice and three times, the judge is still to discuss it well on that occasion also, which Rashi takes from Sifrei Devarim 16:1. Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:17:1 turns the warning against respecting persons onto the man whose office it is to appoint judges. A man may be made a judge for being fine, or strong, or a relative, while he has no command of the laws. Rashi holds that such a judge will condemn the innocent and acquit the guilty. The favour is then reckoned to the man who appointed him. Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:18:1 reads the charge as the ten things that separate civil cases from capital cases, citing Sifrei Devarim 18:1 and Sanhedrin 32a. That the portion opening this book falls on the Sabbath before the fast of the ninth of Av is this site's own reading of the year.
How it is read
The synagogue reads the opening of Deuteronomy as reproof rather than as a record of travel. Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:1:1 holds that the place names stand in for the sins committed at them. Moses suppressed the matters themselves and left only the allusion in the names, out of regard for Israel. Rashi cites Sifrei Devarim 1:1 with Onkelos and Targum Jonathan for that reading. The eleven days from Horeb are read the same way. Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:2:1 has Moses say to them, "See what you brought about". He works the arithmetic out of Numbers, Kibroth Hataavah and Hazeroth. The people crossed in three days what should have taken eleven. He closes with the line that the Shechinah exerted itself to hasten their coming to the land, and that the forty years around Mount Seir followed their own degeneracy, citing Sifrei Devarim 2:2. On the timing of the reproof, Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:3:1 holds that a man reproves only shortly before his death, and reads Jacob, Joshua, Samuel and David as keeping the same rule. Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:4:1 has Moses wait until Sihon and Og were beaten, so that the people could not answer that he had no claim on them. The request for spies is read against the people. Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:23:1 has Moses call the matter good "in my sight, said Moses, but not in the sight of the Omnipresent God". He then tells the parable of the man selling an ass who is asked for trial after trial. Every quotation above is from the corpus entry marked kept, Rashi on Deuteronomy in the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition of 1929 to 1934, which Sefaria reports as public domain. Ibn Ezra and Malbim also stand on this chapter in the corpus, at Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 1:21:1 and Malbim on Deuteronomy 1:20:1. Their entries carry no English text that may be reproduced here, so they are cited by ref alone and linked.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis teach that the wilderness was called great and fearful because there were serpents in it thick as beams and scorpions as bows, a saying Rashi carries on Deuteronomy 1:19:1 from Sifrei Devarim 18:2. They teach that the promise of a thousandfold blessing drew a complaint from the people. Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:11:1 has them answer that Moses was setting a limit to their blessings. God had already promised Abraham a seed past counting. Moses replies that the thousandfold was his own blessing. Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:22:1 carries the teaching of Sifrei Devarim 20:1 on the crowd that came to ask for spies. The young pushed aside their elders, and the elders pushed aside the heads of the tribes. The corpus also holds the Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter as locators without their text, and this site cites them so. Among them are Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:1 at the opening verse, Bamidbar Rabbah 7:4 at verse 2 and Eikhah Rabbah 1:1 at verse 12. Others are Makkot 20a:12 at verse 14, Devarim Rabbah 5:6 at verse 16, Sifrei Devarim 25:8 at verse 30 and Jerusalem Talmud Bava Batra 8:2:7 at verse 39.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:1:1, 1:2:1, 1:3:1, 1:4:1, 1:11:1, 1:16:1, 1:17:1, 1:18:1, 1:19:1, 1:22:1 and 1:23:1, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929 to 1934; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 1:21:1, cited by ref alone, CC-BY-NC; Malbim, Malbim on Deuteronomy 1:20:1, cited by ref alone, no English version; Midrash and Talmud, Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 7:4, Eikhah Rabbah 1:1, Makkot 20a:12, Devarim Rabbah 5:6, Sifrei Devarim 25:8 and Jerusalem Talmud Bava Batra 8:2:7, cited by ref alone; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/1.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
You have stayed long enough at this mountain
Deuteronomy 1:1-2
These are the words that Moses spoke: Verse 2 carries the argument of the chapter: Horeb to Kadesh-barnea is eleven days by way of Mount Seir. Verse 3 dates the speaking to the fortieth year, so an eleven-day road took a generation. Chapter 2:14 counts "thirty-eight years" of it from Kadesh-barnea.
