Deuteronomy 1:1–18
1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. 3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them, 4 after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. 5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, 6 “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’
9 “At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself. 10 The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. 11 May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! 12 How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? 13 Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ 14 And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ 15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. 16 And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. 17 You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ 18 And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.”
Section Overview: Superscription; Territory of the Land of Promise; Appointment of Chiefs
The circumstances of the instruction of Moses is laid out in a full description of place and time. Although the information of this complex superscription to the sermons of Moses appears to be a fragmentary association of times and places, it has a sensibly ordered symmetry. The description of this setting must be understood according to the way in which it is ordered:
(A) Site in the wilderness before the journey through Moab (v. 1)
(B) Time addressed in the first sermon of Moses (v. 2)
(C) Date at which the instruction of Moses began (v. 3)
(B') Time addressed in the second sermon of Moses (v. 4)
(A') Site in Moab after the conquest of Transjordan (v. 5)
The first two lines of the chiasm identify the beginning of the wilderness journey; the last two identify its termination in the plains of Moab. This comprehensive inclusio explains the fortieth year of these sermons.
The Hebrew text indicates a break after Deuteronomy 2:1, dividing the introductory narrative into two units: 1:1–2:1 and 2:2–29. Following the heading in 1:1–5, the first part of the narrative includes events in the year following the exodus, beginning with the command to leave Horeb (v. 6). The second part begins at the end of the forty-year sojourn, when God said they had traveled the hill country of Kadesh-barnea long enough (2:3). Deuteronomy 1:6 and 2:3 have a certain rhyme: shevet bahar (“you have stayed about this mountain,” AT; 1:6) and sob ‘et har (“you have been travelling about these hills,” AT; 2:3). The superscription introduces each of these two sections: the first when they left Horeb and the second when they arrived in Moab.
This complex heading sets out the background for the exposition of “this law” expounded by Moses (1:5). “This law” is the heart of Deuteronomy, its teaching being foundational to the life of the people. The first address of Moses begins with the journey from Mount Sinai in 1:6. The second sermon introduces “this . . . law” in 4:44, when Moses explains it to Israel. “This law” refers to the exhortations of chapters 5–11 and the regulations of 12–28. These instructions and responsibilities of the covenant are concluded with the exhortation of the third sermon in chapters 29–30. The exposition of this Torah is given after the defeat of Sihon and Og (1:4), when the forty years of wilderness wandering are complete (v. 3). The superscription introduces the times and places covered in the three sermons of Moses.
Section Outline
I.A. Setting of the Last Words of Moses (1:1–5)
I.B. Wilderness Journeys (1:6–3:29)
1. Journeys about Kadesh-barnea (1:6–2:1)
a. Preparations at Horeb (1:6–18)
(1) Land of Promise (1:6–8)
(2) Appointment of Chiefs (1:9–18)
Response
No other migration is comparable to that described as the circumstances in which Moses explains the covenant to a new generation of Israelites. This is a miracle no smaller in scope than the exodus from Egypt with the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea. The events given in the superscription as the precedent to this sermon are appropriately celebrated at the great festival of the seventh month. This festival celebrated the completion of harvest and the beginning of the new agricultural year. It was known not only for the gathering of the harvest (Lev. 23:39) but also for the building of temporary shelters (Hb. sukkot) to commemorate the journey of Israel through the wilderness (Lev. 23:43–44), and thus was known as the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles). This was a pilgrimage festival at which all family representatives were to go to the chosen place, and every seventh year they would renew the covenant in the reading of the Torah (Deut. 31:10–11). This celebration grew over time with the lighting of giant menorahs in the temple courtyard, all-night dancing to flutes by torch light, dawn processions ending with libations of water and wine at the bronze altar, prayers for rain and the resurrection of the dead, and people carrying fruit and waving palm branches (Mishnah, Sukkah). The wilderness wandering was a severe mercy, harsh and punishing, but was also a preservation of the covenant people to inherit the promises of the patriarchs.
