Deuteronomychapter 34
12 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
This chapter closes Deuteronomy and the five books of the Law. It is written about Moses rather than by him, and its last lines look back on his life from a later day. For Israel it answered what became of the man who had brought them out of Egypt and through the wilderness. It also left them holding a promise not yet kept, since the book had told them to expect a prophet like him. Listen for the tribal names in the land he is shown, and for the verdict on his life at the close. Read it as the end of one era and the door to the next.
Context
- Who
- Readers of the finished Torah, who are told what became of Moses and what the five books leave open
- What
- A narrative of the death and burial of Moses that closes the five books of the Law with a verdict on his life.
- Where
- Mount Nebo at the top of Pisgah facing Jericho, and a valley in Moab facing Beth-peor.
- When
- The end of the fortieth year after the exodus, about 1406 BC on the early date for the exodus, with the closing verses written at a later time.
- Why
- To record that Moses died outside the land by the word of the LORD, that Joshua took his place, and that no later prophet had matched him.
Historical context
The chapter reports the death of Moses and closes the five books. It belongs to the fortieth year on the plains of Moab, and carries out an order given twice. Deuteronomy 3:27 calls the mountain the top of Pisgah and 32:49 calls it Nebo. Verse 1 uses both names together. Two phrases speak from a time later than the events, unto this day at verse 6 and there arose not a prophet since at verse 10. The close was therefore written looking back across an interval. A first hearer knew the country being named. The valley over against Beth-peor is where 3:29 and 4:46 place Israel's camp through the whole book, and Numbers 25:3 records the people joining themselves to Baal-peor there. He knew that what Moses was shown was the land as it would be divided, since verses 1 to 3 name it by tribes rather than by its features. He also knew thirty days as the fixed period of national mourning, the same count given to Aaron at Numbers 20:29. Why Moses may not cross is answered more than once inside the canon. This book says three times that the LORD was angry with him for your sakes, at 1:37, 3:26 and 4:21, while 32:51 and Numbers 20:12 name his own act at the waters of Meribah.
Significance
The close left the nation with a promise still open. Deuteronomy 18:15 had promised a prophet like Moses, and verse 10 reports that none has arisen, so the Torah ends on a question rather than a conclusion. The hidden grave meant there was no shrine to gather at, which Adam Clarke reads as a guard against the body becoming an object of worship. The last words look back at Egypt rather than forward at the land, so the five books close on the deliverance. The last thing said about Israel is that they listened to Joshua.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
These twelve verses close the annual cycle of Torah reading. The scroll is rolled back to the opening of Genesis and begun again on the same day, at Simchat Torah. That is the site's reading of where Deuteronomy meets the Jewish year, recorded at scripts/data/book-facts/deuteronomy.json. It is marked there as the writer's reading rather than as a claim drawn from the corpus.
The chapter also records the mourning, and Rashi notices which words Scripture uses. Here the children of Israel wept, which he takes as the men. For Aaron the whole house of Israel wept, the men and the women together (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:8:1, citing Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 17). Aaron pursued peace, and made peace between a man and his fellow and between a wife and her husband.
How it is read
Who wrote these verses is a question the classical sources ask outright. It is the first of the contested points this site carries on Deuteronomy. Rashi puts the difficulty first: Moses cannot have died and then written that he died. One answer is that Moses wrote to this point and Joshua wrote from here on. Rabbi Meir objected that the book of the Torah could lack nothing when the command was given at 31:26 to take this book. He held instead that God dictated these words and Moses wrote them in tears (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:5:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 357:28, Bava Batra 15a and Menachot 30a). This site sets both answers down without a verdict.
The showing of the land is read as a vision of time rather than of distance. God showed Moses the land in its prosperity, and the oppressors who would afflict it (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:1:2, citing Sifrei Devarim 357:4). He showed him Naphtali in prosperity and in ruin, with Deborah and Barak fighting Sisera (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:2:1). He showed him Ephraim and Manasseh, with Joshua fighting the kings of Canaan and Gideon fighting Midian and Amalek (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:2:2). He showed him the plain of the Jordan, with Solomon casting the vessels of the Temple (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:3:2, citing Sifrei Devarim 357:21).