Deuteronomy 1:1
“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 (Nu 21:14).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Deuteronomy 1:1
“And here this other fact will not appear to be without significance, that it is Moses who hears from God all that is written down in the law of Leviticus, whereas in Deuteronomy it is the people who are represented as listening to Moses and learning from him what they could not hear from God. This indeed is why it is called Deuteronomy, meaning the second law.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · On First Principles 4.3.12patristic
an eleven-day journey from Horeb: The verse measures the road from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea in days of walking, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain. John Gill counts a day's walk at about twenty miles and puts the distance near two hundred and twenty miles.
Deuteronomy 1:2
“There are eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir, to Kadeshbarnea. Not that the Israelites came thither in eleven days from Horeb, for they stayed by the way at Kibrothhattaavah, a whole month at least, and seven days at Hazeroth; but the sense is, that this was the computed distance between the two places; it was what was reckoned a man might walk in eleven days; and if we reckon a day's journey twenty miles, of which See Gill on Jon 3:3, the distance must be two hundred and twenty miles.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:2
“There are eleven days’ journey - The Israelites were eleven days in going from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, where they were near the verge of the promised land; after which they were thirty-eight years wandering up and down in the vicinity of this place, not being permitted, because of their rebellions, to enter into the promised rest, though they were the whole of that time within a few miles of the land of Canaan!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 1:3-5
In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month: The speaking is dated to the fortieth year, after Sihon and Og have fallen at Numbers 21:21-35. Albert Barnes reads "began to explain this law" as expounding a law already given.
Deuteronomy 1:3
“And it came to pass in the fortieth year,.... That is, of the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt: in the eleventh month; the month Shebet, as the Targum of Jonathan, which answers to part of January and part of February: in the first day of the month, that Moses spoke unto the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them; repeated to them the several commandments, which the Lord had delivered to him at different times.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:3
“The fortieth year - This was a melancholy year to the Hebrews in different respects; in the first month of this year Miriam died, Numbers 20; on the first day of the fifth month Aaron died, Num 33:38; and about the conclusion of it, Moses himself died.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
defeated Sihon king of the Amorites: The two kings are named, Sihon at Heshbon and Og at Ashtaroth, which Jamieson, Fausset and Brown connect with Astarte, the goddess of the Syrians. Albert Barnes reads the clause so that Edrei names the battlefield where Og fell. These victories are the fresh evidence the speaker can point to.
Deuteronomy 1:4
“Astaroth - On this place compare Gen 14:5 and note. In Edrei - These words should, to render the sense clear, come next after “slain.” The battle in which Sihon and Og were defeated took place at Edrei.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:4
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Moses began to explain this law: The place is named twice, east of the Jordan and in the land of Moab, ground Israel has just taken. Albert Barnes explains that the district kept the name of Moab after the Amorites had conquered it.
Deuteronomy 1:5
“In the land of Moab - This district had formerly been occupied by the Moabites, and retained its name from them: but had been conquered by the Amorites. Compare Num 21:25, note; Num 22:5, note. Declare - Render, explain the Law already declared.”
Deuteronomy 1:6-8
The LORD our God said to us at Horeb: The first words this book quotes from God are an order to leave: "You have stayed at this mountain long enough". Clarke reckons the stay at Horeb at close to a year, from Exodus 19:1 to Numbers 10:11.
Deuteronomy 1:6
“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 Ex 19:2].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:6
“Ye have dwelt long enough, etc. - They came to Sinai in the third month after their departure from Egypt, Exo 19:1, Exo 19:2; and left it the twentieth of the second month of the second year, so it appears they had continued there nearly a whole year.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
go to the hill country of the Amorites: The command lists the land by its zones, from the Arabah valley to the seacoast. Adam Clarke takes the land of the Canaanites here as Phoenicia, the Mediterranean coast from Philistia up to Lebanon.
Deuteronomy 1:7
“To the mount of the Amorites - i. e. to the mountain district occupied by the Amorites, reaching into the Negeb, and part of the territory assigned to the tribe of Judah.”
See, I have placed the land before you: Three verbs follow in order, see, enter and possess, and the land is already set out in front of the hearers. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read placed before you as before your faces, open and with nothing in the way.
Deuteronomy 1:8
“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 Nu 20:1).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Wise men set over thousands and hundreds
Deuteronomy 1:9-11
Exodus 18 credits the plan for shared judging to Jethro, who watched Moses judge alone. Here Moses tells it as his own proposal and leaves his father-in-law out. That fits a chapter that holds the people to what they agreed to.