It is all too common that camps of migrants or refugees go on for a generation or more as described in this account. What is virtually impossible in all such cases is the maintenance of some sense of order and support over such a long period of time. The choosing of leaders during the migration of Israel is explicit in Exodus 18:13–27 and Numbers 11:16–30. Unique to Deuteronomy is the initiative of Moses in choosing leaders with approval of the people. Moses begins with those who have already demonstrated ability because of wisdom and experience. The proposal of governance is an extensive structure involving thousands of individuals at all its levels. It is done by appointment in the hierarchical manner of military order, though apparently with individual participation at all levels of authority. A military formation is appropriate, as Israel is marching to war once it leaves the encampment. But in a nonmilitary situation this governance provides for all matters of dispute to be appropriately adjudicated, since leaders are provided for groups as small as ten. These are integrated with ranked officials as cases become more difficult. Other officers are appointed to keep records. Supervised leadership to the level of detail described by Moses can go a long way for maintaining order in contemporary refugee camps that go on for generations. Even so, the success of maintaining order in the magnitude of the Israelite camp over the length of a full generation is supernatural. It begins with a prophet and lawgiver appointed by God, whose influence extends through others to everyone in the camp.
God cares about migrants forced out of their land of birth. They are not perfect, but that does not alter their worthiness for provision both materially and socially. The grandparents of this author were forced out of their homeland by Stalin and lost all of their property. In Canada a local agent was fraudulent and after ten years robbed them of all their possessions a second time. Their church community was very minimally supportive of them. That legacy lives on with the children’s children. Provision for migrants is one of the most critical aspects of God’s work in the world today.
1:1–2 The locations named in the first verse are found in the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula. The years of wilderness wandering were spent almost entirely in this wilderness. The wilderness named “Arabah” is a deep rift that extends a valley south of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba (see 1:7; 2:8). The term also commonly includes the Jordan Valley from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. The name “Suph” (= “reeds”) was a designation of the Red Sea in ancient times. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, the people went through the Yam Suf (Ex. 15:4). That location is not known, but it cannot be the one here in Deuteronomy. Ancient writers also referred to the port of Elath (Gulf of Aqaba) on the Red Sea as Yam Suf (Deut. 1:40; 2:1), which is the context of the places mentioned in this verse; the Israelites were in this area at a time in which Moses could have delivered his exhortation.
In verse 1, Suph appears to be a further definition of Arabah. “Opposite Suph” is a natural translation of the Hebrew mol suf, referring to the location at which the Israelites began their march in the Arabah from Seir toward Moab. The other five locations define a region in the southern Sinai Peninsula. The Desert of Paran refers to the Sinai Peninsula; the name Paran in this verse may designate the largest oasis in southeast Sinai (Feiran), near traditional Mount Sinai. Tophel is known only in this reference as a place near Paran. Hazeroth was the site of the second encampment after Sinai (Num. 11:35; 33:17). Laban may be the same as Libnah in the Sinai (Num. 33:17–21). Dizahab is located on the Gulf of Aqaba.
Kadesh-barnea is the largest oasis in the Sinai Peninsula, just west of the modern Egypt-Israel border. It is a site of fertile fields and several springs, situated near the junction of the “Way to Shur” leading to Egypt and the road linking Raphia to Elath on the Gulf of Aqaba. The Mount Seir route ended in Edom, the area south of the Dead Sea. Israel later requested permission to travel this route from Kadesh-barnea to Edom (Num. 20:16). The journey from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea on this route was only eleven days. This was all the time Israel needed to arrive at the entrance to the Promised Land. The events at Kadesh-barnea, however, resulted in Israel’s wandering this wilderness for thirty-eight years. The consequences of not trusting in God are one of the themes of the first address of Moses.
1:3–5 The three sermons of Deuteronomy given at the command of Yahweh are dated precisely to the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year in order to integrate them into the previous chronology of the books of the Torah (cf. Num. 10:11; Deut. 2:14). The time of the rebellious generation is now over. The sermons preached earlier in Sinai, described in the opening verse, must be repeated to another generation. The time is described in relation to the critical military conquests that enabled Israel to camp in the Transjordan (Num. 21:21–22:1), which are the second key theme in the first sermon of Moses. These events begin to reverse the disastrous outcome of the failure of faith at Kadesh-barnea.
