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Deuteronomy 1: What the Passage Says

156 claims across 46 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Deuteronomy 1 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Moses speaks to Israel east of the Jordan in the fortieth year, and begins to explain the law. He recalls God's command at Horeb to leave the mountain and take the land, and how he appointed wise men from the tribes as leaders and judges. He then retells the sending of the twelve scouts from Kadesh-barnea, the people's refusal to go up, and God's oath that none of that generation except Caleb would see the land, along with his own exclusion and Joshua's appointment. The chapter ends with Israel's failed attack on the hill country and their long stay at Kadesh.

Claim by Claim

  1. 1:1
    • These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel.
    • Moses spoke them in the region across the Jordan.
    • He spoke them in the wilderness, in the Arabah.
    • The place was opposite Suph.
    • The place was between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
  2. 1:2
    • It is eleven days' journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea.
    • That journey goes by the way of Mount Seir.
  3. 1:3
    • This took place in the fortieth year.
    • It took place in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month.
    • Moses spoke to the children of Israel.
    • He spoke to them according to all that the LORD had commanded him for them.
  4. 1:4
    • This was after Moses had struck down Sihon king of the Amorites.
    • Sihon dwelt in Heshbon.
    • It was after he had struck down Og king of Bashan.
    • Og dwelt in Ashtaroth.
    • Edrei is named in connection with Og, and it is not resolved whether it marks a second place where Og dwelt or the place where he was defeated.
  5. 1:5
    • Moses was across the Jordan, in the land of Moab.
    • Moses began to expound this law.
    • He spoke as follows.
  6. 1:6
    • Moses said the LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb.
    • The LORD said they had stayed long enough at that mountain.
  7. 1:7
    • The LORD told them to turn and set out on their journey.
    • The LORD told them to go to the hill country of the Amorites.
    • The LORD told them to go to all its neighboring places.
    • Those places include the Arabah, the hill country, the lowland, the Negev, and the seacoast.
    • The LORD named the land of the Canaanites and Lebanon.
    • The LORD named the great river, the river Euphrates, as the limit.
  8. 1:8
    • The LORD said he had set the land before them.
    • The LORD told them to go in and take possession of the land.
    • The LORD swore to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them that land.
    • The oath included giving the land to their descendants after them.
  9. 1:9
    • Moses said he spoke to them at that time.
    • Moses said he was not able to carry them by himself alone.
  10. 1:10
    • The LORD their God had multiplied them.
    • On that day they were as numerous as the stars of the heavens.
  11. 1:11
    • Moses asked that the LORD, the God of their fathers, increase them a thousand times more than they were.
    • Moses asked that the LORD bless them as he had promised them.
  12. 1:12
    • Moses asked how he alone could bear their trouble, their burden, and their disputes.
  13. 1:13
    • Moses told them to provide wise, understanding, and known men from their tribes.
    • Moses said he would set those men as heads over them.
  14. 1:14
    • They answered Moses.
    • They said the thing he proposed to do was good.
  15. 1:15
    • Moses took the heads of their tribes, wise and known men.
    • Moses made them heads over the people.
    • He made them commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
    • He made them officers for their tribes.
  16. 1:16
    • Moses charged their judges at that time.
    • He told them to hear the cases between their brothers.
    • He told them to judge righteously between a man and his brother.
    • He told them to judge righteously between a man and the foreigner residing with him.
  17. 1:17
    • The judges were not to show partiality in judgment.
    • They were to hear the small as well as the great.
    • They were not to be afraid before any man.
    • The judgment belongs to God.
    • Any case too hard for them they were to bring to Moses.
    • Moses said he would hear that case.
  18. 1:18
    • Moses commanded them at that time all the things they were to do.
  19. 1:19
    • They set out from Horeb.
    • They went through all that great and terrible wilderness.
    • They had seen that wilderness.
    • They went by the way of the hill country of the Amorites.
    • They did this as the LORD their God commanded them.
    • They came to Kadesh-barnea.
  20. 1:20
    • Moses said to them that they had come to the hill country of the Amorites.
    • Moses said the LORD their God was giving that land to them.
  21. 1:21
    • Moses said the LORD their God had set the land before them.
    • Moses told them to go up and take possession of it.
    • This was as the LORD, the God of their fathers, had said to them.
    • Moses told them not to fear.
    • Moses told them not to be dismayed.
  22. 1:22
    • All of them came near to Moses.
    • They said they would send men ahead of them.
    • The men were to search out the land for them.
    • The men were to bring back word about the route by which they should go up.
    • The men were to bring back word about the cities they would come to.
  23. 1:23
    • The proposal seemed good to Moses.
    • Moses took twelve men from among them.
    • He took one man for each tribe.
  24. 1:24
    • The men turned and went up into the hill country.
    • They came to the Valley of Eshcol.
    • They spied out the land.
  25. 1:25
    • They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands.