Deuteronomy 1:9
“And I spake unto you at that time,.... About that time; for it was after the rock in Horeb was smitten, and before they encamped at Mount Sinai, that Jethro gave the advice which Moses took, and proceeded on it, as here related; see Exo 18:1. saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone; to rule and govern them, judge and determine matters between them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:9
“This appointment of the “captains” (compare Exo 18:21 ff) must not be confounded with that of the elders in Num 11:16 ff. The former would number 78,600; the latter were 70 only. A comparison between this passage and that in Exodus makes it obvious that Moses is only touching on certain parts of the whole history, without regard to order of time, but with a special purpose. This important arrangement for the good government of the people took place before they left Horeb to march direct to the promised land.”
as numerous as the stars in the sky: Moses gives the growth of the nation as the reason one judge could no longer hear every case. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call the reminder timely, since a promise kept in numbers gave ground to trust the parts still ahead.
Deuteronomy 1:10
“The Lord your God hath multiplied you,.... Which was the reason why he could not bear them, or the government of them was too heavy for him, because they were so numerous, and the cases brought before him to decide were so many: and, behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude; whereby it appeared that the promise to Abraham was fulfilled, Gen 15:5, they were now 600,000 men fit for war, besides women and children, and those under age, which must make the number of them very large.”
increase you a thousand times over: Moses breaks into a blessing in the middle of his complaint about the weight of the people. John Gill reads it as proof that Moses did not resent their numbers. Matthew Henry notes that the prayer takes its measure from the promise itself, bless you as He has promised.
Deuteronomy 1:11
“The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are,.... This prayer he made, or this blessing he pronounced on them, to show that he did not envy their increase, nor was any ways uneasy at it, but rejoiced in it, though he gave it as a reason of his not being able to govern them alone: and bless you, as he hath promised you: with all kind of blessings, as he had often promised their fathers.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:11
“We are not straitened in the power and goodness of God, why should we be straitened in our own faith and hope, which ought to be as large as the promise? larger they need not be. It is from the promise that Moses here takes the measures of his prayer: The Lord bless you as he hath promised you.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 1:12-15
how can I bear your troubles, burdens, and disputes: Verse 13 has the people choose "wise, understanding, and respected men", and Moses appoints them. Exodus 18:21 has Moses doing the choosing and asks for men "God-fearing, trustworthy" and "averse to dishonest gain".
Deuteronomy 1:12
“How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? His meaning is, that he could not hear and try all their causes, and determine all their law suits, and decide the strifes and controversies which arose between them; it was too heavy for him, and brought too much trouble and incumbrance upon him.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:12
“That he was not desirous to prefer his own creatures, or such as should underhand have a dependence upon him; for he leaves it to the people to choose their own judges, to whom he would grant commissions, not durant bene placito--to be turned out when he pleased; but quam diu se bene gesserint--to continue so long as they approved themselves faithful.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
wise, understanding, and respected men: Three qualities are asked for, and each is a matter of character and skill. Adam Clarke glosses the Hebrew words as men who had gained knowledge by labour, men of discernment, and men practised and known for their work.
Deuteronomy 1:13
“Take you wise men - חכמים chachamim, such as had gained knowledge by great labor and study. Understanding נבנים nebonim, persons of discernment, judicious men. Known, ידעים yeduim, persons practiced in the operations of nature, capable of performing curious and important works.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:13
“The rise and origin of this nation were so late that none of them could pretend to antiquity of race, and nobility of birth, above their brethren; and, having all lately come out of slavery in Egypt, it is probable that one family was not much richer than another; so that their choice must be directed purely by the qualifications of wisdom, experience, and integrity.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The people's answer puts their consent on the record. Matthew Henry reads the reminder as pointed, since the government the people later quarrelled with was one they had agreed to themselves.
Deuteronomy 1:14
“And ye answered me and said,.... As the speech of Moses to the people is not expressed before, so neither this answer of theirs to him: the thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do; to look out for and present persons to him as before described; this they saw was for their own good and profit, as well as for the ease of Moses, and therefore readily agreed to it.”
commanders of thousands, of hundreds: The men chosen were already leaders of their tribes, and Moses set them in ranks. The last group, officers for your tribes, holds a separate office from the commanders. Adam Clarke has these officers carrying out the commands of the chiefs.
Deuteronomy 1:15
“Captains over thousands, etc. - What a curious and well-regulated economy was that of the Israelites! See its order and arrangement: 1. God, the King and Supreme Judge; 2. Moses, God’s prime minister; 3. The priests, consulting him by Urim and Thummim; 4. The chiefs or princes of the twelve tribes; 5. Chilliarchs, or captains over thousands; 6. Centurions, or captains over hundreds; 7. Tribunes, or captains over fifty men; 8. Decurions, or captains over ten men; and, 9. Officers, persons who might be employed by the different chiefs in executing particular commands.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 1:16-18
At that time I charged your judges: The ground of the charge is that "judgment belongs to God", so the judges hold their office from Him. Jehoshaphat gives his own judges the same reason at 2 Chronicles 19:6.