The kingdoms of Sihon and Og were to the east and north of where Israel was encamped at the Jordan. Heshbon, the capital of Sihon, is preserved as Tell Hesban, 15 miles (24 km) north of where the Jordan enters the Dead Sea. Based on archaeological excavations, the actual location of the city in the days of Moses appears to have been about 7 miles (11.3 km) south of the current tell. Tell Ashterah is a site along the King’s Highway in Syria, referred to as “Ashteroth-karnaim” in Genesis 14:5. It is mentioned in correspondences between Egypt and Canaan in the time of Moses in clay tablets known as the Amarna Letters (cf. Deut. 1:26–28). Edrei has been identified as Daraa, a town south of Ashtaroth near the tributary of Yarmuk. It is mentioned in Ugaritic inscriptions and in Joshua 12:4; 13:12, 31.
Moses explains this “law” to the people. The Hebrew word torah carries the sense of teaching rather than legal requirement. The noun torah is derived from the verb to teach (yarah), which is the kind of “instruction” revealed in Exodus 24:12. On the mountain at Sinai, Moses was given the Torah on two tablets of stone to teach (lehorot) Israel. The noun torah includes civil and ritual procedures (Ex. 18:16), prophetic teaching and reproof (Isa. 1:10), moral exhortation (Prov. 1:8), and didactic narrative (Ps. 78:1). In Deuteronomy Torah is the instruction of the covenant to which all are subject; it reveals the sovereign will of God. The king must read these covenant words so that his heart will not be lifted above the people’s (Deut. 17:19–20). This instruction creates equality for all people no matter one’s status in society. King and people are bound to the same instruction, an ideal otherwise unknown in the time of Israel.
1:6 Moses reminds the people of the command given at Mount Sinai to the previous generation; they were to proceed to the land formally tendered to them. At Mount Sinai, after the idolatry of the golden calf, God revealed his name to Moses to assure the beleaguered leader that he would find rest in the Promised Land (Ex. 33:14). The name Yahweh would become synonymous with the mercy of the God of the covenant (Ex. 33:19; 34:5–6; Ps. 103:7–8; Jonah 4:2). This mercy would make possible the continuation of the covenant and the promise. The fiery glory cloud of divine presence led Israel away from Mount Sinai in the second year, on the twentieth day of the second month (Num. 10:11–12). The entire retrospection that constitutes the prologue of the covenant renewal deals with Israel’s response to the command to enter the land and the consequences of its lack of faith.
1:7–8 The Land of Promise is described in terms of its regions. The “hill country of the Amorites” refers to the central highlands that will become the heartland of Israelite settlement. The Amorites will be the first peoples Israel encounters when it enters the land. The Arabah in this context is the Jordan Valley, from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. The hill country of the Shephelah is the rolling region to the west of the central highlands, which becomes low hills as it extends to the coastal plain along the seashore. The Negeb in biblical times is limited to the area beginning about 15 miles (24 km) north of Beersheba and extending south to the wilderness of Zin. The eastern part of the Negeb belongs to Seir-Edom. It is a dry area, as the term signifies. The land of Canaan extends north along the sea coast to the Lebanon mountain ranges and up the Beka Valley as far as the bend in the Euphrates River. The northern boundary of Canaan during the Hittite Empire (c. 1275 BC) was set at Lebo-hamath on the Orontes River.
1:9–13 Moses recalls the provisions for leadership that took place at Horeb before the journey from Mount Horeb to Kadesh-barnea. He appointed chiefs to serve as officers and judges. This introduction serves as a reminder to the way Yahweh prepared the people to enter their inheritance. The extraordinary growth that necessitated the appointment of leaders was also a reminder of the fulfillment of the divine promise. This event is recorded in Exodus 18:13–27, at the occasion of a visit from Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law. The appointment of chiefs is not explicitly initiated by God. Jethro advises Moses that he will be exhausted unless an organizational structure is put in place. Moses here recounts how he commanded the people to select proven leaders from among their tribes.