    • They brought it down to the people.
    • They brought back word.
    • They said the land the LORD their God was giving them was good.
  26. 1:26
    • They were unwilling to go up.
    • They rebelled against the command of the LORD their God.
  27. 1:27
    • They grumbled in their tents.
    • They said the LORD hated them.
    • They said that because of that hatred he had brought them out of the land of Egypt.
    • They said he did it to give them into the hand of the Amorites.
    • They said he did it to destroy them.
  28. 1:28
    • They asked where they were going up to.
    • They said their brothers had melted their heart.
    • The report was that the people there were greater and taller than they.
    • The report was that the cities were great and fortified up to the heavens.
    • The report was that they had also seen the sons of the Anakim there.
  29. 1:29
    • Moses said to them not to be terrified.
    • Moses said not to be afraid of them.
  30. 1:30
    • The LORD their God goes before them.
    • The LORD himself will fight for them.
    • He will do so according to all that he did for them in Egypt before their eyes.
  31. 1:31
    • He also acted for them in the wilderness, which they had seen.
    • There the LORD their God carried them as a man carries his son.
    • He did so along all the way they walked.
    • He did so until they came to this place.
  32. 1:32
    • In this matter they did not believe the LORD their God.
  33. 1:33
    • The LORD went before them on the way.
    • He went to seek out a place for them to camp.
    • He went in fire by night to show them the way they should go.
    • He went in a cloud by day.
  34. 1:34
    • The LORD heard the sound of their words.
    • The LORD was angry.
    • The LORD swore an oath, saying the following.
  35. 1:35
    • Not one man of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land.
    • The LORD swore to give that land to their fathers.
  36. 1:36
    • Caleb son of Jephunneh is the exception.
    • Caleb shall see the land.
    • The LORD will give Caleb the land on which he walked.
    • The LORD will give it to Caleb's children.
    • This is because Caleb fully followed the LORD.
  37. 1:37
    • The LORD was also angry with Moses on their account.
    • The LORD said Moses also would not enter there.
  38. 1:38
    • Joshua son of Nun stands before Moses.
    • Joshua will enter there.
    • Moses is to strengthen Joshua.
    • Joshua will cause Israel to inherit the land.
  39. 1:39
    • The people had said their little ones would become plunder.
    • Their children did not that day know good from evil.
    • Those little ones and children will enter there.
    • The LORD will give the land to them.
    • They will take possession of it.
  40. 1:40
    • The people themselves were to turn back.
    • They were to set out into the wilderness by the way of the Sea of Reeds.
  41. 1:41
    • They answered Moses.
    • They said they had sinned against the LORD.
    • They said they would go up and fight, according to all the LORD their God commanded them.
    • Each man girded on his weapons of war.
    • They deemed it an easy thing to go up into the hill country.
  42. 1:42
    • The LORD said to Moses to tell them not to go up.
    • The LORD said they were not to fight.
    • The reason is that the LORD is not among them.
    • If they go up they will be struck down before their enemies.
  43. 1:43
    • Moses spoke to them.
    • They did not listen.
    • They rebelled against the command of the LORD.
    • They acted presumptuously.
    • They went up into the hill country.
  44. 1:44
    • The Amorites who dwelt in that hill country came out against them.
    • The Amorites chased them as bees do.
    • The Amorites beat them down in Seir as far as Hormah.
  45. 1:45
    • They returned and wept before the LORD.
    • The LORD did not listen to their voice.
    • The LORD did not give ear to them.
  46. 1:46
    • They stayed in Kadesh many days.
    • The length of that stay is stated only as being like the days they stayed.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1
Deuteronomy is presented as a series of speeches Moses gives to Israel just before they cross the Jordan River into Canaan; he himself does not cross. "East of the Jordan" is the region of what is now Jordan, on the far side of the river from the land they are about to enter. The "dry valley" is the Arabah, the deep rift valley running south from the Dead Sea. The place names in this verse are otherwise unknown to us, and the location of Suph is uncertain; the list seems meant to fix the setting for the original hearers.
1:2
Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, the mountain where Israel received the law after leaving Egypt. Kadesh-barnea is an oasis on the southern edge of Canaan, the staging point for entering the land. The distance is short, about eleven days' walk, which the reader is meant to hold alongside verse 3's "fortieth year."
1:3
The fortieth year is counted from the departure from Egypt. The eleventh month of the Hebrew calendar falls roughly in January–February.
1:4
The Amorites were one of the peoples living in Canaan and in the territory east of the Jordan. Sihon and Og ruled two small kingdoms in that eastern territory, which Israel had just taken; Heshbon, Ashtaroth and Edrei were their cities. Bashan is the fertile upland east of the Sea of Galilee.
1:5
The word translated "law" is the Hebrew *torah*, which means instruction or teaching as much as legislation. The book's English name, Deuteronomy, comes from a Greek phrase meaning "second law": that is, the law restated.
