TRV
Translation
King James Version
And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.
Complete Jewish Bible
But ADONAI said to me, 'Tell them, "Don't go up, and don't fight, because I am not there with you; if you do, your enemies will defeat you."'
Berean Standard Bible
But the LORD said to me, “Tell them not to go up and fight, for I am not with you to keep you from defeat by your enemies.”
American Standard Version
And Jehovah said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.
World English Bible Messianic
The LORD said to me, “Tell them, ‘Don’t go up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest you be struck before your enemies.’”
Geneva Bible (1599)
But the Lord said vnto me, Say vnto them, Goe not vp, neither fight, (for I am not among you) least ye fall before your enemies.
Young's Literal Translation
and Jehovah saith unto me, Say to them, Ye do not go up, nor fight, for I am not in your midst, and ye are not smitten before your enemies.
In the KJVVerse 4,935 of 31,102
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Commentary on Deuteronomy 1 verses 19–46
19 ¶ 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.
20 And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us.
21 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.
22 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.
23 And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe:
24 And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out.
25 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.
26 Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:
27 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.
28 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.
29 Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;
31 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.
32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,
33 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.
34 And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying,
35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers,
36 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.
37 Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
39 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.
40 But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.
41 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.
42 And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.
43 So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the hill.
44 And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.
45 And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you.
46 So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.
Moses here makes a large rehearsal of the fatal turn which was given to their affairs by their own sins, and God's wrath, when, from the very borders of Canaan, the honour of conquering it, and the pleasure of possessing it, the whole generation was hurried back into the wilderness, and their carcases fell there. It was a memorable story; we read it Num. 13 and 14, but divers circumstances are found here which are not related there.
I. He reminds them of their march from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea (Deu 1:19), through that great and terrible wilderness. This he takes notice of, 1. To make them sensible of the great goodness of God to them, in guiding them through so great a wilderness, and protecting them from the mischiefs they were surrounded with in such a terrible wilderness. The remembrance of our dangers should make us thankful for our deliverances. 2. To aggravate the folly of those who, in their discontent, would have gone back to Egypt through the wilderness, though they had forfeited, and had no reason to expect, the divine guidance, in such a retrograde motion.
II. He shows them how fair they stood for Canaan at that time, Deu 1:20, Deu 1:21. He told them with triumph, the land is set before you, go up and possess it. He lets them see how near they were to a happy settlement when they put a bar in their own door, that their sin might appear the more exceedingly sinful. It will aggravate the eternal ruin of hypocrites that they were not far from the kingdom of God and yet came short, Mar 12:34.
III. He lays the blame of sending the spies upon them, which did not appear in Numbers, there it is said (Deu 13:1, Deu 13:2) that the Lord directed the sending of them, but here we find that the people first desired it, and God, in permitting it, gave them up to their counsels: You said, We will send men before us, Deu 1:22. Moses had given them God's word (Deu 1:20, Deu 1:21), but they could not find in their hearts to rely upon that: human policy goes further with them than divine wisdom, and they will needs light a candle to the sun. As if it were not enough that they were sure of a God before them, they must send men before them.
IV. He repeats the report which the spies brought of the goodness of the land which they were sent to survey, Deu 1:24, Deu 1:25. The blessings which God has promised are truly valuable and desirable, even the unbelievers themselves being judges: never any looked into the holy land, but they must own it a good land. Yet they represented the difficulties of conquering it as insuperable (Deu 1:28); as if it were in vain to think of attacking them either by battle, "for the people are taller than we," or by siege, "for the cities are walled up to heaven," an hyperbole which they made use of to serve their ill purpose, which was to dishearten the people, and perhaps they intended to reflect on the God of heaven himself, as if they were able to defy him, like the Babel-builders, the top of whose tower must reach to heaven, Gen 11:4. Those places only are walled up to heaven that are compassed with God's favour as with a shield.
