DEUTERONOMY 1
Events at Horeb Recalled
1These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan—in the wilderness, on the plain opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2(By the way of Mount Seir it takes eleven days to reach Kadesh-barnea from Horeb.) 3In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites just as the LORD had commanded him to speak to them. 4This was after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth anda in Edrei. 5Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law as follows:
6The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7Resume your journey, and go into the hill country of the Amorites as well as into the neighboring regions—the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb, and the seacoast—the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8See, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land that Ib swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.”
Appointment of Tribal Leaders
9At that time I said to you, “I am unable by myself to bear you. 10The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars of heaven. 11May the LORD, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times more and bless you, as he has promised you! 12But how can I bear the heavy burden of your disputes all by myself? 13Choose for each of your tribes individuals who are wise, discerning, and reputable to be your leaders.” 14You answered me, “The plan you have proposed is a good one.” 15So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and reputable individuals, and installed them as leaders over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officials, throughout your tribes. 16I charged your judges at that time: “Give the members of your community a fair hearing, and judge rightly between one person and another, whether citizen or resident alien. 17You must not be partial in judging: hear out the small and the great alike; you shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. Any case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.” 18So I charged you at that time with all the things that you should do.
Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land
19Then, just as the LORD our God had ordered us, we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, until we reached Kadesh-barnea. 20I said to you, “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us. 21See, the LORD your God has given the land to you; go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you; do not fear or be dismayed.”
22All of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead of us to explore the land for us and bring back a report to us regarding the route by which we should go up and the cities we will come to.” 23The plan seemed good to me, and I selected twelve of you, one from each tribe. 24They set out and went up into the hill country, and when they reached the Valley of Eshcol they spied it out 25and gathered some of the land’s produce, which they brought down to us. They brought back a report to us, and said, “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”
26But you were unwilling to go up. You rebelled against the command of the LORD your God; 27you grumbled in your tents and said, “It is because the LORD hates us that he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us. 28Where are we headed? Our kindred have made our hearts melt by reporting, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified up to heaven! We actually saw there the offspring of the Anakim!’” 29I said to you, “Have no dread or fear of them. 30The LORD your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes, 31and in the wilderness, where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you traveled until you reached this place. 32But in spite of this, you have no trust in the LORD your God, 33who goes before you on the way to seek out a place for you to camp, in fire by night, and in the cloud by day, to show you the route you should take.”
The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion
34When the LORD heard your words, he was wrathful and swore: 35“Not one of these—not one of this evil generation—shall see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors, 36except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his descendants I will give the land on which he set foot, because of his complete fidelity to the LORD.” 37Even with me the LORD was angry on your account, saying, “You also shall not enter there. 38Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, shall enter there; encourage him, for he is the one who will secure Israel’s possession of it. 39And as for your little ones, who you thought would become booty, your children, who today do not yet know right from wrong, they shall enter there; to them I will give it, and they shall take possession of it. 40But as for you, journey back into the wilderness, in the direction of the Red Sea.”c
41You answered me, “We have sinned against the LORD! We are ready to go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.” So all of you strapped on your battle gear, and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. 42The LORD said to me, “Say to them, ‘Do not go up and do not fight, for I am not in the midst of you; otherwise you will be defeated by your enemies.’” 43Although I told you, you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the LORD and presumptuously went up into the hill country. 44The Amorites who lived in that hill country then came out against you and chased you as bees do. They beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. 45When you returned and wept before the LORD, the LORD would neither heed your voice nor pay you any attention.
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a Gk Syr Vg Compare Josh 12.4: Heb lacks and
b Sam Gk: MT the LORD
c Or Sea of Reeds
1.1–5 The preface understands Moses’ opening address in 1.6–4.40 to be an expository foreword to this law (v. 5), which is the Deuteronomic torah directly introduced in 4.44.
1.1 These are the words and the abbreviation Words (Hebrew devarim) are often used as the book’s title in Jewish tradition (see Introduction). The plain opposite Suph and following toponyms may define a natural amphitheater in the valley near Bethpeor; see 3.29.
1.2 Perhaps a comment on 1.19. Mount Seir, the Edomite highlands flanking the rift valley from the Dead Sea southward. Once thought to be the mountain refuge of Petra, Kadesh-barnea is now usually identified with the oases of ‘Ain al-Qudeirat in northern Sinai. In Deuteronomy and some other sources (cf. Ex 3.1) Horeb is preferred over “Sinai” as the name for the wilderness mount of revelation. Cf. 33.2; Ex 19.1, 11.