1:7
These are the standard regions of the land, each with a Hebrew name: the Arabah (the rift valley), the hill country, the Shephelah (the low hills between the highlands and the coastal plain), and the Negev (the arid south). The Euphrates, in modern Iraq, marks the widest limit ever claimed for the territory.
1:8
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are three generations of ancestors from whom Israel traced its descent; Jacob was also called Israel, and the twelve tribes are named for his sons. The promise of land sworn to them is told in Genesis.
1:10
Comparing descendants to the stars picks up the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 15. It is a set phrase for "too many to count," not a population figure.
1:12
The King James "cumbrance" is an old word for a load or an encumbrance: the sheer weight of handling other people's problems.
1:13
Israel was organized into twelve tribes, each tracing itself to one of Jacob's sons. A tribe was the basic unit of identity, land ownership, and law, effectively an extended family scaled up to tens of thousands of people, so choosing leaders tribe by tribe was the natural way to choose them.
1:15
The units of a thousand, a hundred, fifty and ten are a military-style chain of command borrowed for civil administration; the numbers are conventional groupings rather than exact head counts. "Officers" translates a Hebrew word for record-keepers or administrative officials, not soldiers.
1:16
The word rendered "foreigner living among you" means a resident outsider, someone settled long-term in Israel without belonging to a tribe or clan, and so without relatives to defend his interests in a dispute. Israelite law repeatedly singles such people out for protection.
1:17
"Do not show favor to one side" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "do not recognize faces", do not let it matter whose case it is. "The decision belongs to God" states the standing assumption behind the courts: a judge is understood to be handing down God's verdict, not his own, which is why partiality is treated as so serious.
1:19
"Terrible" in the King James means terrifying, inspiring dread. It is not a comment on quality.
1:22
This is the sending of the twelve scouts told at greater length in Numbers 13–14. There the LORD tells Moses to send them; here Moses recalls the request as coming from the people.
1:24
The Valley of Eshcol lay near Hebron in the southern hill country. The name means "cluster," and the fuller account in Numbers 13 describes the scouts carrying back a single cluster of grapes so large that two men carried it on a pole.
1:25
The fruit was proof that the land was rich. In the fuller account, the spies cut a bunch of grapes so heavy that two men carried it on a pole between them.
1:27
The people lived in tents because they moved from place to place. Complaining in their tents means grumbling at home, out of sight.
1:28
The Anakim were remembered as an unusually tall people living in the hill country around Hebron. "Walls that reach the sky" is deliberate exaggeration for very high fortifications, the report is meant to sound alarming.
1:30
This points back to the plagues in Egypt and Israel's escape through the sea, which these people had watched happen.
1:31
This is a picture of a tired child being carried. God took care of them the same way.
1:33
The fire by night and cloud by day are the pillar of cloud and fire described in Exodus, a visible column that went ahead of the people and marked where they should stop and camp.
1:34
Swearing here is not casual speech but a formal, unbreakable declaration. Saying God swore an oath is a way of presenting the decision that follows as final.
1:35
This is the sentence recorded in Numbers 14: the adults who left Egypt would die during the next forty years in the desert, and only their children would cross into the land.
1:36
Caleb was one of the twelve scouts. In Numbers 13–14 he and Joshua alone bring back a favorable report. "The land he walked on" became the region around Hebron, later held by his family.
1:37
"Because of you", Deuteronomy consistently ties Moses's exclusion from the land to the people's failure. Numbers 20 gives a different account, tracing it to Moses's own conduct at the waters of Meribah.
1:38
"Your assistant" translates a phrase meaning literally "who stands before you", the posture of a personal attendant. Joshua was Moses's aide and became his successor as leader.
1:39
"Carried off as loot" refers to the fate of children taken captive by a conquering army and kept or sold as property. "Did not yet know right from wrong" marks them as below the age of legal responsibility, and so not liable for the refusal their parents made.
1:40
The Hebrew is *yam suph*, "sea of reeds," traditionally rendered Red Sea. Here it means the eastern arm of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba, well to the south.
1:41
"Strapped on his weapons" describes buckling on a sword belt and gear, arming for battle. The last clause is uncertain in Hebrew: it may mean "you thought it an easy thing to go up," or "you were ready to go up."
1:43
"Thinking you could do as you pleased" renders a Hebrew word for acting arrogantly and without authorization, going ahead on your own say-so after being told not to.
1:44
Seir is the mountainous country of Edom, south of the Dead Sea. Hormah is a site whose name resembles the Hebrew word for destruction. Bees swarming out of a disturbed nest was a stock image for a pursuit you cannot outrun or fight off.
1:45
They came back to God crying and asking him to help. This time he did not answer.
1:46
The Hebrew of the last phrase is awkward and its sense disputed, something like "as long as the days you stayed." It may be emphasis (a very long time), or a pointer back to a specific stated length of time.

Read Deuteronomy 1