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Deuteronomy 1

Deuteronomy book home•Chapter 1 of 34•46 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Deuteronomy 1 Overview

Moses begins his final addresses to Israel on the plains of Moab by reviewing how the nation came from Horeb to the edge of Canaan—and why the first generation failed to enter. He recalls the appointment of judges, the mission of the spies, Israel’s refusal to trust the LORD, and the disastrous attempt to fight after God had told them to turn back.

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Before you read Deuteronomy 1

Coming from

Numbers 36 ended with Israel in the plains of Moab, ready to receive final instructions before entering Canaan. Deuteronomy begins in that same setting, with Moses speaking to the new generation.

In this chapter

Moses reviews the journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea and explains how unbelief and rebellion turned an eleven-day route into years of wilderness wandering.

Leads into

Chapter 2 continues the historical review by tracing Israel around Edom, Moab, and Ammon and then recounting the victory over Sihon.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Deuteronomy is not merely a second copy of earlier laws. Moses is renewing and applying the covenant to a generation that was about to enter the land without him. Chapter 1 makes the wilderness history pastoral and judicial: Israel must understand why the earlier generation fell and why presumption after rebellion was not the same as faith. The chapter also shows that delegated human judges served under God’s authority rather than replacing it.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

God had already brought Israel to the edge of the land, but the people refused to go up because fear outweighed confidence in what the LORD had said.

Truth 2

The LORD’s judgment on the unbelieving generation was national and temporal: that generation would die in the wilderness rather than enter Canaan.

Truth 3

Presumption is not obedience. Israel’s later decision to fight was wrong because God had told them not to go.

Truth 4

Moses’ leadership included sharing judicial burdens with qualified men while remaining accountable to God.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Numbers 13–14 gives the events Moses is reviewing here in fuller narrative form.

Connection 2

Psalm 95 recalls Israel’s wilderness hardening and warns later hearers not to repeat it.

Connection 3

Hebrews 3:7–19 uses the wilderness refusal as a warning about unbelief and hardening; the historical issue in Deuteronomy remains Israel’s failure to enter the land.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not treat the conquest of Canaan as a picture of receiving eternal life. The chapter concerns Israel’s covenant mission and possession of the promised land.

Keep this clear 2

Do not call the failed attack faith. It came after the LORD had forbidden the people to go up.

Keep this clear 3

Caleb and Joshua’s survival does not mean every person who died in the wilderness was eternally lost; the text is dealing with God’s historical judgment on that generation.

Read Deuteronomy 1 watching for…

How often Moses reminds Israel that the LORD had already spoken clearly.

The contrast between the spies’ good report about the land and the people’s fearful response.

The specific sentence passed on the unbelieving generation.

The difference between refusing God’s command and later acting without God’s command.

How Moses explains leadership, judgment, and shared responsibility.

Chapter outline6 sections

1-8Moses begins his review and recalls the command to leave Horeb 9-18Moses recalls the appointment of judges 19-25Israel comes to Kadesh-barnea and the spies search the land 26-33Israel refuses to go up because of unbelief and fear 34-40The LORD judges the unbelieving generation 41-46Israel attacks without God’s command and is defeated

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.

(There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)

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;

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:

On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,

The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount:

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.

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.

And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone:

The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.

(The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)

How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?

Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.

And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do.

So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.

And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.

Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.

And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do.

And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadeshbarnea.

And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us.

Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.

And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.

And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe:

And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out.

And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us.

Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:

And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.

Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.

The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;

And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.

Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,

Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.

And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying,

Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers,

Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.

Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.

But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.

But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill.

And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.

So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the hill.

And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.

And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you.

So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.

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Deuteronomy 1:11

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