Deuteronomy 34:7

34:5-8 Moses obeyed this command of God as willingly as any other, though it seemed harder. In this he resembled our Lord Jesus Christ. But he died in honour, in peace, and in the most easy manner; the Saviour died upon the disgraceful and torturing cross. Moses died very easily; he died at the mouth of the Lord, according to the will of God. The servants of the Lord, when they have done all their other work, must die at last, and be willing to go home, whenever their Master sends for them, Ac 21:13. The place of his burial was not known. If the soul be at rest with God, it is of little consequence where the body rests. There was no decay in the strength of his body, nor in the vigour and activity of his mind; his understanding was as clear, and his memory as strong as ever. This was the reward of his services, the effect of his extraordinary meekness. There was solemn mourning for him. Yet how great soever our losses have been, we must not give ourselves up to sorrow. If we hope to go to heaven rejoicing, why should we go to the grave mourning?

And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died,.... Which age of his may be divided into three equal periods, forty years in Pharaoh's court, forty years in Midian, and forty in the care and government of Israel, in Egypt and in the wilderness; so long he lived, though the common age of man in his time was but threescore years and ten, Psalm 90:10 ; and what is most extraordinary is: his eyes were not dim; as Isaac's were, and men at such an age, and under, generally be: nor his natural force abated; neither the rigour of his mind nor the strength of his body; his intellectuals were not decayed, his memory and judgment; nor was his body feeble, and his countenance aged; his "moisture" was not "fled" (m), as it may be rendered, his radical moisture; he did not look withered and wrinkled, but plump and sleek, as if he was a young man in the prime of his days: this may denote the continued use of the ceremonial law then to direct to Christ, and the force of the moral law as in the hands of Christ, requiring obedience and conformity to it, as a rule of walk and conversation, 1 Corinthians 9:21. (m) So Ainsworth.

Deuteronomy 34:7 . Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died — But though he lived the full length of human life, and to an age which, in others that live up to it, is accompanied with many diseases and infirmities, yet this had made little or no alteration in him. By a miraculous work of God, in mercy to his church, and for the support of the great cause committed to him, it appears the full vigour of every faculty, both of body and mind, was preserved to him to his dying hour.

Verse 7. - Though Moses had reached the age of a hundred and twenty years, his eye had not become dim, nor were the juices of his body dried. Natural force. The word so rendered ( לֵחַ ) occurs only here; but it is doubtless the subst. connected with the adj. לַח moist, fresh (cf. Genesis 30:37 ; Numbers 6:3 ), and properly means moisture, freshness. It is used here of the natural juices of the body. Deuteronomy 34:7

No man knoweth of his sepulchre - Hardly, lest the grave of Moses should become an object of superstitious honor, because the Jews were not prone to this particular fore of error. Bearing in mind the appearance of Moses at the Transfiguration Matthew 17:1-10 , and what is said by Jude Jde 1:9, we may conjecture that Moses after death passed into the same state with Enoch and Elijah; and that his grave could not be found because he was shortly translated (transported) from it.

6. he buried him—or, "he was buried in a valley," that is, a ravine or gorge of the Pisgah. Some think that he entered a cave and there died, being, according to an ancient tradition of Jews and Christians, buried by angels (Jude 9; Nu 21:20). no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day—This concealment seems to have been owing to a special and wise arrangement of Providence, to prevent its being ranked among "holy places," and made the resort of superstitious pilgrims or idolatrous veneration, in after ages.

7 . an hundred and twenty years ] Dates, we have seen, are characteristic of P; this one is a round number = three full generations (see on Deuteronomy 2:7 ); cp. Exodus 7:7 . nor his natural force abated ] Lit. nor had his sap fled or ebbed . The phrase cannot be assigned to one source more than another.

34 . Cp. Deuteronomy 28:28 ; mad , rather driven mad . 35 breaks the connection between Deuteronomy 28:34; Deuteronomy 28:36 , and is more in place after 27, q.v. on boil . Here sore boil on knees and legs points to the ‘joint-leprosy,’ a species of elephantiasis; cp. Job 2:7 f., Deuteronomy 7:3-6 , Deuteronomy 17:7 , Deuteronomy 19:17 ; Deuteronomy 19:20 , Deuteronomy 30:17 . Deuteronomy 28:34

Though he died at the age of one hundred and twenty (see at Deuteronomy 31:2 ), Moses' eyes had not become dim, and his freshness had not abated (לח ב̔́נ. כוד., connected with לח in Genesis 30:37 , signifies freshness). Thus had the Lord preserved the full vital energy of His servant, even till the time of his death. The mourning of the people lasted thirty days, as in the case of Aaron ( Numbers 20:29 ).