Beyond. The eastern side of the Jordan is so called in Scripture, with reference to the promised land. (Menochius) — Hebrew may mean also, “on this side, or at the passage” about Bethabara, “the house of passage,” near which the Hebrews were encamped, and where Josue probably crossed over the Jordan, as it was the usual ford. Calmet seems to think that these two first verses have been inverted by Esdras, &c., or interpolated, as he says Moses never crossed the Jordan, and certainly addressed the Hebrews near that river, at a great distance from the Red Sea: but the text does not assert the contrary. It only determines that the place where he harangued them, was a part of the wilderness, or the plains of Moab, over-against the Red Sea, which they had left when they came from Asiongaber, unless the term Suph, which signifies red, may be a proper name of the station Supha, near the torrent Zared, (Numbers xxi. 14,) as Calmet maintains. If this be admitted, this difficulty vanishes, for the camp of Israel was certainly over-against, and not even remote from this place. The other cities may have been in the environs, or Moses may have referred to the stations and places in the desert of Pharan, at Tophel, Laban, or Lebna, Haseroth, (Numbers xxxiii. 17,) where there is very much gold, (Septuagint, “gold mines;” Hebrew, “dizahab,”) and Cades-barne. Lebna, Haseroth, and Cades-barne, were in the territory of the Idumeans, who dwelt to the south-west of the plains of Moab. Tophel and Dizahab are unknown (Calmet) as well as Laban, Haseroth, and Pharan, if they be not the names of encampments. Geographers vary so much in their descriptions of the road, which the Hebrews followed, and in maps of the adjacent countries, that it is now impossible to decide. (Haydock)
In the country of Moab. So that the wilderness was between the Sea and this plain of Moab. That is, a second law: so called, because the Law which God gave in mount Sinai, is here repeated, as though it were a new Law: and this book is a commentary or exposition of the ten commandments.
Verses 1-8 Moses spake to the people all the Lord had given him in commandment. Horeb was but eleven days distant from Kadesh-barnea. This was to remind them that their own bad conduct had occasioned their tedious wanderings; that they might the more readily understand the advantages of obedience. They must now go forward. Though God brings his people into trouble and affliction, he knows when they have been tried long enough. When God commands us to go forward in our Christian course, he sets the heavenly Canaan before us for our encouragement.
In the country of Moab. So that the wilderness was between the Sea and this plain of Moab. That is, a second law: so called, because the Law which God gave in mount Sinai, is here repeated, as though it were a new Law: and this book is a commentary or exposition of the ten commandments.
We have here, I. The date of this sermon which Moses preached to the people of Israel. A great auditory, no question, he had, as many as could crowd within hearing, and particularly all the elders and officers, the representatives of the people; and, probably, it was on the sabbath day that he delivered this to them. 1. The place were they were now encamped was in the plain, in the land of Moab (v. 1, 5), where they were just ready to enter Canaan, and engage in a war with the Canaanites. Yet he discourses not to them concerning military affairs, the arts and stratagems of war, but concerning their duty to God; for, if they kept themselves in his fear and favour, he would secure to them the conquest of the land: their religion would be their best policy. 2. The time was near the end of the fortieth year since they came out of Egypt. So long God had borne their manners, and they had borne their own iniquity (Num 14 34), and now that a new and more pleasant scene was to be introduced, as a token for good, Moses repeats the law to them. Thus, after God's controversy with them on account of the golden calf, the first and surest sign of God's being reconciled to them was the renewing of the tables. There is no better evidence and earnest of God's favour than his putting his law in our hearts, Ps 147 19, 20.
Cades-barne. All the distance between Horeb and the Jordan, by Mount Seir, on the road to Cades-barne, might have been travelled in eleven days’ time, being about 300 miles; or the Hebrews were so long in going thither, Numbers xxxiii. 17. (Calmet) — It was to punish the Israelites for their frequent rebellions, that they were condemned to wander in that wilderness forty years. (Du Hamel) — They might have entered the promised land, when they first came to Cades-barne, from Mount Horeb, (Numbers xiii. 1, 27,) which, even by the circuitous road of Mount Seir, would not have taken them above eleven days. He mentions this to remind them of their folly. Perhaps all the aforesaid places may have been between Horeb and Cades-barne, as Bonfrere maintains that Laban was in the neighbourhood of Sinai, where Moses first received the law which he is now going to explain. His discourse turns upon the chief occurrences of the forty years’ journey; and hence, these are the words, (ver. 1,) may refer not only to what he was going to say, but also to the commands which he had already notified to the Israelites, from the passage of the Red Sea till the station Abelsetim, upon the banks of the Jordan, Numbers xxxvi. 13. (Haydock) — Deuteronomy contains a recapitulation of the law, and therefore it was to be read aloud to all the people on the feast of tabernacles, every seventh year; and the new kings, or rulers of the Hebrews, were commanded to transcribe it, and every day read some part for the rule of their conduct, chap. xvii. 18., and xxxi. 10. (Tirinus)
The words Moses spake to Israel in the plains of Moab, The promise of Canaan. (1-8) Judges provided for the people. (9-18) Of the sending the spies-God's anger for their unbelief and disobedience. (19-46)
1 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. 2 (There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.) 3 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; 4 After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei: 5 On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, 6 The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: 7 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. 8 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.