V. He tells them what pains he took with them to encourage them, when their brethren had said so much to discourage them (Deu 1:29): Then I said unto you, Dread not. Moses suggested enough to have stilled the tumult, and to have kept them with their faces towards Canaan. He assured them that God was present with them, and president among them, and would certainly fight for them, Deu 1:30. And for proof of his power over their enemies he refers them to what they had seen done in Egypt, where their enemies had all possible advantages against them and yet were humbled and forced to yield, Deu 1:30. And for proof of God's goodwill to them, and the real kindness which he intended them, he refers them to what they had seen in the wilderness (Deu 1:31, Deu 1:33), through which they had been guided by the eye of divine wisdom in a pillar of cloud and fire (which guided both their motions and their rests), and had been carried in the arms of divine grace with as much care and tenderness as were ever shown to any child borne in the arms of a nursing father. And was there any room left to distrust this God? Or were they not the most ungrateful people in the world, who, after such sensible proofs of the divine goodness, hardened their hearts in the day of temptation? Moses had complained once that God had charged him to carry this people as a nursing father doth the sucking child (Num 11:12); but here he owns that it was God that so carried them, and perhaps this is alluded to (Act 13:18), where he is said to bear them, or to suffer their manners.
VI. He charges them with the sin which they were guilty of upon this occasion. Though those to whom he was now speaking were a new generation, yet he lays it upon them: You rebelled, and you murmured; for many of these were then in being, though under twenty years old, and perhaps were engaged in the riot; and the rest inherited their fathers' vices, and smarted for them. Observe what he lays to their charge. 1. Disobedience and rebellion against God's law: You would not go up, but rebelled, Deu 1:26. The rejecting of God's favours is really a rebelling against his authority. 2. Invidious reflections upon God's goodness. They basely suggested: Because the Lord hated us, he brought us out of Egypt, Deu 1:27. What could have been more absurd, more disingenuous, and more reproachful to God? 3. An unbelieving heart at the bottom of all this: You did not believe the Lord your God, Deu 1:32. All your disobedience to God's laws, and distrust of his power and goodness, flow from a disbelief of his word. A sad pass it has come to with us when the God of eternal truth cannot be believed.
VII. He repeats the sentence passed upon them for this sin, which now they had seen the execution of. 1. They were all condemned to die in the wilderness, and none of them must be suffered to enter Canaan except Caleb and Joshua, Deu 1:34-38. So long they must continue in their wanderings in the wilderness that most of them would drop off of course, and the youngest of them should be cut off. Thus they could not enter in because of unbelief. It was not the breach of any of the commands of the law that shut them out of Canaan, no, not the golden calf, but their disbelief of that promise which was typical of gospel grace, to signify that no sin will ruin us but unbelief, which is a sin against the remedy. 2. Moses himself afterwards fell under God's displeasure for a hasty word which they provoked him to speak: The Lord was angry with me for your sakes, Deu 1:37. Because all the old stock must go off, Moses himself must not stay behind. Their unbelief let death into the camp, and, having entered, even Moses falls within his commission. 3. Yet here is mercy mixed with wrath. (1.) That, though Moses might not bring them into Canaan, Joshua should (v. 38): Encourage him; for he would be discouraged from taking up a government which he saw Moses himself fall under the weight of; but let him be assured that he shall accomplish that for which he is raised up: He shall cause Israel to inherit it. Thus what the law could not do, in that it was weak, Jesus, our Joshua, does by bringing in the better hope. (2.) That, though this generation should not enter into Canaan, the next should, Deu 1:39. As they had been chosen for their fathers' sakes, so their children might justly have been rejected for their sakes. But mercy rejoiceth against judgement.
