Deuteronomychapter 1
46 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—in the Arabah opposite Suph—between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
It stands in You have stayed long enough at this mountain, verses 1 to 8.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Moses' first sermon opens on the east side of Jordan in the fortieth year. ‘The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey’. The appointment of the judges of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens (a recap of Exodus 18). The sending of the spies from Kadesh-barnea at the people's request; the evil report; the unbelief; the LORD's anger; Moses' exclusion. The presumptuous push forward rebuked at Hormah. The first generation must die in the wilderness. The chapter is retrospective. Sermon by a man about to die, facing a congregation that did not see these things and must be told.
Context
Law · Moses · Deuteronomy overview
The world behind this chapter
Deuteronomy 1The history
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.
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.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- 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
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament , 1748 to 1763, on Deuteronomy 1:2
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament , 2000
Where the chapter sits
Deuteronomy 1 falls in First sermon, retrospective (chapters 1–4). Moses rehearses the wilderness: Horeb, the spies, the forty years, the defeat of Sihon and Og. ‘Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves.’
After it: Second sermon, the law restated, chapters 5–26.
The whole shape of Deuteronomy→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. You have stayed long enough at this mountain
1. (vv. 1-2)
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
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
The book opens as speech rather than narrative, and the Hebrew title takes its name from the opening line, Devarim, the words. Verse 2 sits in a parenthesis and carries the argument of the whole chapter: eleven days lie between Horeb and Kadesh-barnea by the way of mount Seir. Verse 3 will place the speaking in the fortieth year, so ground that could be covered in eleven days took a generation, and 2:14 counts thirty and eight of those years from Kadesh to the brook Zered.
2. (vv. 3-5)
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
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
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.”
The dating is exact: the fortieth year, the eleventh month, the first day of the month. Sihon and Og have already fallen at Numbers 21:21-35, so the speech comes from a man who has just taken two kingdoms east of the river and has been told he will not cross it. Albert Barnes reads the verb in verse 5 rendered declare as explaining a law already given rather than issuing a new one, and the Greek name Deuteronomy comes from the Septuagint rendering of a copy of this law at 17:18.
3. (vv. 6-8)
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
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.”
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
The first words quoted from God in this book are an order to leave, ye have dwelt long enough in this mount. Clarke reckons the stay at Horeb at close to a year, from the arrival at Exodus 19:1 to the departure at Numbers 10:11. The borders named in verse 7 reach the Euphrates, which is the grant made to Abram at Genesis 15:18, and verse 8 speaks as though the matter were closed, I have set the land before you, resting it on an oath sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob rather than on anything the hearers have done.
B. Wise men set over thousands and hundreds
1. (vv. 9-11)
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.”
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.”
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
Exodus 18 credits the plan for shared judging to Jethro, who watched Moses sit alone from morning to evening and told him the thing was too heavy. Here Moses tells it as his own proposal to the people and does not mention his father in law at all. Both accounts stand in the canon, and the difference fits what this chapter is doing, which is holding the people to what they themselves agreed to. The reason he gives for the change is the multitude, as the stars of heaven, which is the promise made to Abram at Genesis 15:5.
2. (vv. 12-15)
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
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
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.”
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
The people choose and Moses appoints, which is the order set out in verse 13, take you wise men and I will make them rulers over you. Exodus 18:21 has Moses doing the choosing, and it asks for men who fear God and hate covetousness where verse 13 asks for men wise, understanding and known among their tribes. The grades are identical in both places, thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens. Barnes separates these officers from the seventy elders of Numbers 11:16, who were a smaller and later body.
3. (vv. 16-18)
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
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
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
The charge has four parts: hear the causes, judge righteously, cover the stranger as well as the brother, and hear the small as well as the great. The ground given is that the judgment is God's, so the bench is held on loan, and Jehoshaphat repeats the same reasoning to his own judges at 2 Chronicles 19:6. Clarke notes that the Hebrew behind respect persons is literally to know faces, so both halves of verse 17 turn on the same figure, the face of the great man and the face of the poor one.
C. You would not go up
1. (vv. 19-21)
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.”
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
Deuteronomy 1:21
“Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee,....”
What lay between Horeb and Kadesh-barnea is called that great and terrible wilderness, a phrase the book uses again at 8:15 where the serpents and scorpions and the thirsty ground are named. Fear not, neither be discouraged in verse 21 is the first appearance of a formula that runs to 31:6 and 31:8 and is handed on to Joshua at Joshua 1:9. It is spoken here to a generation that will not act on it, and Moses says it a second time at verse 29 after they have refused.
2. (vv. 22-23)
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.”
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.”
Numbers 13:1-2 has the LORD telling Moses to send the men. Verse 22 here has the people coming to Moses and asking for them. Both accounts stand in the canon, and Barnes reads the plan as one that began with the people, was approved by Moses, and was then put to God and sanctioned, while other readers take the two passages as two moments inside one exchange. Moses adds that the saying pleased him well, which is a man telling the story against himself.
3. (vv. 24-25)
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
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. I shall not say much, at this time, concerning the Israelites, but I want to show you that as they learned something of what Canaan was like by the fruit of the land brought to them by the spies, so you and I, even while we are on earth, if we are the Lord's chosen people, may learn something of what Heaven is—the state to which we are to attain hereafter—by certain blessings which are brought to us even while we are here. The Israelites were sure that Canaan was a fertile land when they saw the fruit of it which was brought by their brothers and when they ate some. Perhaps there was but little for so many and yet those who did eat were made at once to understand that it must have been a goodly soil that produced such fruit. In like manner, Beloved, we who love the Lord Jesus Christ have had clusters of the grapes of a bettor Eshcol—we have had some of the fruits of Heaven even while we have been on earth and by them we are able to judge of the richness of the soil of Paradise which brings forth such rare and choice delights. I shall, therefore, present to you a series of views of Heaven in order to give you some idea how it is that the Christian on earth enjoys a foretaste of the blessings that are yet to be revealed. Possibly there are scarcely two Christians who have exactly the same ideas concerning Heaven, though they all expect the same Heaven, yet the most prominent feature in it is different to each mind according to its constitution I.”
