Deuteronomy 31:2 - Chapters 31-33. Summary

I am an hundred and twenty years old this day. When Moses stood before Pharaoh he was eighty years old ( Exodus 7:7 ); since then forty years had elapsed during the wanderings in the wilderness. I can no more go out and come in ; I am no longer able to work among and for the nation as I have hitherto done (cf. Numbers 27:17 ). This does not conflict with the statement in Deuteronomy 34:7 , that up to the time of his death his eyes were not dim nor his natural strength abated, for this is the statement of an observer, and it often happens that an individual feels himself to be failing, when to those around him he appears to possess unabated vigor. There is no need, therefore, for resorting, with Raschi and others, to the expedient of reading "for" instead of "and" in the following clause; as if the cause why Moses could no longer go in and out among the people was God's prohibition of his going over Jordan. This is simply another and collateral reason why he had now to retire flora his post as leader.