Deuteronomy 1:12

1:9-18 Moses reminds the people of the happy constitution of their government, which might make them all safe and easy, if it was not their own fault. He owns the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham, and prays for the further accomplishment of it. We are not straitened in the power and goodness of God; why should we be straitened in our own faith and hope? Good laws were given to the Israelites, and good men were to see to the execution of them, which showed God's goodness to them, and the care of Moses.

How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? His meaning is, that he could not hear and try all their causes, and determine all their law suits, and decide the strifes and controversies which arose between them; it was too heavy for him, and brought too much trouble and incumbrance upon him.

Deuteronomy 1:12-13 . How can I alone bear your burden? — The trouble of ruling and managing so perverse a people. Your strife — Your contentions among yourselves, for the determination whereof the elders were appointed. Take ye wise men and understanding — Persons of knowledge, wisdom, and experience. Known among your tribes — Hebrew, to your tribes; men had in reputation for ability and integrity; for to such they would more readily submit.

Verse 12. - Moses appeals to the good sense of the people themselves: How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? Cumbrance : this is a just rendering of the Hebrew word מֹרֲח , from טָרַח , which, though it occurs only in the Hiphil in Hebrew, in the sense of to cast down ( Job 17:11 ), probably was in use also in the Kal, in the sense of to lay upon, to encumber, which is the meaning of the cognate Arabic followed by . Burden ( שָּׁא , from נָשָׂא , to lift up, to carry, to bear), something lifted up and carried, a load or burden. Strife : ( רִיב ) here, not mere contention, but litigation, suit-at-law. Some understand all these three, of troubles and burdens laid upon Moses, by his being called upon to compose differences, and adjust competing claims among the people. But other burdens besides these came upon him as the leader of the nation; and it seems best, therefore, to understand the first two of troubles and burdens generally. Deuteronomy 1:12

This appointment of the "captains" (compare Exodus 18:21 ff) must not be confounded with that of the elders in Numbers 11:16 ff. The former would number 78,600; the latter were 70 only. A comparison between this passage and that in Exodus makes it obvious that Moses is only touching on certain parts of the whole history, without regard to order of time, but with a special purpose. This important arrangement for the good government of the people took place before they left Horeb to march direct to the promised land. This fact sets more clearly before us the perverseness and ingratitude of the people, to which the orator next passes; and shows, what he was anxious to impress, that the fault of the 40 years' delay rested only with themselves!

10. ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude—This was neither an Oriental hyperbole nor a mere empty boast. Abraham was told (Ge 15:5, 6) to look to the stars, and though they "appear" innumerable, yet those seen by the naked eye amount, in reality, to no more than three thousand ten in both hemispheres. The Israelites already far exceeded that number, being at the last census above six hundred thousand [Nu 26:51]. It was a seasonable memento, calculated to animate their faith in the accomplishment of other parts of the divine promise.

12 . How ] This emphatic Heb. form is found in the Pent. only here, Deuteronomy 7:17 , Deuteronomy 12:30 , Deuteronomy 18:21 , ( Deuteronomy 32:30 ). can I myself alone bear ] See on Deuteronomy 1:9 . your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife ] Better the weight, the burden, and the strife of you . Weight cp. Isaiah 1:14 , they are a weight upon me, I am weary of bearing . Is the use of the word here an echo of Isaiah? The Heb. ṭoraḥ is not found elsewhere in the O. T. Burden or carriage , cp. J, Numbers 11:11 , the burden of all this people upon me , and 17. Strife ; the Heb. rîb is used in JE of quarrels about wells and other physical struggles; but also of law-disputes, and of Israel’s contentiousness with Moses and God (E, Exodus 17:2 ; Exodus 17:7 ; J, Numbers 20:3 ; P, Numbers 20:13 ; and in the Song, Deuteronomy 33:8 ). In D four times for law-pleas . Here it is either the people’s litigiousness among themselves or their frequent contentions with Moses and God.

[Bible] Deuteronomy Chapter 1 A repetition of what passed at Sinai and Cadesbarne: and of the people's murmuring and their punishment. 1:1. These are the words, which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the plain wilderness, over against the Red Sea, between Pharan and Thophel and Laban and Haseroth, where there is very much gold. 1:2. Eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Cadesbarne. 1:3. In the fortieth year, the eleventh month, the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel all that the Lord had commanded him to say to them: 1:4. After that he had slain Sehon king of the Amorrhites, who dwelt in Hesebon: and Og king of Basan who abode in Astaroth, and in Edrai, 1:5. Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab. And Moses began to expound the law, and to say: 1:6. The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: You have stayed long enough in this mountain: 1:7. Turn you, and come to the mountain of the Amorrhites, and to the other places that are next to it, the plains and the hills and the vales towards the south, and by the sea shore, the land of the Chanaanites, and of Libanus, as far as the great river Euphrates. 1:8. Behold, said he, I have delivered it to you: go in and possess it, concerning which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to them, and to their seed after them. 1:9. And I said to you at that time: 1:10. I alone am not able to bear you: for the Lord your God hath multiplied you, and you are this day as the stars of heaven, for multitude. 1:11. (The Lord God of your fathers add to this number many thousands, and bless you as he hath spoken.) 1:12. I alone am not able to bear your business, and the charge of you and your differences. 1:13. Let me have from among you wise and understanding men, and such whose conversation is approved among your tribes, that I may appoint them your rulers. 1:14. Then you answered me: The thing is good which thou meanest to do.