Deuteronomy 1:1

These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel,.... Not what are related in the latter part of the preceding book, but what follow in this; and which were spoken by him, not to the whole body

These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

CHAPTER 1 A rehearsal of what had befallen Israel in their forty years' march; as, God's command to depart, Deuteronomy 1:1-8. Moses's inability to judge alone, Deuteronomy 1:9-12. Other judges and officers appointed, Deuteronomy 1:13-16. Charge given the judges, Deuteronomy 1:17,18. Their passage to Kadesh-barnea, Deuteronomy 1:19-21. Spies sent to search the land of the Amorites, Deuteronomy 1:22-24. Their return and report, Deuteronomy 1:25. The disobedience of the people, Deuteronomy 1:26-33. God's wrath, Deuteronomy 1:34-40. They smitten by the Amorites, Deuteronomy 1:44. Their complaint to God, which the Lord regards not, Deuteronomy 1:45. These are the laws, counsels, and admonitions delivered by Moses from God to Israel, which are here repeated for the instruction and obligation of those who by reason of their tender years were uncapable either of understanding them, or of entering into covenant with God. Unto all Israel, to wit, by the heads or elders of the several tribes, or others, who were to communicate these discourses to all the people in several assemblies. In the plain; either. 1. In the vast desert of Arabia. But that is no where called a plain. Or rather, 2. In the plain of Moab, as may appear by comparing this with Deuteronomy 1:5 Numbers 22:1 Deuteronomy 34:8. Object. That was far from the Red Sea here mentioned. Answ. The word suph here used doth not signify the Red Sea, which is commonly called jam suph, and which was at too great a distance; but some other place now unknown to us, (as also most of the following places are,) so called from the reeds, or flags, or rushes (which that word signifies) that grew in or near it; which reason of the name being common to other places with the Red Sea, it is not strange if they got the same name. Compare Numbers 21:14. Paran; not that Numbers 10:12, which there and elsewhere is called the wilderness of Paran, and which was too remote; but some other place called by the same name, than which nothing more usual. Tophel and Laban; places not mentioned elsewhere. Hazeroth; of which see Numbers 11:35 33:17,18. And these places seem to be the several bounds and limits not of the whole country of Moab, but of the plain of Moab, where Moses now was, and spoke these words.

Deuteronomy 1:1 These [be] the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red [sea], between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.Ver. 1. These be the words which Moses spake.] And surely he spake much, if he spake, as some cast it up, this whole Book in less than ten days’ space. Certain it is that he spake here, as ever, most divinely, and like himself, or rather beyond himself - the end of a thing being better, if better may be, than the beginning thereof, as good wine is best at last; and as the sun shines most amiably when it is going down. This book of the law it was that the king was to write out with his own hand, that it might serve as his manual, and attend him in his running library. This was that happy book that good Josiah lighting upon, after it had long laid hid in the temple, melted at the menaces thereof, and obtained of God to die in peace, though he were slain in battle. This only book was that silver brook, that preciously purling current, out of which the Lord Christ, our Champion, chose all those three smooth stones, wherewith he prostrated the Goliath of hell in that sharp encounter. And surely, if Cicero could call Aristotle’ s "Politics," for the elegancy of the style, and for the excellency of the matter, aureum flumen orationis; and if the same author durst say that the law of the twelve tables did exceed all the libraries of philosophers, both in weight and worth; how much rather is all this true of this second edition of God’ s law, with an addition.

(5-1) .(1) These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel.—The first two verses and the three that follow form a kind of double introduction to the book, and perhaps more especially to the first portion of it, which ends with Deuteronomy 4:40. On this side Jordan.—Literally, on the other side Jordan from the writer’s or reader’s point of view. In the wilderness.—These words define still further the expression which precedes: “on the wilderness side of Jordan,” or “before they crossed the Jordan, while they were still in the wilderness.” Strictly speaking, the words “in the wilderness” cannot be connected with what follows, for “the plain” described is on neither side of Jordan, but below the southern end of the Dead Sea. In the plain—i.e., the ‘Arβbah. Usually the plain of Jordan; here the valley that extends from the lower end of the Dead Sea to the head of the Gulf of Akabah. Over against the Red Sea.—Heb., opposite Sϋph. In all other places in the Old Testament, when we read of the Red Sea, it is Yam Sϋph. Here we have Suph only. On these grounds some take it as the name of a place. (Comp. Vaheb in Sϋphah, Numbers 21:14, margin.) But we do not know the place; and as the Jewish paraphrasts and commentators find no difficulty in accepting Suph by itself as the sea, we may take it of the Gulf of Akabah. The plain between Paran and Tophel looks straight down to that gulf. Between Paran, and Tophel . . .—Literally, between Paran, and between Tophel and Laban, &c.: that is, between Paran on the one side, and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab on the other. This is the literal meaning, and it suits the geography so far as the places are yet identified. The small map at p. 239 of Conder’s Handbook to the Bible shows the desert of Paran stretching northward from Sinai on the left, and on the right, Tophel and Hazeroth (the only other places identified among these five) at the two extremities of a line drawn from the southeast end of the Dead Sea in the direction of Sinai. Tophel is taken as Tufξleh, and Hazeroth is ’Ain Hadra. Laban must be some “white” place lying between, probably named from the colour of the rocks in its neighbourhood. Dizahab should be nearer Sinai than Hazeroth. The Jewish commentators, from its meaning, “gold enough,” connected it with the golden calf. And it is not inconceivable that the place where that object of idolatry was “burned with fire,” and “stamped” and “ground very small,” till it was as “small as dust,” and “cast into the brook that descended out of the mount” (Deuteronomy 9:21), was called “gold enough” from the apparent waste of the precious metal that took place there; possibly also because Moses made the children of Israel drink of the water. They had enough of that golden calf before they had done with it.

