Deuteronomy 1:8

1:1-8 Moses spake to the people all the Lord had given him in commandment. Horeb was but eleven days distant from Kadesh-barnea. This was to remind them that their own bad conduct had occasioned their tedious wanderings; that they might the more readily understand the advantages of obedience. They must now go forward. Though God brings his people into trouble and affliction, he knows when they have been tried long enough. When God commands us to go forward in our Christian course, he sets the heavenly Canaan before us for our encouragement.

Behold, I have set the land before you,.... Described it to them, and set its bounds, as well as had given them a grant of it: go in and possess the land, which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and their seed after them: and which being thus made sure unto them, they had nothing more to do than to go and take possession of it.

Verse 8. - 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. Deuteronomy 1:8

8. I have set the land before you—literally, "before your faces"—it is accessible; there is no impediment to your occupation. The order of the journey as indicated by the places mentioned would have led to a course of invasion, the opposite of what was eventually followed; namely, from the seacoast eastward—instead of from the Jordan westward (see on [110]Nu 20:1).

8 . Behold ] Sg. but even if this reading be correct (Sam. and LXX read Pl.) it is meant as an interjection and is no proof of a change to the Sg. address, cp. Deuteronomy 4:5 . I have set … before you ] Heb. given before you, given up to you ; in this sense both of land and foe; eleven times in D, and not elsewhere in Heb.; in D nearly always with Sg. which the Lord sware ] As the Lord Himself is the speaker, we ought perhaps to read with LXX and Sam. which I sware . Yet their reading may be a correction of the original, which in that case would be a symptom of the carelessness of the writer in not sustaining the situation he assumed. The anthropomorphism, imputing an oath to the Deity, is found in JE ( Genesis 22:16 ), especially in the phrases, sware unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ( Genesis 50:24 ; Exodus 32:13 ; Exodus 33:1 ); to Abraham thy father ( Genesis 26:3 ); to thy fathers or to them ( Numbers 11:12 ; Numbers 14:16 ; Numbers 14:23 ); thee and thy fathers ( Exodus 13:11 ). Used in D of special oaths ( Deuteronomy 1:34 , Deuteronomy 2:14 , Deuteronomy 4:21 ); of the covenant ( Deuteronomy 4:31 ); or as here of the land which he sware unto thy, your, or our fathers , 22 or 23 times.

This land the Lord had placed at the disposal of the Israelites for them to take possession of, as He had sworn to the fathers (patriarchs) that He would give it to their posterity (cf. Genesis 12:7 ; Genesis 13:15 ; Genesis 15:18 ., etc.). The "swearing" on the part of God points back to Genesis 22:16 . The expression "to them and to their seed" is the same as "to thee and to thy seed" in Genesis 13:15 ; Genesis 17:8 , and is not to be understood as signifying that the patriarchs themselves ought to have taken actual possession of Canaan; but "to their seed" is in apposition, and also a more precise definition (comp. Genesis 15:7 with Genesis 15:18 , where the simple statement "to thee" is explained by the fuller statement "to thy seed"). ראה has grown into an interjection equals הנּה. לפני נתן: to give before a person, equivalent to give up to a person, or place at his free disposal (for the use of the word in this sense, see Genesis 13:9 ; Genesis 34:10 ). Jehovah (this is the idea of Deuteronomy 1:6-8 ), when He concluded the covenant with the Israelites at Horeb, had intended to fulfil at once the promise which He gave to the patriarchs, and to put them into possession of the promised land; and Moses had also done what was required on his part, as he explained in Deuteronomy 1:9-18 , to bring the people safety to Canaan (cf. Exodus 18:23 ).

As the nation had multiplied as the stars of heaven, in accordance with the promise of the Lord, and he felt unable to bear the burden alone and settle all disputes, he had placed over them at that time wise and intelligent men from the heads of the tribes to act as judges, and had instructed them to adjudicate upon the smaller matters of dispute righteously and without respect of person. For further particulars concerning the appointment of the judges, see at Exodus 18:13-26 , where it is related how Moses adopted this plan at the advice of Jethro, even before the giving of the law at Sinai. The expression "at that time," in Deuteronomy 1:9 , is not at variance with this. The imperfect ואמר with vav rel., expresses the order of thought and not of time. For Moses did not intend to recall the different circumstances to the recollection of the people in their chronological order, but arranged them according to their relative importance in connection with the main object of his address. And this required that he should begin with what God had done for the fulfilment of His promise, and then proceed afterwards to notice what he, the servant of God, had done in his office, as an altogether subordinate matter.