Old Testament Commentary - Deuteronomy 34

by Don R. Hender


Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
             CHAPTER 34            

Moses sees promised land and is taken by the Lord—Joshua leads Israel—Moses was Israel's greatest prophet.

  1 AND Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is aover against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,
  2 And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto athe utmost sea,
  3 And the asouth, and the plain of the valley of bJericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.
  4 And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I asware 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.
  5 ¶ So aMoses the servant of the LORD bdied there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.
  6 And he aburied him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth bof his csepulchre unto this day.
  7 ¶ And Moses was an ahundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
  8 ¶ And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and amourning for Moses were ended.
  9 ¶ And Joshua the son of aNun was full of the spirit of wisdoma; for Moses had blaid his hands upon himb: and the children of Israel chearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses.
 9a Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom Joshua assumed the full mantle of being the prophet of the Lord. Yet from the Jewish perspective, all such prophets which followed Moses did but live in Moses' shadow. This ought not be the case. Moses was a great prophet and a head of a dispensation of time and the bearer of the keys of the gathering of Israel. But one ought not elevate any such prophet of God to such a level that the man become greater than the position, which is that he is a man of weakness made strong in position by the arm and power of God.
 9b Moses had laid his hands upon him Moses had ordained Joshua to the powers of the priesthood after the order of God. Moses had also ordained Aaron and the sons of Aaron to the lesser Levitical priesthood. The power of these ordinations come from and are of God, yet the Jewish perspective tends to lean toward giving Moses the credit in the manner which they tell the history rather than attributing to Joshua that he had his authority from God just as Moses did and that it was not reliant upon Moses in any way. It is totaly reliant upon the Lord and not of man.
  10 ¶ And there arose not a aprophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew bface to face,
  11 In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,
  12 And in all that mighty ahand, and in all the great bterror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.