1.3 The date, counting from the first Passover (Ex 12.2), when Moses completed his work as God’s spokesman.
1.4 As prelude to the campaign west of the Jordan, these victories vindicate Israel’s trust in divine providence; see 2.26–3.22; 4.46–48; cf. Ps 135.10–12.
1.6–3.29 Moses’ memoirs review what happened to Israel and why during the post-Horeb epoch of his career. The chief lesson is that Israel’s national well-being requires strict observance of all that God commands.
1.6–8 The order to depart from Horeb (see v. 2) was an oracular summons to invade and occupy the promised homeland west of the Jordan. Cf. Ex 33.1–3.
1.7 The hill country of the Amorites (also 1.19–20) and the land of the Canaanites (cf. Ex 13.11; Ezek 16.3), comprehensive terms for western Palestine, using general designations for the land’s pre-Israelite occupants. Component regions are the Arabah (the Jordan rift valley), the central highland ridge, the western hills of the Shephelah, the Negeb slope of southern Judah, and the Mediterranean coastal plain. Territory to the northeast, called the Lebanon range, which extends into Syri
a toward the upper reach of the Euphrates, was controlled by Aramean states during most of the earlier Iron Age; Israel claimed hegemony over the region in the era of the Davidic-Solomonic empire (2 Sam 8.3–12; 1 Kings 4.21, 24) and briefly again in the heyday of Jeroboam II’s reign (2 Kings 14.25).
1.8 Divine promise of the land to Israel’s ancestors. See Gen 13.14–17; 15.12–21; 17.8; 26.4–5; 28.13–14.
1.9–18 Before setting out, a plan of military command and tribal judiciary was implemented to lighten Moses’ burden of governance (cf. Ex 18.13–26; Num 11.10–30).
1.10–11 Divine promise of Israel’s increase. See Gen 13.16; 15.5; 22.17; 26.4; Ex 32.13.
1.16–17 Because the judges act on God’s behalf, all who participate in the life of the community, including alien sojourners, must be given equal access to justice (cf. 10.17–19; 16.18–20). On Moses’ role as arbiter in cases too hard for tribal courts to resolve, see 17.8–11; cf. Ex 18.13–26.
1.18 Perhaps an allusion to Ex 24.3–8.
1.19–45 This review (see Num 13–14) highlights how Israel’s countermanding of divine orders (vv. 26, 43) reversed the expected outcome of the initial march of conquest.
1.21 A war oracle reiterating the earlier command (vv. 7–8) and urging bold compliance (cf. 20.2–4; Ex 14.13–14).
1.22–33 Neither the communal decision to reconnoiter the route of attack nor the spies’ report is faulted here (cf. Num 13.32). The fertile Valley of Eshcol (v. 24) lies in the Judean hill country near Hebron, a region whose aborigines were the formidable Anakim (v. 28; cf. 2.10–11, 21; 9.2; Num 13.22–33; Josh 14.15). Dread of this foe fueled a grass-roots revolt that imputed malice to the Lord, whose salvific presence had been amply shown to the generation that experienced the exodus from Egypt and swift passage through the wilderness (vv. 19, 30–33; cf. Ex 13.21–22).
1.36 Among seniors, Caleb alone modeled the zeal demanded of the Lord’s warriors; for his reward, see Josh 14.6–14; 15.13–14.
1.37 Even with me. See 3.23–27; cf. Num 20.9–12.
1.39 Know right from wrong. The age of accountable discretion (cf. Isa 7.15) was twenty years according to Num 14.29–30.
1.40 Red Sea, here the Gulf of Aqaba (cf. 2.8).
1.41–44 Attack on Canaan from the south was not only a foolhardy initiative, resulting in the militia’s rout, but another act of brazen rebellion against divine orders.
1.44 Hormah, a site in the southeastern Negeb near Arad (cf. Num 21.1–3; Judg 1.16–17).
1.46–2.25 Full renewal of the mandate for conquest accompanied the demise of the rebellious generation.
DEUTERONOMY 2
The Desert Years
46 After you had stayed at Kadesh as many days as you did, 1we journeyed back into the wilderness, in the direction of the Red Sea,a as the LORD had told me and skirted Mount Seir for many days. 2Then the LORD said to me: 3“You have been skirting this hill country long enough. Head north, 4and charge the people as follows: You are about to pass through the territory of your kindred, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so, be very careful 5not to engage in battle with them, for I will not give you even so much as a foot’s length of their land, since I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6You shall purchase food from them for money, so that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them for money, so that you may drink. 7Surely the LORD your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” 8So we passed by our kin, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, leaving behind the route of the Arabah, and leaving behind Elath and Ezion-geber.
