Deuteronomy 1

1 These the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side Jordan in the desert towards the west near the Red Sea, between Pharan Tophol, and Lobon, and Aulon, and the gold works.

2 a journey of eleven days from Choreb to mount Seir as far as Cades Barne.

3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses spoke to all the children of Israel, according to all things which the Lord commanded him for them:

4 after he had smitten Seon king of the Amorites who dwelt in Esebon, and Og the king of Basan who dwelt in Astaroth and in Edrain;

5 beyond Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying,

6 The Lord your God spoke to us in Choreb, saying, Let it suffice you to have dwelt in this mountain.

7 Turn ye and depart and enter into the mountain of the Amorites, and to all that dwell near about Araba, to the mountain and the plain and to the south, and the land of the Chananites near the sea, and Antilibanus, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

8 Behold, has delivered the land before you; go in and inherit the land, which I sware to your fathers, Abraam, and Isaac, and Jacob, to give it to them and to their seed after them.

9 And I spoke to you at that time, saying, I shall not be able by myself to bear you.

10 The Lord your God has multiplied you, and, behold, ye are to-day as the stars of heaven for multitude.

11 The Lord God of your fathers add to you a thousand-fold more than you are, and bless you as he has spoken to you.

12 How shall I alone be able to bear your labour, and your burden, and your gainsayings?

13 Take to yourselves wise and understanding and prudent men for your tribes, and I will set your leaders over you.

14 And ye answered me and said, The thing which thou hast told us good to do.

15 So I took of you wise and understanding and prudent men, and I set them to rule over you as rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, and officers to your judges.

16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear between your brethren, and judge rightly between a man and brother, and the stranger that is with him.

17 Thou shalt not have respect to persons in judgment, thou shalt judge small and great equally; thou shalt not shrink from before the person of a man, for the judgment is God's; and whatsoever matter shall be too hard for you, ye shall bring it to me, and I will hear it.

18 And I charged upon you at that time all the commands which ye shall perform.

19 And we departed from Choreb, and went through all that great wilderness and terrible, which ye saw, by the way of the mountain of the Amorite, as the Lord our God charged us, and we came as far as Cades Barne.

20 And I said to you, Ye have come as far as the mountain of the Amorite, which the Lord our God gives to you:

21 behold, the Lord your God has delivered to us the land before you: go up and inherit it as the Lord God of your fathers said to you; fear not, neither be afraid.

22 And ye all came to me, and said, Let us send men before us, and let them go up to the land for us; and let them bring back to us a report of the way by which we shall go up, and of the cities into which we shall enter.

23 And the saying pleased me: and I took of you twelve men, one man of a tribe.

24 And they turned and went up to the mountain, and they came as far as the valley of the cluster, and surveyed it.

25 And they took in their hands of the fruit of the land, and brought it to you, and said, The land is good which the Lord our God gives us.

26 Yet ye would not go up, but rebelled against the words of the Lord our God.

27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us.

28 Whither do we go up? and your brethren drew away your heart, saying, great nation and populous, and mightier than we; and cities great and walled up to heaven: moreover we saw there the sons of the giants.

29 And I said to you, Fear not, neither be ye afraid of them;

30 the Lord your God who goes before your face, he shall fight against them together with you effectually, according to all that he wrought for you in the land of Egypt;

31 and in this wilderness which ye saw, by the way of the mountain of the Amorite; how the Lord thy God will bear thee as a nursling, as if any man should nurse his child, through all the way which ye have gone until ye came to this place.

32 And in this matter ye believed not the Lord our God,

33 who goes before you in the way to choose you a place, guiding you in fire by night, shewing you the way by which ye go, and a cloud by day.

34 And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and being greatly provoked he sware, saying,

35 Not one of these men shall see this good land, which I sware to their fathers,

36 except Chaleb the son of Jephonne, he shall see it; and to him I will give the land on which he went up, and to his sons, because he attended to the things of the Lord.