Deuteronomy 1:16
“Thou shalt not long for division, but shalt bring those who contend to peace. Thou shalt judge righteously, thou shalt not respect persons in reproving for transgressions. Thou shalt not be undecided whether it shall be or no.”
Didache · written before 100 · The Didache, Chapter 4patristic
Show no partiality in judging: The verse closes with a route for hard cases, which go up to Moses when the judges cannot decide them. Chapter 17:8-9 later sends such cases to the priests and the judge at the place the LORD chooses, so the arrangement outlives Moses.
Deuteronomy 1:17
“Ye shall not respect persons - Heb. faces. Let not the bold, daring countenance of the rich or mighty induce you to give an unrighteous decision; and let not the abject look of the poor man induce you either to favor him in an unrighteous cause, or to give judgment against him at the demand of the oppressor. Be uncorrupt and incorruptible, for the judgment is God’s; ye minister in the place of God, act like Him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I commanded you all the things: Moses says the whole body of instruction was given at that time. John Gill describes it as the moral, ceremonial and judicial laws given at Mount Sinai. The judges began their work with the law in hand.
Deuteronomy 1:18
“And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do. Delivered to them all the laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which were then given him at Mount Sinai.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:18
“All the things which ye shall do - I delivered unto you, and especially unto your Judges, all the laws, statutes, and judgments revealed unto me by the Lord in Horeb.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
You would not go up
Deuteronomy 1:19-21
we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country: The charge "Do not be afraid or discouraged" in verse 21 returns at 31:6 and 31:8 and passes to Joshua at Joshua 1:9. It is spoken to a generation that will not act on it, and Moses repeats it at verse 29.
Deuteronomy 1:19
“That great and terrible wilderness - Compare Deu 8:15. This language is such as people would employ after having passed with toil and suffering through the worst part of it, the southern half of the Arabah (see Num 21:4 note); and more especially when they had but recently rested from their marches in the plain of Shittim, the largest and richest oasis in the whole district on the Eastern bank near the mouth of the Jordan.”
At Kadesh-barnea they stood at the edge of the land, with the gift already spoken in the present tense, is giving us. Matthew Henry says Moses dwells on how near they had come, so the refusal that followed is seen at full weight.
Deuteronomy 1:20
“And I said unto you, you are come unto the mountain of the Amorites,.... Which was inhabited by them, and was one of the seven nations the Israelites were to destroy, and possess their land, and which lay on the southern part of the land of Canaan: which the Lord our God doth give unto us; not the mountain only, but the whole country of that people, and even all the land of Canaan.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:20
“He told them with triumph, the land is set before you, go up and possess it. He lets them see how near they were to a happy settlement when they put a bar in their own door, that their sin might appear the more exceedingly sinful. It will aggravate the eternal ruin of hypocrites that they were not far from the kingdom of God and yet came short, Mark xii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Go up and take possession of it: Moses repeats at the border the words God spoke at Horeb in verse 8, the command to go up and possess. Matthew Henry says Moses told them this with triumph, and that the people then barred their own door.
Deuteronomy 1:22-23
Then all of you approached me and said: Numbers 13:1-2 has the LORD telling Moses to send the men, and verse 22 here has the people asking for them. Barnes reads it as a plan that began with the people, was approved by Moses, and was then sanctioned by God.
Deuteronomy 1:22
“The plan of sending the spies originated with the people; and, as in itself a reasonable one, it approved itself to Moses; it was submitted to God, sanctioned by Him, and carried out under special divine direction. The orator’s purpose in this chapter is to bring before the people emphatically their own responsibilites and behavior. It is therefore important to remind them, that the sending of the spies, which led immediately to their complaining and rebellion, was their own suggestion.”
The plan seemed good to me: Moses chose one man from each of the twelve tribes, named at Numbers 13:4-15. John Gill says Moses took the proposal as reasonable and prudent, without suspecting fear and distrust behind it. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown likewise say Moses believed the people sincere, though the proposal came from unbelief.
Deuteronomy 1:23
“And the saying pleased me well,.... Taking it to be a rational and prudent scheme, not imagining it was the effect of fear and distrust: and I took twelve men of you out of a tribe; whose names are given in Num 13:4.”