When we had headed out along the route of the wilderness of Moab, 9the LORD said to me: “Do not harass Moab or engage them in battle, for I will not give you any of its land as a possession, since I have given Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.” 10(The Emim—a large and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim—had formerly inhabited it. 11Like the Anakim, they are usually reckoned as Rephaim, though the Moabites call them Emim. 12Moreover, the Horim had formerly inhabited Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, destroying them and settling in their place, as Israel has done in the land that the LORD gave them as a possession.) 13“Now then, proceed to cross over the Wadi Zered.”
So we crossed over the Wadi Zered. 14And the length of time we had traveled from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation of warriors had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn concerning them. 15Indeed, the LORD’s own hand was against them, to root them out from the camp, until all had perished.
16Just as soon as all the warriors had died off from among the people, 17the LORD spoke to me, saying, 18“Today you are going to cross the boundary of Moab at Ar. 19When you approach the frontier of the Ammonites, do not harass them or engage them in battle, for I will not give the land of the Ammonites to you as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot.” 20(It also is usually reckoned as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly inhabited it, though the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, 21a strong and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. But the LORD destroyed them from before the Ammonites so that they could dispossess them and settle in their place. 22He did the same for the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, by destroying the Horim before them so that they could dispossess them and settle in their place even to this day. 23As for the Avvim, who had lived in settlements in the vicinity of Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) 24“Proceed on your journey and cross the Wadi Arnon. See, I have handed over to you King Sihon the Amorite of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession by engaging him in battle. 25This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under heaven; when they hear report of you, they will tremble and be in anguish because of you.”
Defeat of King Sihon
26So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with the following terms of peace: 27“If you let me pass through your land, I will travel only along the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. 28You shall sell me food for money, so that I may eat, and supply me water for money, so that I may drink. Only allow me to pass through on foot—29just as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir have done for me and likewise the Moabites who live in Ar—until I cross the Jordan into the land that the LORD our God is giving us.” 30But King Sihon of Heshbon was not willing to let us pass through, for the LORD your God had hardened his spirit and made his heart defiant in order to hand him over to you, as he has now done.
31The LORD said to me, “See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin now to take possession of his land.” 32So when Sihon came out against us, he and all his people for battle at Jahaz, 33the LORD our God gave him over to us; and we struck him down, along with his offspring and all his people. 34At that time we captured all his towns, and in each town we utterly destroyed men, women, and children. We left not a single survivor. 35Only the livestock we kept as spoil for ourselves, as well as the plunder of the towns that we had captured. 36From Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon (including the town that is in the wadi itself) as far as Gilead, there was no citadel too high for us. The LORD our God gave everything to us. 37You did not encroach, however, on the land of the Ammonites, avoiding the whole upper region of the Wadi Jabbok as well as the towns of the hill country, just asb the LORD our God had charged.
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a Or Sea of Reeds
b Gk Tg: Heb and all
2.1 Reversing direction away from Canaan and toward Egypt was at least a return to obedience (1.40).
2.3 Head north, apparently along the desert route east of the Arabah (see 2.8).
2.4–8 Esau, elder brother of Jacob (Israel) and forefather of the Edomites (Gen 25.21–26; 36.1–19), had title to the Seir hill country
by grant from the Lord; hence Israel had neither right (vv. 5–6) nor reason (v. 7) to challenge Edom’s sovereignty. (Num 20.14–21 gives a different account of the passage.)
2.8 Elath and Ezion-geber, ports on the Gulf of Aqaba (cf. 1 Kings 9.26).
2.9 Ar, the portion of greater Moab between the Zered (2.13) and the Arnon (2.24) which the Lord granted to Lot’s Moabite lineage (also 2.18, 29; cf. Gen 19.36–38; Num 21.13–15, 28).
2.10–12 An editorial comment on aboriginal folk dispossessed by Moab and Edom (cf. 2.20–23; 3.11). Both Emim (Hebrew, “Frighteners”) and Anakim (cf. 1.28) are identified as Rephaim, giant warriors of yore who are variously implicated in Israelite and Ugaritic folklore with the antediluvian Nephilim and other defunct heroes (cf. Gen 6.4; 14.5; Num 13.33).On the Horim of Seir (perhaps “Troglodytes” rather than ethnic “Hurrians”), see Gen 14.6; 36.20–30.
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