Charles Spurgeon· written before 1892· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2607: “Foretastes of the Heavenly Life” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:25
“And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands,....”
The report the spies bring back in verse 25 is good and contains nothing else, it is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us. Numbers 13:27-28 gives the same report with a nevertheless attached to it, the people be strong and the cities walled and great. Moses leaves the nevertheless out of the spies' mouths here and puts it into the people's own at verse 28, so the discouragement in this telling belongs to the hearers.
4. (vv. 26-28)
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.”
Deuteronomy 1:27
“And ye murmured in your tents,....”
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
Because the LORD hated us in verse 27 is the exact inversion of what 7:8 will say, because the LORD loved you, and the two verses repay being read together. Cities walled up to heaven is a figure this book uses again at 9:1, and the sons of the Anakims are the giants of Numbers 13:33, described at 2:10-11 and 3:11 and left as a remnant in Gath at Joshua 11:21-22. Verse 26 calls the refusal rebellion against the commandment of the LORD, and verse 43 will lay the same charge on the opposite mistake.
5. (vv. 29-31)
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.”
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
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
The answer Moses gave was that God fights, and the evidence offered was Egypt, which they had watched with their own eyes. Verse 31 then changes the figure, the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, which is a father carrying a tired child rather than a captain leading troops. Acts 13:18 looks back on the same forty years, and a body of Greek manuscripts there reads a verb meaning to carry as a nurse carries a child, which is what the Septuagint has at this verse, while other manuscripts read the verb behind the King James rendering that he suffered their manners.
6. (vv. 32-33)
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.”
Deuteronomy 1:33
“Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in,....”
The verdict on the whole episode is one charge, that they did not believe the LORD their God. Verse 33 names what they declined to trust, the one who went before them in fire by night and in a cloud by day and who had been finding the ground for their tents the entire way. They had asked at verse 22 for men to search out the land, and verse 33 says God had been doing that work ahead of them already. Hebrews 3:19 gives the same account of why that generation stayed out, that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
D. Not one of this evil generation shall see it
1. (vv. 34-36)
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
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.”
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
The sentence is sworn rather than merely spoken, and it falls on this evil generation, the adults numbered at Numbers 14:29. Numbers 14:30 excepts Caleb and Joshua together by name. Verse 36 excepts Caleb alone and brings Joshua in at verse 38 in a different office, so the two passages divide the same material differently and both stand. The land that he hath trodden upon is the promise Caleb claims for himself at eighty-five years old in Joshua 14:9-12, and the reason given here is that he wholly followed the LORD.
2. (vv. 37-38)
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.”
Deuteronomy 1:38
“But Joshua, the son of Nun, which standeth before thee,....”
Moses gives the reason he cannot enter three times in this book, here and at 3:26 and 4:21, and all three say the LORD was angry with him for your sakes. 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. Both accounts stand in the canon, and readers account for the placing differently, some taking verse 37 as Moses gathering his own exclusion into the story of the people's, others as a later occasion mentioned out of its order. The one instruction attached is about Joshua, and it is laid on Israel rather than on Joshua, encourage him.
3. (vv. 39-40)
Deuteronomy 1:39
“Moreover, your little ones, which ye said should be a prey,....”
1 more voice on this verse
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
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.”
The children the parents said would be taken as spoil, at Numbers 14:3, are the ones handed the land at Numbers 14:31 and here. Which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil marks an age beneath responsibility, and Isaiah 7:15-16 uses the same measure of a child; where that line falls has been argued over for centuries and this text does not set it. The direction then reverses in verse 40, back into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, away from a border they were standing on.
E. Chased like bees, and their weeping unheard
1. (vv. 41-43)
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.”
Deuteronomy 1:42
“And the Lord said unto me,....”
We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight is repentance arriving after the sentence and taking the form of doing the very thing that had been refused the day before. Numbers 14:40-45 tells the same attempt and adds that the ark of the covenant and Moses stayed behind in the camp. Verse 42 gives the reason it fails in one clause, for I am not among you, and verse 43 lays on this advance the identical charge verse 26 laid on the retreat, that they rebelled against the commandment of the LORD.
2. (vv. 44-46)
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.”
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
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
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 1:46
“So ye abode in Kadesh many days,.... Yea, some years, as some think: according to the days that ye abode there; that is, according to Jarchi, as they did in the rest of the journeys or stations; so that as they were thirty eight years in all at several places, they were nineteen years in Kadesh; the same is affirmed in the Jewish chronology (w).”
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
Verse 44 names the Amorites as the ones who chased them as bees do; Numbers 14:45 names the Amalekites and the Canaanites. Both accounts stand and the difference is left standing with them. Hormah carries the sense of a thing devoted to destruction, and Numbers 21:1-3 has Israel later fastening that name on a place they destroy in their turn. Verse 45 says the LORD would not hearken to their weeping, and verse 46 covers the years that follow in half a sentence, ye abode in Kadesh many days, which 2:14 counts as thirty and eight.
This page carries no textual note on Deuteronomy 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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 exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; 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; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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