Rashi reads the purpose given in 34:4 as an errand for Moses to carry to the patriarchs, that the oath God swore to them he has kept (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:4:1, citing Berakhot 18b). Sforno reads the showing as given so that Moses might bless the land (Sforno on Deuteronomy 34:4:1, Munk translation, CC-BY).
The last two verses set Moses above every prophet after him, and Ramban weighs what that means. He reports a midrash he cannot trace, that "All the prophets wrought miracles through prayer" while Moses performed them at once. He says the midrash is unclear. He then reports Maimonides in the Guide of the Perplexed, that what marked Moses was doing his signs before Pharaoh, his court and all Israel, in full view of friend and enemy. Ramban rejects that too, since Elijah's drought and Joshua's halting of the sun were public enough. He settles on a plainer reading, that no prophet matched the number or the weight of Moses' signs (Ramban on Deuteronomy 34:11:1, Chavel translation, CC-BY). None of theirs lasted as his did, the manna for forty years, the pillar of fire and the cloud, the well and the quail.
Rashi reads the strong hand of the last verse as the hands in which Moses received the tablets (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:12:1). He reads the knowing face to face as a familiarity that let Moses speak with God whenever he wished (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:10:1). Sforno places that face to face knowledge at the miracles in Egypt rather than at the burning bush, where Moses was afraid to look (Sforno on Deuteronomy 34:11:1). The corpus holds Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 34:8:1, 34:9:1, 34:9:2 and 34:10:1 without an English text, and all four are cited without quotation.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis gathered a group of teachings around the death and the grave. Moses went up from the plains to the summit of Nebo in a single step, covering the levels at once (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:1:1, citing Sotah 13b). He died by the kiss of God, which is how they read the phrase about dying by the mouth of the Lord (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:5:2, citing Moed Katan 28a). God himself buried him in his glory, although Rabbi Ishmael read the same word to mean that Moses buried himself (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:6:1, citing Sotah 14a and Sifrei Bamidbar 32).
The place of the grave was prepared from the six days of creation, to make atonement for what happened at Peor (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:6:2, citing Sotah 14a). It stands in the rabbis' list of things made in the last moments before the first Sabbath (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:6:2, citing Pirkei Avot 5:6 and Pesachim 54a). They read the statement about his undimmed eye as holding even after his death (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:7:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 357:34). They read the statement about his unfailing vigour as meaning that decay had no power over him and his face did not alter (Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:7:2, citing Sifrei Devarim 357:35).
The corpus carries more locators on this chapter, given for a reader to follow. Bava Batra 15a and Bava Batra 56a:8 stand across 34:1 to 34:3. Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 2:22, 2:23 and 2:24 stand at 34:2. Avot DeRabbi Natan 35:4 stands at 34:3. Berakhot 18b:17 and Bamidbar Rabbah 23:5 stand at 34:4. Avot DeRabbi Natan 12:5 and 36:3 stand at 34:5, with Bava Batra 15a:4. Bamidbar Rabbah 10:17 and Aggadat Bereshit 68:1 stand at 34:6. Chullin 139b:10 and Devarim Rabbah 11:3 stand at 34:7. Bereshit Rabbah 100:4 stands at 34:8. Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 1:5 stands at 34:9. Bamidbar Rabbah 14:20 and Devarim Rabbah 11:10 stand at 34:10. Bereshit Rabbah 59:5 stands at 34:11 and 34:12. Menachot 30a:3 and Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 4:5:2 stand at 34:12.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 34:1 to 34:12, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929-1934; Ramban, Ramban on Deuteronomy 34:11:1, Chavel translation, Shilo Pub. House, CC-BY, 1971-1976; Sforno, Sforno on Deuteronomy 34:4:1 and 34:11:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 34:8:1, 34:9:1, 34:9:2 and 34:10:1, cited without text; MannaFest, the Deuteronomy book facts, at scripts/data/book-facts/deuteronomy.json, where the close of the cycle is recorded as the writer's reading, 2026; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/34.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The whole land shown to him from Pisgah
Deuteronomy 34:1-3
The ascent was ordered at 3:27, naming Pisgah, and at 32:49, naming Nebo, and this verse uses both names. The land is shown by tribes, so Moses sees the country as it will be divided. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that no miraculous vision was given and only the foreground was clear, while Barnes reads the showing as supernatural and sets it beside Luke 4:5.
