John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 1:45

"And ye returned and wept before Jehovah; but Jehovah hearkened not to your voice, nor gave ear unto you." — Deuteronomy 1:45 (ASV)

And you returned and wept before the Lord. He appeals here to the testimony of their own conscience, for they never would have been brought to weeping and prayers except by the force of their own feelings. Since then, they were abundantly convinced that a just punishment was inflicted upon their obstinacy, necessity drove them to seek after God. Consequently, they had no cause to complain, though God manifested Himself to be implacable.

In the last verse, there is an ambiguity in the meaning of these words, “many days, according to the number of the days.” Some, rendering the verb in the pluperfect tense as “in which we had remained there,”⁸⁰ suppose that they still remained there another forty days. But it is equally probable that an indefinite time is referred to, as if he had said that the people delayed there a long time, from which it might be inferred that they lay like persons stupefied from not knowing what to do.

It is Kadesh-barnea to which Moses refers, from where the spies had been sent forth, and not the Kadesh where Miriam died and where the people murmured for lack of water.

⁸⁰ “Quibus antea manseratis.” — Pagninus in Poole. The manseratis.” — Pagninus in Poole. The V. has only “Sedistis ergo in Cades-barne multo tempore.” On this Corn. a Lapide has the following note: “In Hebrew it is added, has only “Sedistis ergo in Cades-barne multo tempore.” On this Corn. a Lapide has the following note: “In Hebrew it is added, according to the days that ye abode, which Vatablus thus explains, Ye remained in Kadesh-barnea as many days after the return of the spies, as ye had remained there before their return. Again, the Hebrews themselves, in which Vatablus thus explains, Ye remained in Kadesh-barnea as many days after the return of the spies, as ye had remained there before their return. Again, the Hebrews themselves, in Sealer Olam, thus explain it, Ye remained in Kadesh-barnea as many days as ye afterwards remained in all your other stations together, viz., 19 years: for twice 19 make 38, to which if you add the two years that had elapsed before they came to Kadesh-barnea, you will have the forty years of their journeyings in the desert. Nothing like this, however, can be gathered from our version, nor from the Hebrew either; for the expression, ‘according to the days that ye abode,’ is merely a Hebrew form of repetition, explanatory of what had preceded, and meaning ‘for a long time.’ — Hence our interpreter has omitted this Hebrew repetition as redundant, and strange to Latin ears.”thus explain it, Ye remained in Kadesh-barnea as many days as ye afterwards remained in all your other stations together, viz., 19 years: for twice 19 make 38, to which if you add the two years that had elapsed before they came to Kadesh-barnea, you will have the forty years of their journeyings in the desert. Nothing like this, however, can be gathered from our version, nor from the Hebrew either; for the expression, ‘according to the days that ye abode,’ is merely a Hebrew form of repetition, explanatory of what had preceded, and meaning ‘for a long time.’ — Hence our interpreter has omitted this Hebrew repetition as redundant, and strange to Latin ears.”