“At that time” refers to the year the people camped at Horeb. Although the arrival of Jethro is placed before the giving of the covenant at Sinai in the narrative, Exodus 18:5 states that Jethro arrived with his daughter and her sons when the people had encamped at the mountain of God, and he left them immediately after the process was complete (Ex. 18:27). According to Numbers 10:29–32 Jethro left as the Israelites were preparing to leave Horeb, almost one year after they had arrived. According to Exodus 19:1 the Israelites arrived at Horeb (= Sinai) on the first day of the third month after leaving Egypt, and according to Numbers 10:11 they left Horeb in the second year on the twentieth day of the second month.
Both Numbers and Deuteronomy are explicit regarding the need for a structure of chiefs to distribute the work of leading the people. According to biblical tradition, the number of men of military age at the time of the exodus was six hundred thousand. One person could not keep order in a multitude of that size. The “weight” (Hb. torakh; v. 12) included the issues of finding food and water as well as settling disputes. At the time of Isaiah the appointed festivals and ritual became a torakh to the Lord (Isa. 1:14). These are the only two occurrences of this noun in the Hebrew Bible, but the generic use of the term indicates the inclusive nature of the burdens involved.
The selection of chiefs was done by the people. Those selected were previously known for their leadership ability in their respective tribes. The qualifications required men who were wise, discerning, and experienced. This is in keeping with the emphasis of wisdom in Deuteronomy. Divine revelation and keeping of the covenant are wisdom for Israel that is recognized by all the surrounding nations (Deut. 4:6, 8). Failure to follow the values of the covenant or any perversion of the truth is an obvious lack of wisdom (Deut. 16:19). “Wise, understanding, and experienced” (1:13) are the same three nouns that define the wise person in Ecclesiastes 9:11, which indicates that they are a standard description of wisdom. Jethro tells Moses that the chiefs must be capable men who fear God, trustworthy men who spurn ill-gotten gain. These qualities of wisdom are spoken of repeatedly in Proverbs.
1:14–18 Chiefs of tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands would have involved tens of thousands of leaders according to the biblical numbers of the exodus. The chiefs of the tribes are called “commanders” (Hb. sarim), leaders whose duties are both military and judicial. The seventy elders who usually serve as leaders for the people along with Moses are not mentioned (Ex. 24:9; Num. 11:16). Appointment of military officers to provide order and adjudicate civil disputes was a common practice in ancient societies. Pharaoh Horemheb, who lived shortly before the time usually assigned to Moses (c. 1333–1306 BC), issued a decree for the Egyptian judiciary, seeking persons of integrity and good character. An inscription from a later time found at an Israelite fortress at Yavneh-Yam (c. 630 BC) is an appeal for justice addressed to the commander (sar) from someone in his company. Israel is frequently depicted in the exodus as an army marching out of Egypt in military formation to the Promised Land. The term “hosts” (tsebaʼot) is used to describe the people (e.g., Ex. 6:26; 7:4; 12:17, 41, 51) and typically refers the troops of an army.
The choosing of leaders does not give the Levites a specific role. According to Chronicles, Levites have a central role when David organizes the administration over his kingdom. David appoints judges and officers to keep order in the outer districts of his kingdom from the ranks of the Levites (1 Chron. 26:29). Moses in similar manner appointed “heads” (shoterim) to serve with the chiefs in their judicial work (Deut. 1:15), but they were not related to the Levites. The role of these officers is usually associated with the judiciary. Record keeping would be essential to the judiciary. These officers were subordinate to the sar, but the work of leading and judging depended on them.
Emphasis is placed on the impartiality of judgment, which includes the “alien” who lives among the Israelites. All persons are subject to God, who is the supreme Lawgiver. This law therefore applies equally to all people. Judges act as divine representatives; “the judgment is God’s.” A hierarchy in judicial affairs is part of the military organization. The most difficult cases are to be brought to Moses. Difficult cases would include those situations not known in the law, and Moses would need to consult God directly (Ex. 18:19). This is seen in practice at various times (Lev. 24:10–23; Num. 9:1–14; 15:32–36; 27:1–11; 36:1–10). The laws of the covenant Moses references Deuteronomy 1:18 must be those given at Horeb. Unique to Israel is its teaching the law to all the people. This is the goal of Moses in Deuteronomy, and it is necessary because torah is not limited to civil regulations; it is the integrated instruction of the covenant necessary to living a life of trust and obedience.