Deuteronomy 34:1
“Immediately below him was "the circle" of the plain of Jericho, with its oasis of palm trees; and far away on his left, the last inhabited spot before the great desert "Zoar." The foreground of the picture alone was clearly discernible. There was no miraculous power of vision imparted to Moses.”
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 34:1
“Dan - This can hardly be the Dan (Dan-Laish) of Jdg 18:27 ff, which was not in Gilead. It is probably a town of this name which stood in the north of Peraea; perhaps the same as Dan-jaan, 2Sa 24:6; and the Dan of Gen 14:14.”
The Western Sea is the Mediterranean, the land's western boundary. The Hebrew calls it the hinder sea, because a person facing east has it behind him. John Wesley reads the named regions as standing for the whole land, seen quarter by quarter from the east.
Deuteronomy 34:2
“So these parts lying in the several quarters are put for all the rest. He stood in the east and saw also Gilead, which was in the eastern part of the land, and thence he saw the north and south and west. The utmost sea - The midland sea, which was the utmost bound of the land of promise on the west.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The City of Palms is Jericho, named for its palm groves, as John Wesley notes. Judges 1:16 and 3:13 give Jericho the same name. Zoar, at the southern end of the land the LORD showed Moses, is the town Lot fled to at Genesis 19:22.
Deuteronomy 34:3
“The south - The south quarter of the land of Judah, which is towards the salt sea, the city of palm-trees - Jericho, so called from the multitude of palm-trees, which were in those parts, as Josephus and Strabo write. From whence and the balm there growing it was called Jericho, which signifies, odouriferous or sweet smelling.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Moses is shown a promise the men it was sworn to also died without holding, and Hebrews 11:13 describes them as seeing the promises from afar. The canon gives more than one reason he may not cross: Deuteronomy puts it on the people's account at 1:37, 3:26 and 4:21, while 32:51 and Numbers 20:12 name his own act at Meribah. Both accounts stand.
Deuteronomy 34:4
“I have caused thee to see it - The sight thus afforded to Moses, like that of “all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” Luk 4:5, was no doubt supernatural.”
Buried in a valley, and no man knows the place
Deuteronomy 34:5-6
So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab: The title “the servant of the LORD” appears here for the first time in Scripture, in the sentence that records Moses' death, and Joshua 24:29 gives it to Joshua at his. The valley facing Beth-peor is where 3:29 and 4:46 place the camp. Jude 9 has Michael dispute over the body, and Clarke reads the hidden grave as a guard against its worship.
Deuteronomy 34:5
“According to the word of the Lord - It denotes that Moses died, not because his vital powers were exhausted, but by the sentence of God, and as a punishment for his sin. Compare Deu 32:51.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 34:5
“And therefore, we do not read about him as we do about others, because he died in a state of deficiency: but he died through the word of God (Deuteronomy 34:5). For God neither experiences defection or diminution, nor does he undergo addition. Hence, the Scripture also adds: 'For no one knows his burial place until this day' (ibid. 6), so that you understand it as a translation rather than his demise. For death is a certain separation of the soul and body.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Cain and Abel, Book 1, Chapter 2, Section 8patristic
Deuteronomy 34:5
“WHAT an honorable title! Moses is distinguished as "the servant of Jehovah." He was this of choice, for he willed to be the servant of God rather than to be great in the land of the Pharaohs. Such he was most perseveringly throughout the whole of his life. Such he was most intensely, for he waited upon God for his directions, as a servant waits upon his master, and he endeavored to do all things according to the pattern which was shown him in the holy mountain.”
he buried him in a valley: The Hebrew verb is singular. Most readers take the LORD of verse 5 as the one who buried Moses in the valley in the land of Moab, while the Greek Septuagint reads they buried him. Aphrahat names two mercies in a grave no one knows: his enemies could not scatter his bones, and his own people could not make it a shrine.
