Deuteronomy 1:8 - Exposition

Behold, I have set the land before you : literally, have given the land before you , i . e . have made it over to you, that you may go and take possession of it. The Lord had placed this land in the power of the Israelites, had given it up to them to possess and use it, according as he had sworn to their fathers, the patriarchs, to give it to them and their seed (comp. Genesis 12:7 ; Genesis 13:15 ; Genesis 15:18 , etc.; Genesis 22:16 ). At Horeb, therefore, they received the charter of their inheritance, and might have gone on at once to take possession of the land. The delay that had occurred had arisen solely from their own waywardness and perversity, not from anything on the part of God.