Deuteronomy 1:24-25
They left and went up into the hill country: The spies' report in verse 25 is good and nothing else. Numbers 13:27-28 adds a "Nevertheless", that "the people living in the land are strong" and the cities "large and fortified". Here the fear belongs to the hearers, surfacing only in their complaint at verse 28.
Deuteronomy 1:24
“And they turned and went up into the mountain,.... As they were ordered and directed by Moses, Num 13:17. and came unto the valley of Eshcol; so called from the cluster of grapes they cut down there, as they returned: and searched it out; the whole land, and so were capable of giving a particular account of it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:24
“The blessings which God has promised are truly valuable and desirable, even the unbelievers themselves being judges: never any looked into the holy land, but they must own it a good land.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
took some of the fruit of the land: The spies bring evidence along with their word, fruit carried down in their hands. Matthew Henry observes that no one ever looked into the land without owning it good, the unbelievers included.
Deuteronomy 1:25
“You remember the occasion concerning which these words were written. The children of Israel sent 12 men as spies into the land of Canaan and they brought back with them the fruit of the land, among which was a bunch of grapes from Eshcol too heavy to be borne by one man, and which, therefore, two of them carried on a staff between them.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2607: “Foretastes of the Heavenly Life” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Deuteronomy 1:26-28
But you were unwilling to go up: Verse 26 calls the refusal rebellion "against the command of the LORD". The complaint that follows, "Because the LORD hates us", is the exact reverse of 7:8, "because the LORD loved you".
Deuteronomy 1:26
“Notwithstanding, ye would not go up,.... And possess it, as the Lord had bid them, and Moses encouraged them to do, as well as Joshua and Caleb, who were two of the spies sent into it: but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God; disregarded the word of the Lord, and disobeyed his command, and thereby bitterly provoked him, which rebellion against him, their King and God, might well do.”
You grumbled in your tents: The complaint was made in the tents, away from Moses and the assembly. It rewrites the exodus itself, treating the rescue from Egypt as a plan to hand Israel to the Amorites. Matthew Henry, writing on verse 26, counts this among the people's invidious reflections on God's goodness.
Our brothers have made our hearts melt: The people blame their brothers, the spies, for melting their hearts. Adam Clarke and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read walls up to the heavens as a figure for walls too high to scale. Matthew Henry answers that the only places truly walled up to heaven are those God's favour surrounds.
Deuteronomy 1:28
“Cities - walled up to heaven - That is, with very high walls which could not be easily scaled. High walls around houses, etc., in these parts of Arabia are still deemed a sufficient defense against the Arabs, who scarcely ever attempt any thing in the way of plunder but on horseback.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 1:29-31
Verse 31 pictures God as a father: "the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son". At Acts 13:18 some Greek manuscripts use the Septuagint's word here, carrying as a nurse carries a child. Others read the verb behind "He endured their conduct".
Deuteronomy 1:29
“Then I said unto you, dread not, neither be afraid of them. With such like words he had exhorted and encouraged them before the spies were sent, and he still uses the same, or stronger terms, notwithstanding the report that had been made of the gigantic stature and walled cities of the Canaanites. This speech of Moses, which is continued in the two following verses, is not recorded in Num 14:5, it is only there said, that Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, but no account is given of what was said by either of them.”
who goes before you, will fight for you: The promise has two parts, God going ahead of the people and God fighting on their behalf. Adam Clarke notes that the Targum of Onkelos renders the second part as the Word of the Lord shall fight for you.
Deuteronomy 1:30
“The Lord - shall fight for you - In the Targum of Onkelos, it is, the Word of the Lord shall fight for you. In a great number of places the Targums or Chaldee paraphrases use the term מימרא דיי meimera dayeya or Yehovah, the Word of the Lord, exactly in the same way in which St. John uses the term Λογος Logos in the first chapter of his Gospel. Many instances of this have already occurred.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
as a man carries his son: The figure covers the whole road, and it answers the complaint of verse 27 that the LORD hated them. John Wesley pictures a father carrying a weak and tender child in his arms through dangers.
Deuteronomy 1:31
See what we are generally taught about God: "God is not as a man to be deceived nor as the son of man to be threatened," and we learn that God is not as man. But other texts say that God is as a man: "For the Lord your God has taught you as a man teaches his son," and again, "As a man he takes on the manners of his son."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILY 18.3patristic
Deuteronomy 1:32-33
you did not trust the LORD your God: The verdict on the whole episode is one charge: "you did not trust the LORD your God". Hebrews 3:19 gives the same account: "it was because of their unbelief that they were unable to enter."