37 And the Lord was angry with me for your sake, saying, Neither shalt thou by any means enter therein.

38 Joshua the son of Naue, who stands by thee, he shall enter in there; do thou strengthen him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

39 And every young child who this day knows not good or evil, —they shall enter therein, and to them I will give it, and they shall inherit it.

40 And ye turned and marched into the wilderness, in the way by the Red Sea.

41 And ye answered and said, We have sinned before the Lord our God; we will go up and fight according to all that the Lord our God has commanded us: and having taken every one his weapons of war, and being gathered together, ye went up to the mountain.

42 And the Lord said to me, Tell them, Ye shall not go up, neither shall ye fight, for I am not with you; thus shall ye not be destroyed before your enemies.

43 And I spoke to you, and ye did not hearken to me; and ye transgressed the commandment of the Lord; and ye forced your way and went up into the mountain.

44 And the Amorite who dwelt in that mountain came out to meet you, and pursued you as bees do, and wounded you from Seir to Herma.

45 And ye sat down and wept before the Lord our God, and the Lord hearkened not to your voice, neither did he take heed to you.

46 And ye dwelt in Cades many days, as many days as ye dwelt .

Deuteronomy 1 Commentary

Chapter 1

This book repeats much of the history and of the laws contained in the three foregoing books: Moses delivered it to Israel a little before his death, both by word of mouth, that it might affect, and by writing, that it might abide. The men of that generation to which the law was first given were all dead, and a new generation was sprung up, to whom God would have it repeated by Moses himself, now they were going to possess the land of Canaan. The wonderful love of God to his church is set forth in this book; how he ever preserved his church for his own mercies sake, and would still have his name called upon among them. Such are the general outlines of this book, the whole of which shows Moses' love for Israel, and marks him an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us apply the exhortations and persuasions to our own consciences, to excite our minds to a believing, grateful obedience to the commands of God.

The words Moses spake to Israel in the plains of Moab, The promise of Canaan. (1-8) Judges provided for the people. (9-18) Of the sending the spies-God's anger for their unbelief and disobedience. (19-46)

Verses 1-8 Moses spake to the people all the Lord had given him in commandment. Horeb was but eleven days distant from Kadesh-barnea. This was to remind them that their own bad conduct had occasioned their tedious wanderings; that they might the more readily understand the advantages of obedience. They must now go forward. Though God brings his people into trouble and affliction, he knows when they have been tried long enough. When God commands us to go forward in our Christian course, he sets the heavenly Canaan before us for our encouragement.

Verses 9-18 Moses reminds the people of the happy constitution of their government, which might make them all safe and easy, if it was not their own fault. He owns the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham, and prays for the further accomplishment of it. We are not straitened in the power and goodness of God; why should we be straitened in our own faith and hope? Good laws were given to the Israelites, and good men were to see to the execution of them, which showed God's goodness to them, and the care of Moses.

Verses 19-46 Moses reminds the Israelites of their march from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, through that great and terrible wilderness. He shows how near they were to a happy settlement in Canaan. It will aggravate the eternal ruin of hypocrites, that they were not far from the kingdom of God. As if it were not enough that they were sure of their God before them, they would send men before them. Never any looked into the Holy Land, but they must own it to be a good land. And was there any cause to distrust this God? An unbelieving heart was at the bottom of all this. All disobedience to God's laws, and distrust of his power and goodness, flow from disbelief of his word, as all true obedience springs from faith. It is profitable for us to divide our past lives into distinct periods; to give thanks to God for the mercies we have received in each, to confess and seek the forgiveness of all the sins we can remember; and thus to renew our acceptance of God's salvation, and our surrender of ourselves to his service. Our own plans seldom avail to good purpose; while courage in the exercise of faith, and in the path of duty, enables the believer to follow the Lord fully, to disregard all that opposes, to triumph over all opposition, and to take firm hold upon the promised blessings.