Deuteronomy 34:6
“He buried him - It is probable that the reason why Moses was buried thus privately was, lest the Israelites, prone to idolatry, should pay him Divine honors; and God would not have the body of his faithful servant abused in this way. Almost all the gods of antiquity were defiled men, great lawgivers, eminent statesmen, or victorious generals. See the account of the life of Moses at the end of this chapter, Deu 34:10 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 34:6
“Two godly benefits did his Lord accomplish for Moses in not making known his tomb to the children of Israel. He rejoiced that his adversaries should not know it and cast forth his bones from his tomb; and in the second place, that the children of his people should not know it and make his tomb a place of worship, for he was accounted as God in the eyes of the children of his people.”
Aphrahat the Persian Sage · written before 345 · DEMONSTRATION 8.9patristic
Deuteronomy 34:7-8
His eyes “were not weak”, so the text refuses to explain the death by age, and verse 5 has already given the cause, the word of the LORD. At 31:2 Moses said he could no longer come and go, which readers take of the ban on crossing, since this verse says his strength had not failed. Israel mourns thirty days, as for Aaron at Numbers 20:29.
Deuteronomy 34:7
“He was old, it is true, but he had not yet attained to the years of the life of his fathers; his father Amram lived to be 137; his grandfather Kohath 133; his great grandfather Levi 137; And why must Moses, whose life was more serviceable than any of theirs, die at 120, especially since he felt not the decays of age, but was as fit for service as ever?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis closes on a death in Egypt and Deuteronomy on a death in Moab. The Egyptians mourned Jacob seventy days at Genesis 50:3, and Joseph died asking that his bones be carried up to the land. Both books end with the people outside the promised land.
Deuteronomy 34:8
“It is a debt owing to the surviving honour of deceased worthies to follow them with our tears, as those who loved and valued them, are sensible of our loss of them, and are truly humbled for those sins which have provoked God to deprive us of them; for penitential tears very fitly mix with these.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
No prophet since has risen like Moses
At Numbers 27:18-23 Joshua is already a man with the Spirit before Moses lays hands on him, and only part of Moses' authority passes to him. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the office narrowly, as general for the war and the land's division, not as successor in the prophetic office. The verse reports that the Israelites “obeyed him”, so the Torah's last word on Israel is that they listened.
Deuteronomy 34:9
“It is written, "Now Joshua, the son of Nun, was filled with the Spirit of wisdom, since Moses had laid his hands upon him." Note the same ceremonial everywhere, both in the Old and the New Testament. In Moses' day the Spirit was given by the imposition of hands; and Peter imparted the Spirit by the imposition of hands. Upon you also, who are to be baptized, the grace will come.”
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 16.26patristic
Deuteronomy 34:10-11
At 18:15 God promised a prophet like Moses, and this verse reports that none has risen, so the Torah ends with its promise open. Acts 3:22 and 7:37 apply the promise to Christ, and John 1:21 and 6:14 show the question alive in the first century. Knowing God “face to face” recalls Exodus 33:11 and Numbers 12:6-8, and verse 11 measures the office by the signs in Egypt.
Deuteronomy 34:10
“There arose not a prophet, etc. - Among all the succeeding prophets none was found so eminent in all respects nor so highly privileged as Moses; with him God spoke face to face - admitted him to the closest familiarity and greatest friendship with himself. Now all this continued true till the advent of Jesus Christ, of whom Moses said, “A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me;” but how great was this person when compared with Moses!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The LORD sent Moses to do signs and wonders in Egypt, and the pair has a later history. Stephen uses it of Moses at Acts 7:36. Peter uses it of Jesus at Acts 2:22, and John Wesley holds that the miracles of Christ were more illustrious than those of Moses.
The Torah's last words look back at Egypt, in the Hebrew words of 4:34 and 26:8. The chapter speaks from a later time, and the Talmud at Bava Batra 15a records one view that Joshua wrote the last verses and another that Moses wrote them as God dictated. The books end with the land unheld, the promised prophet not yet come, and a grave no one can find.