VIII. He reminds them of their foolish and fruitless attempt to get this sentence reversed when it was too late. 1. They tried it by their reformation in this particular; whereas they had refused to go up against the Canaanites, now they would go up, aye, that they would, in all haste, and they girded on their weapons of war for that purpose, Deu 1:41. Thus, when the door is shut, and the day of grace is over, there will be found those that stand without and knock. But this, which looked like a reformation, proved but a further rebellion. God, by Moses, prohibited the attempt (Deu 1:42): yet they went presumptuously up to the hill (Deu 1:43), acting now in contempt of the threatening, as before in contempt of the promise, as if they were governed by a spirit of contradiction; and it sped accordingly (Deu 1:44): they were chased and destroyed; and, by this defeat which they suffered when they provoked God to leave them, they were taught what success they might have had if they had kept themselves in his love. 2. They tried by their prayers and tears to get the sentence reversed: They returned and wept before the Lord, Deu 1:45. While they were fretting and quarrelling, it is said (Num 14:1): They wept that night; those were tears of rebellion against God, these were tears of repentance and humiliation before God. Note, Tears of discontent must be wept over again; the sorrow of the world worketh death, and is to be repented of; it is not so with godly sorrow, that will end in joy. But their weeping was all to no purpose. The Lord would not harken to your voice, because you would not harken to his; the decree had gone forth, and, like Esau, they found no place of repentance, though they sought it carefully with tears.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 19–46. Public domain.
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Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Deuteronomy 1:42 records the LORD's solemn warning to the Israelites, delivered through Moses, prohibiting them from engaging in battle against the Amorites and Canaanites. This divine command came after their initial rebellion at Kadesh-Barnea, where their fear and unbelief led them to refuse entry into the Promised Land. Despite their subsequent, self-willed resolve to fight, God explicitly stated His absence from their midst, foretelling inevitable defeat if they proceeded. This verse underscores the critical necessity of divine presence and obedient reliance on God's command for any endeavor to succeed, particularly in the face of spiritual or physical opposition.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Deuteronomy 1:42 employs several potent literary devices. The most prominent is direct address and imperative, as God speaks directly to Moses, who then relays the command to the people. This highlights the immediacy and absolute authority of the divine word. There is a clear cause-and-effect relationship established: God's absence ("I am not among you") is the cause, and their being "smitten before your enemies" is the inevitable effect. This serves as a stark warning, a common rhetorical device in Deuteronomy, designed to impress upon the new generation the severe consequences of disobedience. Furthermore, there is an element of irony in the situation: the generation that once refused to fight when God commanded them to (Numbers 14:1-10), now insists on fighting when God explicitly forbids it. This perverse reversal of obedience underscores the depth of their rebellion and the danger of self-will, regardless of the outward appearance of zeal. The concise and direct nature of the divine pronouncement also lends it a powerful, almost proverbial, quality, making the warning memorable and impactful.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Deuteronomy 1:42 profoundly illustrates the indispensable nature of God's active presence and command for any true success in the life of faith. It teaches that human effort, no matter how zealous or well-intentioned, is utterly futile and indeed self-destructive when undertaken outside of God's explicit will and empowering presence. The Israelites' presumptuous attempt to rectify their past disobedience through a new act of self-reliance demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of repentance, which requires humble submission to God's current word, not a self-devised path to redemption. This principle extends beyond military endeavors, applying to all aspects of life where believers are tempted to forge ahead in their own strength rather than waiting on and obeying divine instruction.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Deuteronomy 1:42 serves as a timeless cautionary tale, reminding believers that genuine spiritual victory and fruitfulness are not products of human zeal, strength, or strategic planning alone, but are entirely dependent on the active, empowering presence and explicit leading of God. It challenges us to critically examine our motivations and methods in every endeavor, whether personal, familial, or ministerial. Are we genuinely seeking God's will and patiently waiting for His command, or are we charging ahead presumptuously, attempting to "fix" situations or achieve outcomes in our own strength, perhaps even in areas where God has clearly indicated a different path or timing? This verse calls us to humility and radical dependence, urging us to recognize that without God "among us"—empowering, guiding, and protecting—our most fervent efforts will ultimately lead to defeat and frustration. True obedience is not merely avoiding what God forbids, but also refraining from what He has not commanded, especially when our actions are born of self-will rather than divine direction. It compels us to ask if our "good intentions" are truly God's intentions, and if our "faith" is truly in Him or in our own capacity.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What was the Israelites' prior disobedience that led to God's withdrawal?
