Deuteronomy 34:4

Deu 34:4 And the LORD said unto him, This [is] the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see [it] with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.

Ver. 4. I have caused thee to see it.] By an extraordinary power, for in an ordinary way Moses could never have taken so large a prospect at once. Faith puts a man’s head into heaven, and gives him a view of far better things; neither vision only, but fruition also, which Moses had not.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 34:4. I have caused thee to see it — For though his sight was good, yet he could not have seen all Canaan, a hundred and sixty miles in length, and fifty or sixty in breadth, if his sight had not been miraculously assisted and enlarged, He saw it at a distance. Such a sight the Old Testament believers had of the kingdom of the Messiah. And such a sight believers have now of the glory that shall be revealed. Such a sight have we now, of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, which shall cover the earth. Those that come after us shall undoubtedly enter into that promised land; which is a comfort to us, when we find our own carcasses falling in this wilderness.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(4) This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it.—“That thou mayest go and say to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, The oath which He sware to you, the Holy One, blessed be He! hath performed it,” is Raehi’s comment. But in Paradise they scarcely needed Moses to tell them of His faithfulness.

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

4. the land which I sware, etc.] As Exo_33:1, see above on Deu_1:8.

thou shalt not go over thither] Deu_1:37, Deu_3:27, Deu_4:21 f., and in P, Deu_32:52, Num_20:12.

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.

And the Lord said unto him,.... The Word of the Lord, as the Jerusalem Targum, having shown him all the land of Canaan:

this is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed; to Abraham, Gen 15:18; to Isaac, Gen 26:3; to Jacob, Gen 28:13,

I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes; not only had indulged him with a general view of it, but had strengthened his eyesight, that he had a full, clear, and distinct sight of it:

but thou shalt not go over thither; which he had said more than once before and abides by it, and this because of the behaviour of Moses at the waters of Meribah, Num 20:12; see Deu 3:25.

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

I have caused thee to see it - The sight thus afforded to Moses, like that of “all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” Luk 4:5, was no doubt supernatural.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

This land, which has been just described, is what God chiefly promised to the Patriarchs, comprising the countries on the east, as well as those on the western side of the Jordan. (Haydock) --- To it. But thou shalt be translated to a better land, the land of the living. Moses was now perfectly resigned to the will of God. (Salien) --- He no longer cherished those ardent desires of introducing the people into Chanaan, which he had not long before expressed: as he found that God had decreed that he should be deprived of the honour. He received this refusal as a just punishment of his transgression, and calmly reposed in the Lord. There seems to be no reason why Moses might not have written the preceding verses at least, though the names of some of the tribes are mentioned, who obtained possession only after his death. As he knew the limits of the promised land, so, by the prophetic spirit, he might know that these tribes would be settled in the country; and he does not mark out their divisions with any degree of precision. In a word, there seems to be hardly a single passage in the Pentateuch which may not have Moses for its author. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

With thine eyes, to wit, by a miraculous power strengthening thy sight, or making a clear representation of all these parts to thy view.

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

4. This is the land which I sware unto Abraham — At the oak of Moreh, centuries before this, Jehovah had manifested himself to Abraham and said to him, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” Gen_12:7.

I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes — Tristram (Land of Moab, American edition, p. 338) gives the following description of the view from the summit of Nebo: “Anxious to verify exactly the view of Moses, we paid three visits to Nebo; but we were not so fortunate as on my former visit, when for the first time Nebo was identified. On each occasion there was a haze from the heat which dimmed the distant features and outlines, producing a sort of mirage, which rendered it most difficult clearly to trace distant objects. Still, we had a clear distant view of western Palestine and the whole Judean range from far south of Hebron up to Galilee. We could see the west side of the Dead Sea from Engedi northward. Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Nebi-Samwil, (Mizpeh.) Ebal and Gerizim were very easily made out, and the opening of the vale of Shechem. Carmel could be recognised, but we were never able to make out the sea to the north of it; and though it is certainly possible that it might be seen from this elevation I could not satisfy myself that I saw more than the haze over the plain of Esdraelon. The rest of the view was like that from Muslubeiyah, only that a corner of the Hauran Mountains could be caught in a depression of the Gilead range. Hermon certainly could be made out in a clear atmosphere over the Jordan valley, the whole of which lay open as far as Kurn Surtabeh. After testing repeatedly every view in the neighbourhood I am perfectly satisfied that there is none which equals in extent that from Nebo — that is, from the flat ridge which rises slightly about half a mile behind the ruined city, and which I take to be ‘the true field of Zophim, the top of Pisgah.’”

But thou shalt not go over thither — In Numbers xx it is related that when the people murmured for lack of water Jehovah directed Moses to take the rod with which the miracles in Egypt had been wrought, and with Aaron to call the people together to speak unto the rock before their eyes, and it would give forth water. The people assembled, Moses takes the rod as Jehovah commanded. He says to the people, “Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?” He did not obey to the letter the command of Jehovah, and he “spake unadvisedly with his lips.” Psa_106:33. It was in reference to this incident that Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, “Because ye believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” Num_20:12.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I have caused thee to see it - For tho' his sight was good, yet he could not have seen all Canaan, an hundred and sixty miles in length, and fifty or sixty in breadth, if his sight had not been miraculously assisted and enlarged. He saw it at a distance. Such a sight the Old Testament believers had of the kingdom of the Messiah. And such a sight believers have now of the glory that shall he revealed. Such a sight have we now, of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, which shall cover the earth. Those that come after us shall undoubtedly enter into that promised land: which is a comfort to us, when we find our own carcases falling in this wilderness.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Beth Peor

This was a town in Moab. See how you translated this in Deuteronomy 3:29.

look at it with your eyes

"see it for yourself"

to this day

This refers to the time that this was written or edited, not to the present time in the twenty-first century.

translationWords

oath

Abraham

Isaac

Jacob

descend

servant

die

word

bury

grave

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

לאמר לזרעך אתננה הראיתיך TO SAY, TO THY SEED WILL I GIVE IT, I HAVE LET THEE SEE IT, i.e. in order that you may go and say to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob: The oath which the Holy One, blessed be He, swore to you — that oath He has fulfilled. This is the force of לאמר (Berakhot 18b), “to say it”, viz., that you may say it — for that reason have I let you see it. But it is a decree from Me that שמה לא תעבר THERE YOU SHALL NOT CROSS OVER; for were this not so, I would keep you alive even until you saw them planted and settled in it, and you would then go and tell them (the patriarchs).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.