Deuteronomy 34:12
“But as far as the other prophets came short of him, our Lord Jesus went beyond him. Moses was faithful as a servant, but Christ as a son: his miracles more illustrious, his communion with the father more intimate: for he is in his bosom from eternity. Moses lies buried: but Christ is sitting at the right-hand of God, and of the increase of his government there shall be no end.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A narrative close to the five books, reporting a death and an epitaph from a standpoint later than the events, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The land named by its tribes | Verses 1 to 3 name what Moses is shown as Gilead unto Dan, then Naphtali, Ephraim, Manasseh, Judah, the plain and the valley of Jericho. He is given the country as it will be divided rather than as it stood that day, so the sight is a map of a settlement that had not happened.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, on Deuteronomy 34:1. | Deuteronomy 34:1, Deuteronomy 34:2, Deuteronomy 34:3 |
| Unto this day | The chapter speaks from a later time in two places, at verse 6 with unto this day and at verse 10 with there arose not a prophet since. Both phrases look back across an interval, which is the textual ground of the question about who wrote the close of the book.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Deuteronomy 34:6. | Deuteronomy 34:6, Deuteronomy 34:10 |
| The servant of the LORD | The title falls here at verse 5 for the first time in Scripture, and it is given to Moses in the sentence that records his death. Joshua's book then carries it as a fixed name for him, and lays the same title on Joshua at his own death in Joshua 24:29.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Deuteronomy 34:5. | Deuteronomy 34:5 |
| Face to face | Verse 10 measures Moses against every prophet after him by how God spoke with him. Face to face is the phrase used of him at Exodus 33:11, and Numbers 12:6-8 separates him from prophets met in a vision or a dream by saying God speaks with him mouth to mouth. Verse 11 then measures the office by the signs and the wonders in Egypt rather than by anything he said.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Deuteronomy 34:10. | Deuteronomy 34:10, Deuteronomy 34:11, Deuteronomy 34:12 |
Who wrote the close of the book
13 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter speaks from a later time at verse 6 and verse 10, and readers have long asked who wrote it. The Talmud at Bava Batra 15a records one opinion that Joshua wrote the last verses and another that Moses wrote them at God's dictation. The dossier carries this as the first of its contested points and states no verdict. It is also the one section nobody argues Moses wrote in his own hand, which is why it stands apart from the wider question of the book's authorship.
Whether the sight was ordinary or given
Readers divide over verses 1 to 3. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that no miraculous power of vision was imparted and that the foreground alone was clearly discernible. Albert Barnes reads the showing as supernatural and sets it beside the sight of all the kingdoms of the world at Luke 4:5.
Why Moses may not cross
The canon answers in more than one way. Deuteronomy says three times that the LORD was angry with him for your sakes, at 1:37, 3:26 and 4:21. Deuteronomy 32:51 names the trespass at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, and Numbers 20:12 gives the reason as because ye believed me not. Both accounts stand and neither is written over the other.
The death the text declines to explain by age
Verse 7 says his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated, so the text refuses to explain the death by age. Verse 5 has already explained it another way, according to the word of the LORD. At 31:2 Moses told the people he could no more go out and come in, and readers take that of the prohibition on his crossing rather than of failing strength.
The hidden grave
The valley over against Beth-peor is where 3:29 and 4:46 place Israel's camp through the whole book, and Numbers 25:3 records the people joining themselves to Baal-peor in that country. Jude 9 is the only place in the New Testament that touches the burial, where Michael contends with the devil about the body of Moses. Adam Clarke reads the concealed grave as a guard against Israel turning the body into an object of worship.
The promise left open
Deuteronomy 18:15 promised a Prophet like unto Moses from the midst of thy brethren, and verse 10 reports that none has arisen. Acts 3:22 and Acts 7:37 both quote that promise and apply it to Christ. John 1:21 and 6:14 show the question still live in the first century, where the priests ask John the Baptist whether he is that prophet and the crowd at the loaves says Jesus is.
What Joshua received
The laying on of hands is Numbers 27:18-23, where the LORD tells Moses to take Joshua, a man in whom is the spirit. The spirit was therefore in him before any hand was laid on him. Moses was told there to put some of his honour upon him, some and not all. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the office narrowly, as the general for the war and the division of the land rather than a successor in the prophetic office.
Keep studying
Studies2
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 context
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The form and classifications
Carried with its holders in src/components/book/dossier-content/deuteronomy.ts, The dossier's contested points, on who wrote the account of Moses' death; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Deuteronomy 34 and The synagogue lectionary as the site records it, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, portion 54.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Aphrahat the Persian Sage, Demonstration 8.9; Berean Standard Bible; Hebrew text, Deuteronomy 34:2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; 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; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Septuagint, Deuteronomy 34:6.