Deuteronomy 1:34

34. the voice of your words] So Deu_1:28 and not elsewhere.

34. and was wroth] Heb. wayyiḳṣoph, Deu_9:19 and twice in P, but not elsewhere of God in Pent. The causative form to provoke God only in Deu_9:7 f., Deu_9:32.

and sware] See on Deu_1:8.

34–40. God’s Anger and Judgements

Provoked by the people’s words (Deu_1:34) God swore none should see the good land (Deu_1:35) but Kaleb, son of Yephunneh; because he had fully followed Jehovah, to him and his children it should be given (Deu_1:36). Even with Moses was God angry for the people’s sake, saying, Thou shalt not come in thither (Deu_1:37); Joshua shall lead Israel to their heritage (Deu_1:38); and the people’s children possess it (Deu_1:39). Those addressed must turn back into the wilderness towards the Red Sea (Deu_1:40).—The parallel account, Num_14:10 a – Num_14:39, is divided (somewhat precariously) between JE and P. In Jeremiah , Deu_1:11-24; Deu_1:31 (?) Jehovah asks how long the people are to despise Him. He will smite and disinherit them, making of Moses himself a greater nation. Moses argues that other peoples will then say Jehovah is unable to carry Israel to the Land; and pleads His revealed mercy. Jehovah pardons, yet decrees that all who have seen His power but have not obeyed shall perish: only Kaleb who hath fully followed and his seed shall possess it, also the people’s little ones shall be brought in. In P, Deu_1:10 a, Deu_1:26-30; Deu_1:32-39 a, the divine glory descends on the tent of meeting and Jehovah asks how long He is to bear with this evil congregation whose murmuring He has heard. All from 20 years old and upwards shall perish except Kaleb and Joshua. This sentence is then expanded, and the spies who have brought an evil report are struck with the pestilence.

All these accounts agree in attributing to the people’s unbelief, after the report of the spies, a sentence of death on the adult generation, characteristically defined by P. The differences are (1) the usual distinctions of language (see notes below); (2) D and P omit Moses’ argument given by JE; P substitutes the descent of the glory of God; (3) JE and D except Kaleb front the doom, P Kaleb and Joshua (but an addition to D Deu_1:37-38 also excepts Joshua); (4) P alone (as usual) associates Aaron with Moses; (5) the addition to D extends God’s anger to Moses for the people’s sake; JE, on the contrary, declares God will make of Moses a greater people; while P (see on Deu_1:37) attributes Moses’ exclusion from the land to his own sin on an occasion 37 years after the present episode. Part of the analysis of Numbers 14 being precarious and the integrity of Deu_1:36-39 being doubtful we cannot say whether these differences of fact are reconcilable. Yet their coincidence with the distinctions of style and religious feeling among the three documents cannot be ignored; and the probability remains that here as elsewhere we have more or less independent traditions of the same event. Since Calvin, who in his harmony of the four last Bks of the Pent. removes Deu_1:37-38 from its context to a connection with Num_20:1-13, the explanation has been offered that the deuteronomic. passage is not chronological; but even this arbitrary act of literary criticism does not meet the difficulty of the statement that Jehovah was angry with Moses for the people’s sake.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth--In consequence of this aggravated offense (unbelief followed by open rebellion), the Israelites were doomed, in the righteous judgment of God, to a life of wandering in that dreary wilderness till the whole adult generation had disappeared by death. The only exceptions mentioned are Caleb and Joshua, who was to be Moses' successor.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 34. The Lord - was wroth] That is, his justice was incensed, and he evidenced his displeasure against you; and he could not have been a just God if he had not done so.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(34) Was wroth, and sware.—See Psa_95:11, “I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the Lord heard the voice of your words,.... Of their murmurings against Moses and Aaron, and of their threatenings to them, Joshua and Caleb, and of their impious charge of hatred of them to God for bringing them out of Egypt, and of their rash wishes that they had died there or in the wilderness, and of their wicked scheme and proposal to make them a captain, and return to Egypt again:

and was wroth, and sware; by his life, himself; see Num 14:28,

saying; as follows.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The voice of your words, to wit, your murmurings, your unthankful, impatient, distrustful, and rebellious speeches and carriages.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and he was wroth, and sware, etc.. (comp. Num_14:21-24)

Vers. 34-40. The excluded and the admitted.

I THE EXCLUDED.