Deuteronomy 1:32
“Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God. That they might go up and possess the land at once, and that he would fight for them, and subdue their enemies under them; or notwithstanding the favours bestowed upon them, and because of them, they did not believe in the Lord their God, and which was a great aggravation of their unbelief, and was the cause of their not entering into the good land, Heb 3:19.”
in the fire by night and in the cloud by day: The guidance was daily, a place to camp and the road to take. Numbers 10:33 has the ark going ahead of the camp to seek out a resting place.
Not one of this evil generation shall see it
Deuteronomy 1:34-36
When the LORD heard your words, He grew angry: The sworn sentence falls on "this evil generation", the adults numbered at Numbers 14:29. Verse 36 excepts Caleb, because "he followed the LORD wholeheartedly." He claims this promise at eighty-five in Joshua 14:9-12.
Deuteronomy 1:34
“And the Lord heard the voice of your words,.... Of their murmurings against Moses and Aaron, and of their threatenings to them, Joshua and Caleb, and of their impious charge of hatred of them to God for bringing them out of Egypt, and of their rash wishes that they had died there or in the wilderness, and of their wicked scheme and proposal to make them a captain, and return to Egypt again: and was wroth, and sware; by his life, himself; see Num 14:28, saying; as follows.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:34
“The Lord - was wroth - That is, his justice was incensed, and he evidenced his displeasure against you; and he could not have been a just God if he had not done so.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 1:34
“Thus they could not enter in because of unbelief. It was not the breach of any of the commands of the law that shut them out of Canaan, no, not the golden calf, but their disbelief of that promise which was typical of gospel grace, to signify that no sin will ruin us but unbelief, which is a sin against the remedy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
this evil generation: Two oaths meet here: verse 34 shuts the generation out, and the older oath to the fathers promised the land. John Gill extends the sentence past the spies to the whole people who believed their report and complained.
Deuteronomy 1:35
“Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see the good land,.... The land of Canaan; not only not one of the spies that brought the ill report of that land, but of that body of people that gave credit to it, and murmured upon it: which I sware to give unto your fathers; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; see Deu 1:8.”
The exception rests on one reason, that Caleb followed the LORD wholeheartedly, the ground Numbers 14:24 gives, as Adam Clarke's cross-reference shows. John Wesley holds that Joshua is included under Caleb though unnamed, since he was about to be set over the people as their chief governor.
Deuteronomy 1:36
“Save Caleb - Under whom Josh. is comprehended, though not here expressed, because he was not now to be one of the people, but to be set over them as a chief governor.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 1:37-38
The LORD was also angry with me on your account: Moses gives the reason he cannot enter here and at 3:26 and 4:21, each time laying the LORD's anger to the people's account. Numbers 20:12 gives the reason as unbelief at Meribah, which the narrative places in the fortieth year.
Deuteronomy 1:37
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:37
“The sentence on Moses was not passed when the people rebelled during their first encampment at Kadesh, but some 37 years later, when they had re-assembled in the same neighborhood at Meribah (see the Num 20:13 note). He alludes to it here as having happened not many months previously, bearing on the facts which were for his purpose in pricking the conscience of the people.”
Encourage him, for he will enable Israel: Joshua is described as the one who stands before you, the language of a servant in attendance. Matthew Henry says Joshua needed encouragement, having watched Moses sink under the weight of the same office.
Deuteronomy 1:39-40
The children said to become plunder at Numbers 14:3 are handed the land at Numbers 14:31 and here. The phrase "did not know good from evil" marks an age beneath responsibility, as at Isaiah 7:15-16.
Deuteronomy 1:39
“As they had been chosen for their fathers' sakes, so their children might justly have been rejected for their sakes. But mercy rejoiceth against judgement. He reminds them of their foolish and fruitless attempt to get this sentence reversed when it was too late.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The order repeats Numbers 14:25, and 2:1 reports that it was carried out. John Gill, following Jarchi, places this wilderness beside the Red Sea to the south of Mount Seir. The people's road now ran around the south of Seir from west to east.
Deuteronomy 1:40
“But as for you, turn ye,.... From the mountain of the Amorites, the border of the land of Canaan: and take your journey into the wilderness, by the way of the Red sea: see Num 14:25. Jarchi says this wilderness was by the side of the Red sea, to the south of Mount Seir, and divided between the Red sea and the mount; so that now they drew to the side of the sea, and compassed Mount Seir, all the south of it, from west to east.”