THE FIFTH BOOK OF MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY -Year before the common Year of Christ, 1451 -Julian Period, 3263. -Cycle of the Sun, 10. -Dominical Letter, B -Cycle of the Moon, 10. -Indiction, 15. -Creation from Tisri or September, 2553. CHAPTER I Introduction to the book, 1, 2. Moses addresses the people in the fortieth year after the exodus from Egypt, 3-5; and shows how God had spoken to them in Horeb, and the directions he gave them, 6-8. How, at the commandment of the Lord, he had appointed officers, judges, c., to share the government with him, 9-18. Of their travels in the terrible wilderness, 19-21. The people's request to have spies sent to search out the land, 22-25. Of their murmuring and rebellion when they heard the report of the spies, 26-28. How Moses encouraged them, 29-33. The displeasure of the Lord against them because of their murmurings, and his purpose to exclude them from the good land, and give it to their children only, 34-40. How they repented, and yet, without the authority of God, went against the Amorites, by whom they were defeated, 41-44. Their return to Kadesh, where they abode many days, 45, 46. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. These be the words which Moses spake] The five first verses of this chapter contain the introduction to the rest of the book: they do not appear to be the work of Moses, but were added probably either by Joshua or Ezra. On this side Jordan] בעבר beeber, at the passage of Jordan, i. e., near or opposite to the place where the Israelites passed over after the death of Moses. Though עבר eber is used to signify both on this side and on the other side, and the connection in which it stands can only determine the meaning yet here it signifies neither, but simply the place or ford where the Israelites passed over Jordan. In the plain] That is, of Moab; over against the Red Sea - not the Red Sea, for they were now farther from it than they had been: the word sea is not in the text, and the word סוף suph, which we render red, does not signify the Red Sea, unless joined with ים yam, sea; here it must necessarily signify a place in or adjoining to the plains of Moab. Ptolemy mentions a people named Sophonites, that dwelt in Arabia Petraea, and it is probable that they took their name from this place; but see the note from Lightfoot, See Clarke on Numbers 20:28, at the end. Paran] This could not have been the Paran which was contiguous to the Red Sea, and not far from Mount Horeb; for the place here mentioned lay on the very borders of the promised land, at a vast distance from the former. Dizahab.] The word should be separated, as it is in the Hebrew, די זהב Di Zahab.

1. all lsrael] A designation of the people characteristic of D and deuteronomic writers. See on Deuteronomy 4:44. beyond Jordan] As is clear from Deuteronomy 1:5 and elsewhere, the E. of Jordan is intended. The title was therefore written in W. Palestine. A.V. on this side Jordan, is an impossible rendering of the Hebrew. in the wilderness] Heb. midbar, properly pasture ground as distinct from arable; Jeremiah 2:1, land not sown. The word, hardly applicable to the scene of Moses’s discourse in Moab, is the usual term both for the wilderness E. of Moab and Edom (Deuteronomy 2:8; Deuteronomy 2:26), and for the region of Israel’s earlier wanderings before they crossed Edom (Deuteronomy 1:19; Deuteronomy 1:40, Deuteronomy 2:1; Deuteronomy 2:7). In the latter lay some, if not all, of the following localities. in the Arabah] Heb. ‘Arabah, dry or waste: (a) a synonym for midbar, both with the def. art. (Isaiah 40:3), as here, and without (Isaiah 35:1; Jeremiah 2:6 etc.). But with the art. it is usually the name of (b) the great depression extending from the Gulf of ‘Aḳ ?abah northwards to the Lebanons, of which the Dead Sea, the Sea of the ‘Arabah (Deuteronomy 4:49), is the deepest portion; and again is more particularly applied both to (c) the stretch of the depression N. of that Sea, the Jordan valley (Deuteronomy 3:17; 2 Kings 25:4), cp. the Plur. ‘Arboth Moab, P’s designation of Israel’s last station before crossing Jordan, Deuteronomy 34:1 (cp. Arbatta, 1Ma 5:23); and (d) the stretch of the depression S. of the Dead Sea. Each of these four meanings is possible here. Those who take the names in 1b as of places in the scene of Moses’ discourse in the land of Moab point to (c) the application of the name ‘Arabah to the Jordan valley. As we shall see, however, those names indicate rather the region of Israel’s earlier wanderings, before they crossed the S. of Edom, and this makes it more probable that ‘Arabah here = the S. stretch of the depression; so the Sam. Biḳ ?‘a, trench or valley. But (a) the general signification, synonymous with midbar, is not improbable here, and even more suitable to the localities in 1b than the other meanings are. To-day the name el ‘Arabah is confined to the stretch of the depression S. of a line of cliffs a few miles below the Dead Sea; while all to the N. is known as el-Ghτr. Suph] LXX ‘the Red Sea,’ but this in Heb. is always sea of Suph. Suph may have been a locality from which the Sea derived its name, the usual etymology which would render it sea of sedge being, though plausible, uncertain (see Enc. Bibl. ‘Red Sea’). Suph cannot be Suphah of Num 21:14 if as is probable this lay in S. Moab; while another modern place-name that has been proposed as identical, Naḳ ?b eṣ ?-Ṣ ?afa (on which see Musil Edom ii. 29), S.W. of the Dead Sea, corresponds with Suph neither phonetically nor from its situation.

These verses are prefixed as a connecting link between the contents of the preceding books and that of Deuteronomy now to follow.

, Deuteronomy 1:1-5. 1, 2. These verses form a connexion between this and the preceding books. These… words… Moses spake — Referring, not to the discourses in this book, but to the laws and regulations heretofore recorded.