John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 34:1

"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And Jehovah showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan," — Deuteronomy 34:1 (ASV)

And Moses went up from the plains of Moab. It is not certain who wrote this chapter, unless we admit the probable conjecture of the ancients that Joshua was its author. But since Eleazar the priest might have performed this office, it will be better to leave a matter of no very great importance undecided.

We have elsewhere said that one part of Mount Abarim was called Nebo, as another was called Pisgah, because they were distinct summits.

Now, the ascent of Moses was equivalent to a voluntary going forth to death. He was not ignorant of what was to happen; called by God to die, he went to meet death of his own accord.

Such willing submission proceeded from no other source than faith in God’s grace, by which alone all terror is mitigated, set at rest, and the bitterness of death is sweetened.

Doubtless to Moses, as to everyone else, it must have been naturally an awful thing to die. But since the testimony of God’s grace was interposed, he did not hesitate to offer himself without alarm. And because he was firmly persuaded that the inheritance of the people would be set before his eyes, he cheerfully ascended to the place from which he was to behold it.

Already, indeed, by faith had he beheld the land, and the promise of God had been, as it were, a vivid representation of it. But, since some remaining infirmities of the flesh still surround even the most holy persons, seeing it directly was no slight consolation to mitigate the bitterness of his punishment, when he knew that he was prevented from actually entering it by God's just sentence.

When it is said that God showed him all the land, it could not have been the case without a miracle. For, although history records that some have been endowed with incredible powers of vision, allowing them to see further than the whole length of Canaan, there is still a notable peculiarity in this case: Moses distinctly examined every portion of it, as if he had truly been on the spot.

I allow, indeed, that Naphtali, Ephraim, and Manasseh are mentioned by anticipation; but, nevertheless, the Holy Spirit would express that every part was shown to Moses, as if they were close beneath his feet. Otherwise, the vision would have been merely unsatisfactory and useless if he had not been allowed to behold the future dwelling place of the people.

And what is added later also serves the same purpose: that it was the land which God swore to give to His servants. For otherwise, Moses’s desire would not have been satisfied unless he had seen what a pleasant, fertile, and wealthy region the sons of Abraham were about to inhabit.