Chased like bees, and their weeping unheard
Deuteronomy 1:41-43
"We have sinned against the LORD" is repentance after the sentence, doing what they had refused the day before. Verse 43 lays on this advance the charge verse 26 laid on the retreat: "You rebelled against the command of the LORD."
Deuteronomy 1:41
“Ye were ready to go up into the hill - Rather, perhaps, “ye made light of going up;” i. e. “ye were ready to attempt it as a trifling undertaking.” Deu 1:43 shows the issue of this spirit in action; compare marginal references.”
for I am not with you: The warning came before the attempt, so the defeat that followed was announced ahead of time. Numbers 14:42-43 gives the same warning in Moses' own words and names the Amalekites and Canaanites waiting to face them.
presumptuously went up into the hill country: The word presumptuously names the attitude of the attempt, going up on their own authority after being told to stay. Matthew Henry says the people acted now in contempt of the threat, as they had earlier acted in contempt of the promise.
Deuteronomy 1:44-46
Then the Amorites who lived in the hills came out: Verse 44 names the Amorites as those who chased Israel "like a swarm of bees", where Numbers 14:45 names "the Amalekites and Canaanites". Verse 46 covers the following years in one line, and 2:14 counts "thirty-eight years" from Kadesh-barnea to the Zered.
Deuteronomy 1:44
“The Amorites - In Num 14:45, it is “the Amalekites and the Canaanites” who are said to have discomfited them. The Amorites, as the most powerful nation of Canaan, lend their name here, as in other passages (eg. Deu 1:7) to the Canaanite tribes generally.”
you returned and wept before the LORD: This weeping comes after the defeat, and the text says the LORD gave it no hearing. Matthew Henry sets it beside the weeping of Numbers 14:1, calling those tears of rebellion and these tears of repentance. He adds that tears of discontent have to be wept over again.
Deuteronomy 1:45
“While they were fretting and quarrelling, it is said ( Num. xiv. 1 ): They wept that night; those were tears of rebellion against God, these were tears of repentance and humiliation before God. Note, Tears of discontent must be wept over again; the sorrow of the world worketh death, and is to be repented of; it is not so with godly sorrow, that will end in joy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The length of this stay is unstated. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown suppose the people stayed after the defeat about as long as the forty days the spies were away. John Gill reports the view of Jarchi and the Jewish chronology that nineteen of the thirty-eight years were spent at Kadesh.
Deuteronomy 1:46
According unto the days that ye abode there - They had been a long time at this place, see Num 13:27; Num 20:1, Num 20:14, Num 20:21. And some think that the words mean, “Ye abode as long at Kadesh, when you came to it the second time, as ye did at the first.” Or, according to others, “While ye were in that part of the desert, ye encamped at Kadesh.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:46
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
How this psalm is built
The form: Historical recital inside the opening address, the prologue of a covenant treaty, as Deuteronomy classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The book spoken rather than narrated | From verse 6 to the end the chapter runs in the first person, and the site's published exposition of verses 1 and 2 records that the Hebrew title Devarim, the words, comes from the opening line. Origen read the same feature as what marks the book off from Leviticus, since here the people listen to Moses and learn from him what they could not hear from God.Origen of Alexandria, On First Principles 4.3.12, 253. | Deuteronomy 1:1, Deuteronomy 1:5, Deuteronomy 1:6 |
| Fear not, neither be discouraged | The formula stands at verse 21 before the refusal and again at verse 29 after it, and the site's published exposition of verses 19 to 21 records that it runs on to 31:6 and 31:8 and is handed to Joshua at Joshua 1:9. It is spoken here to a generation that will not act on it.Albert Barnes, with Keil and Delitzsch, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, and Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1866, on Deuteronomy 1:19 to 21. | Deuteronomy 1:21, Deuteronomy 1:29 |
| The same charge laid on opposite mistakes | Verse 26 calls the refusal to go up rebellion against the command of the LORD, and verse 43 lays the identical charge on the advance made the next day against orders. The two verses close the Kadesh episode around the people's own words at verse 41.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 1:41 to 43, The exposition_notes row on Deuteronomy 1:41 to 43, citing Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1866. | Deuteronomy 1:26, Deuteronomy 1:41, Deuteronomy 1:43 |
| The bench listed by its grades | Verse 15 names the officers in a descending series, commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, with the tribal officers after them. Adam Clarke sets the series inside a nine-level order that runs from God as king and supreme judge down to the officers who carried out particular commands.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Deuteronomy 1:15. | Deuteronomy 1:15 |
| To respect persons is to know faces | Adam Clarke records that the Hebrew behind the phrase rendered respect persons is literally to know faces, so both halves of verse 17 turn on one figure, the face of the great man and the face of the poor one. The charge closes by grounding the bench on the fact that the judgment belongs to God.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Deuteronomy 1:17. | Deuteronomy 1:17 |
The two tellings set side by side
19 more paragraphs on the patterns
Five places in this chapter tell something the book of Numbers also tells, and tell it differently. Both accounts stand in the canon and the site's published exposition leaves the differences standing.