Footnotes

• [a]. to dwell.
• [b]. increase you.
• [c]. give.
• [d]. instructors in reading and writing.
• [e]. his stranger.
• [f]. a face.
• [g]. according to small and great.
• [h]. See Acts 13. 18, and note in the margin of English Bible on ?t??f???se?.
• [i]. If one.
• [j]. followed closely after the Lord.
• [k]. go up.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY

This book is sometimes called "Elleh hadebarim", from the words with which it begins; and sometimes by the Jews "Mishneh Torah", the repetition of the law; and so in the Syriac version, with which agrees the Arabic title of it; and when the Greeks, and we after them, call it "Deuteronomy", it is not to be understood of a second, a new, or another law, but of the law formerly delivered, but now repeated, and also more largely explained; to which are likewise added several particular laws, instructions, and directions; all which were necessary, on account of the people of Israel, who were now a new generation, that either were not born, or not at an age to hear and understand the law when given on Mount Sinai; the men that heard it there being all dead, excepting a very few; and these people were also now about to enter into the land of Canaan, which they were to enjoy as long as they kept the law of God, and no longer, and therefore it was proper they should be reminded of it; and besides, Moses was now about to leave them, and having an hearty desire after their welfare, spends the little time he had to be with them, by inculcating into them and impressing on them the laws of God, and in opening and explaining them to them, and enforcing them on them, which were to be the rule of their obedience, and on which their civil happiness depended. And sometimes the Jews call this book "the book of reproofs", because there are in it several sharp reproofs of the people of Israel for their rebellion and disobedience; and so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem begin it by calling it the words of reproof which Moses spake That this book was written by Moses there can be no doubt, from De 1:1, 31:4,9,24, only the eight last verses, which give an account of his death, and of his character, were wrote by another hand, equally inspired by God, as either Eleazar the priest, as some, or Samuel the prophet, as others; or, as it is the more commonly received opinion of the Jews, Ezra; though it is highly probable they were wrote by Joshua his successor. This book was written and delivered by Moses, at certain times in the last month of his life, and towards the close of the fortieth year of the children of Israel's coming out of Egypt. And that it is of divine authority need not be questioned, when the several quotations out of it are observed, as made by the apostles of Christ, in Ac 3:22, Ro 12:19 Heb 10:30, Ga 3:10 out of \De 18:15 32:35,36 27:26\ and by our Lord himself, Mt 18:16 from De 19:15. Yea, it is remarkable, that all the passages of Scripture produced by Christ, to repel the temptations of Satan, are all taken out of this book, Mt 4:7,10 compared with De 8:3, 6:10,13, and the voice from heaven, directing the apostles to hearken to him, refers to a prophecy of him in De 18:15.

\\INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 1\\

The time and place when the subject matter of this book was delivered to the Israelites are observed by way of preface, De 1:1-5, and it begins with reminding them of an order to them to depart from Mount Horeb, and pass on to the land of Canaan, which the Lord had given them, De 1:6-8, and with observing the very great increase of their number, which made it necessary for Moses to appoint persons under him to be rulers over them, whom he instructed in the duty of their office, De 1:9-18, and he goes on to observe, that when they were come to the mountain of the Amorites, they were bid to go up and possess the land; but, instead of that, they desired men might be sent to search the land first, which was granted, De 1:19-23, and though these men upon their return brought of the fruits of the land, and a good report of it, particularly two of them; yet being discouraged by the report of the rest, they murmured, distrusted, and were afraid to enter, though encouraged by Moses, De 1:24-33, which caused the Lord to be angry with them, and upon it threatened them that they should die in the wilderness, and only two of them should ever see and enjoy the land, and therefore were bid to turn and take their journey in the wilderness, De 1:34-40, but being convinced of their evil, they proposed to go up the hill, and enter the land, which they attempted against the commandment of the Lord, but being repulsed by the Amorites, they fled with great loss, to their great grief, and abode in Kadesh many days, De 1:41-46.