Moses begins his address to Israel in Moab, recounting their journey from Horeb. He reminds them of God's command to enter the Promised Land and their subsequent rebellion at Kadesh-barnea, where they refused to go up due to fear of the inhabitants. This disobedience led to God's judgment, condemning that generation to wander in the wilderness, excluding even Moses, while only Caleb, Joshua, and the children would enter.
¶ 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.
And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them;
Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.
So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.
And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.
Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.
¶ And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadeshbarnea.
Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.
And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.
And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us.
And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.
And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.
Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.
Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.
Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill.
So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.
Study Notes for Deuteronomy 1
Verse 1
The phrase 'on this side Jordan' refers to the east bank of the Jordan River (Moab), where Moses delivered this final set of sermons before the Israelites entered Canaan.
Verse 2
This parenthetical note contrasts the typical eleven-day journey with the forty years of wandering, immediately highlighting that the delay was caused by human failure, not geographical distance.
Verse 3
This precise dating places the discourse in the final year of the wilderness period, shortly before the Israelites crossed the Jordan and Moses’ death.
Verse 5
Moses 'began to declare this law,' meaning he expounded, clarified, and restated the covenant obligations given at Horeb (Sinai) for the benefit of the new generation.
Verse 6
Horeb is the name commonly used in Deuteronomy for Mount Sinai, the location where the covenant was first established and Israel received the Law.
Verse 8
This verse reinforces the central theological theme of the book: the land is a divine gift rooted in the unconditional promise sworn to the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).
Verse 10
Moses praises God for fulfilling the promise given to Abraham (Gen. 15:5) that his descendants would be as innumerable as the stars of heaven.
Verse 12
Moses recalls the necessity of delegating authority (first recorded in Exodus 18) due to the sheer size of the community and the burdens of governance and dispute resolution.
Verse 17
The principle of judicial impartiality is grounded in the theological truth that 'the judgment is God’s,' meaning human judges act as divine representatives and must therefore avoid bias.
Verse 19
Kadesh-barnea was the critical point of decision, marking the end of the initial rapid journey and the beginning of the long, punitive wandering period.
Verse 22
Moses emphasizes that the initiative to send spies came from the people, not God, shifting the responsibility for the subsequent failure of faith onto the Israelites (cf. Num. 13:1, where God permits but does not initiate the spy mission).
Verse 26
The core sin was not merely fear, but active rebellion against God’s direct command to advance and possess the land, demonstrating profound unbelief (cf. v. 32).
Verse 27
The murmuring accused God of malicious intent—that He brought them out of Egypt only to destroy them—a severe spiritual distortion of God’s redemptive purpose.
Verse 28
The 'sons of the Anakims' (giants) represented the exaggerated threat that overwhelmed the people’s faith, causing them to focus on human obstacles rather than divine power.
Verse 30
Moses reminds the new generation of the fundamental principle of Holy War (Yahweh War): the LORD fights for Israel, rendering human fear unnecessary.
Verse 31
The metaphor of God bearing Israel 'as a man doth bear his son' is a tender image emphasizing God’s protective, nurturing, and intimately present care throughout the wilderness journey.
Verse 35
God’s judgment was final: the entire adult generation who had witnessed His power in the Exodus and at Sinai would be barred from the Promised Land due to their persistent unbelief.
Verse 37
Moses includes his own exclusion from the land, linking his punishment (Num. 20:12) to the overall context of the people’s lack of faith and rebellion, underscoring the severity of disobedience.
Verse 39
In an act of grace and faithfulness, the children—whom the fearful parents worried would become prey—are the very generation God chooses to fulfill the covenant promise.
Verse 42
God commanded them not to fight because He was not with them. The subsequent attack was an act of presumption—attempting to obey the command to fight only after the time for obedience had passed.
Verse 44
The disastrous result of the unauthorized battle confirmed that military success depended entirely upon God’s active presence and command, not their belated human effort.
Verse 46
The long, indeterminate stay at Kadesh-barnea marks the transition into the wandering period, where the rebellious generation waited out the forty years of divine discipline.
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The Calling of Disciples
19And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
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