The judges. Exodus 18 credits the plan to Jethro, who watched Moses sit from morning to evening. Verse 9 has Moses propose it himself and leave his father in law out. Exodus 18:21 asks for men who fear God and hate covetousness; verse 13 asks for men wise, understanding and known among their tribes. The grades are the same in both places.
The spies. Numbers 13:1 to 2 has the LORD telling Moses to send them. Verse 22 has the people asking. Albert Barnes reads the plan as one that began with the people, was approved by Moses, then put to God and sanctioned, and states that the point of the chapter is to press the people's own responsibility.
The report. Numbers 13:27 to 28 gives the spies a good report with a qualification attached. Verse 25 gives the good report alone and puts the qualification into the people's mouths at verse 28, so in this telling the discouragement belongs to the hearers.
The exception. Numbers 14:30 excepts Caleb and Joshua together. Verse 36 excepts Caleb alone and brings Joshua in at verse 38 in a different office. John Wesley reads Joshua as included under Caleb here, since he was to be set over the people as their governor.
The pursuers. Verse 44 names the Amorites where Numbers 14:45 names the Amalekites and the Canaanites. Albert Barnes reads the Amorites as the most powerful nation of Canaan lending their name to the Canaanite tribes generally, as at verse 7.
The debated reading in this chapter
When was Moses told he would not cross. Verse 37 gives the reason as the LORD's anger on the people's account, and the book says the same at 3:26 and 4:21. Numbers 20:12 gives the reason as unbelief at the waters of Meribah, which the narrative places in the fortieth year rather than at Kadesh in the second.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read verse 37 as indicating that the sentence fell on this occasion. Albert Barnes reads it the other way, that the sentence was passed some thirty seven years later at Meribah and is mentioned here because it had happened only months before the speech and served the speaker's purpose. Each position is stated by its holder and the page settles neither.
The historical value
The places of verse 1 are the fixed point. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record that several of them are unknown today, and that the Hebrew Suph means a place noted for reeds, since the word for sea is supplied by translators and Moses stood far from the Red Sea. John Wesley states the same reading of Suph.
The distance is measurable. John Gill reckons eleven days at twenty miles to a day of walking and gives two hundred and twenty miles between Horeb and Kadesh-barnea, and he notes that the march itself took longer because of the stops at Kibroth-hattaavah and Hazeroth. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record that Ashtaroth, named at verse 4 as Og's royal seat, carries the name of Astarte.
The Anakim of verse 28 are described again at 2:10 to 11 and 3:11 and are left as a remnant in Gath at Joshua 11:21 to 22. Adam Clarke reads the cities walled up to heaven as a figure for walls too high to be scaled, and records that high walls were still a sufficient defence against raiders in his own day.
The New Testament's use
Hebrews 3:19 gives the same verdict on this generation that verse 32 gives, that they could not enter because of unbelief. The whole of Hebrews 3 and 4 is built on the refusal this chapter narrates.
Acts 13:18 looks back on the forty years. The site's published exposition of verses 29 to 31 records that a body of Greek manuscripts at Acts 13:18 reads a verb meaning to carry as a nurse carries a child, which is what the Septuagint has at verse 31, while other manuscripts read the verb behind the older English rendering that he bore their manners.
Origen read verse 31 against the statement that God is not a man, and held that the figure of a father carrying his son teaches something the other statement does not carry.
What the chapter hands forward
Verse 46 covers the years that follow in half a sentence, and 2:14 counts thirty eight of them from Kadesh to the brook Zered. The reversal ordered at verse 40 sets up the itinerary of chapter 2, and the charge at verse 38 to encourage Joshua is taken up at 3:28 and 31:7.
Keep studying
Studies13
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Deuteronomy 1:5; Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, 2003; Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy, 1963; Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, 1972 and This site's published guide to Deuteronomy, src/components/book/guides/deuteronomy/DeuteronomyGuide.tsx, the section Title, Setting and the Historical Recital at 1:1 to 4:43, marked preamble and historical prologue.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.