Deuteronomy 1:1-2

PREVIOUS TEACHINGS CONFIRMED, Deuteronomy 1:1-5.

1, 2. These verses form a connexion between this and the preceding books.

These… words… Moses spake Referring, not to the discourses in this book, but to the laws and regulations heretofore recorded. The names of the localities that are given indicate this; and they are introduced with a special significance. The Jewish interpreters speak of them as being mentioned because they were places where the people had especially sinned against Jehovah. Moses thus reminds them of their rebellious acts, and emphasizes the thought that their long wandering was the result of their own sin.

On this side Jordan The Hebrew expression which is used here is in other places translated beyond Jordan; and it was unquestionably employed as a geographical term for the region east of the Jordan, which in the time of our Saviour was called Perea. The term does not indicate the location of the writer, whether he lived on the east or west side of the river. In this connexion it is equivalent to the expression before they crossed the Jordan.

In the wilderness That region north of the Sinaitic peninsula, extending to the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains of Judah on the north, and from the isthmus of Suez to the Arabah. It bears at the present time the name Badut et Tih, literally signifying the “Desert of the Wandering.”

In the plain The Hebrew word here translated plain is used as a proper name in the Arabah. The broad valley which extends from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah, a distance of about a hundred miles, is now called el Arabah.

Over against the Red sea Rather, over against Sufah. Our version adds, improperly, we think, the word sea. Knobel supposes the pass Sufah is meant. It was probably near Ain el Weibeh, not far from the southern border of Palestine.

Between Paran, and Tophel In Numbers 10:12, we read: “The children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai, and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.” It is generally held that the wilderness of Paran comprised the whole of the desert of et Tih, and that Mount Paran was the southernmost portion of the mountain plateau in the northeast part of it. Paran was associated with remembrances of Jehovah’s manifestations to his people: “He shined forth from Mount Paran.” Deuteronomy 33:2. So the prophet Habakkuk, in his sublime ode, Habakkuk 3:3: “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran.”

Tophel This is identified with the modern Tufileh, located in the mountains of Edom, southeast of the Dead Sea. It is surrounded with groves of fruit trees, which are abundantly watered by numerous fountains. The inhabitants furnish supplies to the caravans. It is thought that this is the place where the Israelites purchased food of the Edomites. Deuteronomy 2:29.

Laban Thought to be the same as Libnah. Numbers 33:20. “It may, perhaps, have been the place referred to in Numbers 16:0, where the rebellion of the company of Korah occurred.” Keil.

Hazeroth Literally, enclosures. It may be the place mentioned in Numbers 11:35, where Aaron and Miriam spake against Moses, and where Miriam became leprous. Numbers 12:10. “We may without difficulty identify Hazeroth with Ain Hudherah, not only in the Semitic orthography of the name, but also in being situated exactly a day’s journey from Erweis el Eberrig.” Desert of the Exodus. Erweis el Eberrig has been identified with Kibroth-hattaavah, or “graves of lust.” Numbers 11:34.

Dizahab This name means a place of gold. Robinson thought it might be Dahab, a place on a tongue of land on the west coast of the Gulf of Akabah. The sense of the passage is, that what has been narrated in the preceding books Moses spoke to the people before they crossed the Jordan, while they were in the Desert of Wandering, and in the Arabah opposite Sufah, as they journeyed between Paran and Tophel, and when they were at Libnah and at Hazeroth and at Dizahab. The discourses that are to follow were spoken “in the plains of Moab, by Jordan, near Jericho.”

Numbers 33:48.

Eleven days’ journey from Horeb This parenthetical sentence seems to be introduced to call the mind of the reader to the fact that while Kadesh, on the southern border of the Promised Land, is only eleven days distant from Horeb, the scene of the establishment of the covenant, yet, in the fortieth year, the people, owing to their rebellion, have not yet entered the land. On Horeb see note on Exodus 3:1.

Kadesh-barnea See on Numbers 13:26.