1. That whole unbelieving generation, with two excerptions (ver. 35). Note:

(1) Their unbelief and disobedience did not frustrate God"s purpose of the occupation of the land. Canaan was occupied after all. So heaven will be peopled, the world conquered, and God"s work done, though we in our folly and sin rebel and stand aloof. (Mat_3:9) "It remaineth that some must enter in". (Heb_4:6)

(2) Their unbelief and disobedience effectually excluded themselves. God swore it in his wrath, and the sentence admitted of no reversal. A foreshadowing of the final exclusion from heaven of those who persistently disobey (Mat_7:21-24; Luk_13:24-29; Heb_4:11; Rev_22:11-16)

2. The holy Moses. (ver. 37; cf. on Deu_3:26 Deu_4:21 Deu_34:4) The exclusion of Moses will be more fully considered afterwards, but we learn from it here that God"s apparent severity is often greatest to his own people, (Amo_3:2) and that the share which others have had in leading us into sin does not abate our own responsibility in the commission of it. This greater apparent severity

(1) repels the charge of favoritism;

(2) gives a peculiarly impressive demonstration of the evil of sin;

(3) reminds us that sin in God"s people is more dishonoring to him than it is in others;

(4) warns the wicked. For if judgment begin at the righteous, "what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?". (1Pe_4:17, 1Pe_4:18)

II THE ADMITTED. These were to be:

1. The faithful two Caleb and Joshua (vers. 36, 38). The former is signalized as having "wholly followed the Lord," and Joshua was a man of like faith and staunchness in a time of general defection. Such persons God will singularly preserve and honor. Their place in heaven will be a high one. "We must, in a course of obedience to God"s will and of service to his honor, follow him universally, without dividing; uprightly, without dissembling; cheerfully, without disputing; and constantly, without declining; and this is following the Lord fully". (Matthew Henry, on Num_14:24)

2. The younger generation (ver. 39). Instead of the fathers, God would take the children. What a rebuke!

(1) of their groundless bars. "Your little ones, which ye said should be a prey.

(2) Of their unmanly cowardice. Their little children, types of all that was humanly feeble, would do the work they were afraid to attempt.

(3) Of their inconsiderate Selfishness. They were not ashamed to hand down to these children their own abandoned life-tasks, with all the work and peril, if also with all the reward and honor, attending their accomplishment. Was not this to make themselves objects of contempt to their own offspring? "Let no man take thy crown," least of all thine own child, J.O.

Vers. 34-46. The heirs of promise.

We have in this passage the result of unbelief. The dread of the people was lest their little ones should become a prey to their gigantic foes in Canaan. The Lord now declares that these little ones shall be the possessors of the land, while they themselves shall be denied an entrance, since they refused it when offered to them. The only exceptions are to be Joshua and Caleb, who made the good report and gave the good counsel. Even Moses is included in the doom of exclusion. The subsequent attempt and the subsequent tears had no effect in reversing the deserved sentence. We learn from this passage such practical lessons as these:

I GOD"S GRACIOUS OFFERS ARE NOT TO BE TRIFLED WITH. The Promised Land lay open to the Israelites, who had been mercifully guided to its gates. The all-important "Now," the time for decisive action had come, and it remained with them to determine whether they would go in and receive the blessing, or remain without. They preferred to delay, to trifle with the offer, and so the time went past. So sinners are offered pardon and acceptance as an immediate boon, (2Co_6:2) but when the offer is despised and trifled with, it may be withdrawn. (Pro_1:24-33)

II PRESUMPTION IS A POOR SUBSTITUTE FOR FAITH. When the people saw the mistake they had made, they would go up and fight in a spirit of presumptuous chagrin. They now fought without commissions. The result was disastrous defeat, and a hurling of them back from the gates of Palestine to the great and terrible wilderness. God was not with them in their presumption, since they would not follow him in humble faith. So may it be with sinners. Despised mercy may be succeeded by deserved defeat. The wild and proud efforts of presumption are in stalking contrast to the quiet courage of faith. Toil and tears may be insufficient to retrieve disaster when once courted by unbelief.

III JOSHUA AND CALEB"S GOOD FORTUNE SHOWED WHAT WAS POSSIBLE TO WHOLEHEARTED FAITH. These two spies, in wholly following the Lord and in counseling courage, showed a humble faith. They stood alone faithful in face of an unbelieving majority, and God gave them a corresponding assurance that they should enter into the land. They were greatly honored in being allowed to do so. And they are surely encouragements to believing souls throughout all time.

IV THE ASSURANCE OF THE CHILDREN THAT THEY SHOULD BE HEIRS OF THE LAND VINDICATED GOD"S PROCEDURE AND FAITHFULNESS. The little ones, for whom they feared, are selected as the heirs of premise. But they are to get the land after discipline and sorrow in the wilderness. God"s ways are not ours. Yet wisdom regulates them all. And the Divine grace was magnified in this arrangement. The Israelites, as they died in the wilderness, would be cheered by the thought that, though they were justly excluded from the land because of their unbelief, their children would receive the inheritance in the exercise of faith. The judgment on the fathers would be sanctified, like the sickness of Hymenseus and Alexander, (1Ti_1:20) and their spirits, let us hope, saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. R.M.E. (1Co_5:5)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

Moses continues to remind the people of Israel what Yahweh said to them.

heard the sound of your words

"heard what you were saying"

he swore and said

God made a vow not to allow those who rebelled against him to enter the land he promised to give them.

will see

"will enter"

save Caleb

"except Caleb"

Jephunneh

This is the name of Caleb's father. (See: How to Translate Names)

he has wholly followed Yahweh

Yahweh speaks as if he were someone else. AT: "he has completely obeyed me" (See: Pronouns)

translationWords

Yahweh

word

anger

oath

evil

generation

Caleb

children

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.