Answer: The Israelites' prior disobedience, recounted in Numbers 13-14 and summarized by Moses in Deuteronomy 1:19-40, was their refusal to enter the Promised Land from Kadesh-Barnea. After the twelve spies returned, ten of them gave a fearful report, exaggerating the strength of the Canaanites and Amorites. Despite Caleb and Joshua's faithful exhortations, the people succumbed to fear, grumbled against the LORD and Moses, and even proposed choosing a new leader to return to Egypt. This act of profound unbelief and rebellion against God's direct command to possess the land resulted in God's judgment that the entire generation, save Joshua and Caleb, would perish in the wilderness over forty years.
Why did God forbid them to fight now, even if they seemed to have a change of heart?
Answer: God forbade them to fight because their "change of heart" was not genuine repentance and humble obedience, but rather a presumptuous, self-willed attempt to undo the consequences of their previous sin on their own terms. They had previously refused to fight when God commanded them to, demonstrating a lack of faith. Now, after God had pronounced judgment and declared that He would not go with them, they decided to fight. This was an act of defiance against God's current will and timing, born out of a desire to avoid the wilderness judgment rather than a contrite submission to God's sovereignty. God's command in Deuteronomy 1:42 was a test of true obedience: would they now submit to His explicit "Go not up," just as they had previously refused His "Go up"? Their failure to obey this new command proved their continued rebellion, highlighting that true repentance involves aligning with God's present will, not merely regretting past actions.
What does "I am not among you" truly signify in this context?
Answer: The phrase "I am not among you" signifies much more than a mere physical absence. It is a profound declaration of God's active withdrawal of His protective, empowering, and blessing presence due to their rebellion and presumption. In ancient Israelite warfare, the presence of Yahweh, often symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant or His direct prophetic word, was considered absolutely essential for victory. His presence meant His favor, His power, and His active participation on their behalf. When God declared, "I am not among you," He was stating that He would not endorse, empower, or protect their self-initiated military venture. Their strength, strategy, and numbers would be meaningless without His divine backing, guaranteeing their defeat as a direct consequence of their disobedience and lack of faith. It underscores that true success in God's work depends entirely on His divine initiative and empowering presence, not on human will or might, a principle echoed throughout the biblical narrative, from the early battles of Israel to the spiritual warfare described in the New Testament.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Deuteronomy 1:42, though rooted in Israel's wilderness experience, finds profound Christ-centered fulfillment in the New Covenant. The Old Testament principle that victory and spiritual effectiveness depend entirely on God's presence and command is perfectly embodied in Jesus Christ. Where Israel repeatedly failed through presumption and self-reliance, Jesus perfectly lived a life of absolute dependence on the Father, declaring, "I can do nothing on my own; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me" (John 5:30). His victory over sin and death was not achieved by human might or self-willed zeal, but by His perfect obedience to the Father's will, even to the point of death on the cross (Philippians 2:8). For believers today, the "presence of the LORD" is no longer a localized Ark or a temporary manifestation, but the indwelling Holy Spirit, whom Christ promised would be "with you forever" (John 14:16). Our spiritual battles are won not by "going up" in our own strength, but by abiding in Christ (John 15:5), walking by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16), and obeying His commands. Any endeavor undertaken outside of His leading and empowering presence, no matter how noble its intent, is akin to Israel's presumptuous attack—destined to be "smitten." Our victory is found in Christ's accomplished work and our humble reliance on His Spirit, ensuring that when we "fight," it is because He is indeed "among us" and leading the charge, empowering us "to do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).