John Gill Commentary Deuteronomy 1

These be the words which Moses spoke unto all Israel
Not what are related in the latter part of the preceding book, but what follow in this; and which were spokenby him, not to the whole body of the people gathered together to hear him, which they could not do without amiracle; but to the heads of the people, the representatives of them, who were convened to hear what he hadto say, in order to communicate it to the people; unless we can suppose that Moses at different times toseveral parties of them delivered the same things, until they had all heard them:

on this side Jordan ;
before the passage of the Israelites over it to the land of Canaan; for Moses never went in thither, andtherefore it must be the tract which the Greeks call Persea, and which with respect to the Israelites when inthe land of Canaan is called "beyond Jordan", for Moses was here now; and the children of Israel had beenhere with him a considerable time in the wilderness, the vast wilderness of Arabia, which reached hither:

in the plain ;
the plains of Moab, between Bethjeshimoth and. Abelshittim, where the Israelites had lain encamped for sometime, and had not as yet removed; see (Numbers 33:49)

over against the Red [sea] :
the word "sea" is not in the text, nor is there anything in it which answers to "Red"; it should be rendered"opposite Suph", which seems to be the name of a place in Moab, not far from the plains of it, and perhaps isthe same with Suphah in (Numbers 21:14) for from the Red sea they were at a considerable distance:

between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab ;
these are names of places which were the boundaries and limits of the plains of Moab, or lay very near them;for Paran cannot be understood of the Wilderness of Paran, which was too remote, but a city or town of thatname. Tophel and Laban we read of nowhere else; a learned man ^F1 conjectures Tophel is the name ofthe station where the Israelites loathed the manna as light bread, because of the insipidness of it, which heobserves this word signifies; but that station was either Zalmonah, or Punon, or this station must be omittedin the account of their journeys, and besides was too remote. Jarchi helps this conjecture a little, who putsTophel and Laban together, and thinks they signify their murmuring because of the manna, which was white, asLaban signifies; but the above writer takes Laban to be a distinct station, the same with Libnah, (Numbers 33:20) , and Hazeroth to be the station between Mount Sinai and Kadesh, (Numbers 12:16) .

But both seem to be too remote from the plains of Moab; and Dizahab he would have to be the same with Eziongaber, (Numbers 33:35) , which he says the Arabs now call Dsahab, or Meenah el Dsahab, that is, "the port of gold"; andcertain it is that Dizahab has the signification of gold, and, is by Hillerus ^F2 rendered "sufficiency of gold", there being large quantities of it here;perhaps either through the riches of the port by trade, or by reason of a mine of gold at it, or nearit. So the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "where there is much gold", and the Septuagint version"golden mines", Catachrysea; and Jerom ^F3 makes mention of a place of this name, and saysthey are mountains abounding with gold in the wilderness, eleven miles from Horeb, where Moses is saidto write Deuteronomy; elsewhere ^F4 he calls it Dysmemoab, i.e. the west of Moab, nearJordan, opposite Jericho.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: Clayton's Chronology of the Hebrew Bible, p. 471
• F2: Onomastic. Sacr. p. 67, 300.
• F3: De loc. Heb. fol. 92. A.
• F4: Travels, p. 319.

There are eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount
Seir, to Kadeshbarnea .
Not that the Israelites came thither in eleven days from Horeb, for they stayed by the way at Kibrothhattaavah, a whole month at least, and seven days at Hazeroth; but the sense is, that this was the computed distance between the two places; it was what was reckoned a man might walk in eleven days; and if we reckon a day's journey twenty miles, of which (See Gill on Jonah 3:3), the distance must be two hundred and twenty miles.

But Dr. Shaw ^F5 allows but ten miles for a day's journey, and then it was no more than one hundred and ten, and indeed a camp cannot be thought to move faster; but not the day's journey of a camp, but of a man, seems to be intended, who may very well walk twenty miles a day for eleven days running.

But it seems more strange that another learned traveller

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: De loc. Heb. fol. 92. I.
• F6: Pococke's Description of the East, vol. 1. p. 157. should place Kadeshbarnea at eight hours, or ninety miles distance only from Mount Sinai. Moses computes not the time that elapsed between those two places, including their stations, but only the time of travelling; and yet Jarchi says, though it was eleven days' journey according to common computation, the Israelites performed it in three days; for he observes that they set out from Horeb on the twentieth of Ijar, and on the twenty ninth of Sivan the spies were sent out from Kadeshbarnea; and if you take from hence the whole month they were at one place, and the seven days at another, there will be but three days left for them to travel in. And he adds, that the Shechinah, or divine Majesty, pushed them forward, to hasten their going into the land; but they corrupting themselves, he turned them about Mount Seir forty years. It is not easy to say for what reason these words are expressed, unless it be to show in how short a time the Israelites might have been in the land of Canaan, in a few days' journey from Horeb, had it not been for their murmurings and unbelief, for which they were turned into the wilderness again, and travelled about for the space of thirty eight years afterwards. Aben Ezra is of opinion, that the eleven days, for the word "journey" is not in the text, are to be connected with the preceding words; and that the sense is, that Moses spoke these words in the above places, in the eleven days they went from Horeb to Kadesh.

And it came to pass in the fortieth year
That is, of the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt:

in the eleventh month ;
the month Shebet, as the Targum of Jonathan, which answers to part of January and part of February:

in the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of
Israel according to all that the Lord has given him in commandment to
them ;
repeated to them the several commandments, which the Lord had delivered to him at different times.

After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon Either Moses, speaking of himself in the third person, or rather the Lord, to whom Moses ascribes the victory; of this king, and his palace, and the slaughter of him, see (Numbers 21:24–26) ,

and Og the king of Bashan , which dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei; or near Edrei; for Edrei was not the name of a country, in which Ashtaroth was, but of a city at some distance from it, about six miles, as Jerom says {g}; hither Og came from Ashtaroth his palace to fight with Israel, and where he was slain, see (Numbers 21:33) . Ashtaroth was an ancient city formerly called Ashtaroth Karnaim, and was the seat of the Rephaim, or giants, from whom Og sprung, (See Gill on Genesis 14:5), see also (Deuteronomy 3:11) .

Jerom says ^F8 in his time there were two castles in Batanea (or Bashan) called by this name, nine miles distant from one another, between Adara (the same with Edrei) and Abila; and in another place he says ^F9 Carnaim Ashtaroth is now a large village in a corner of Batanea, and is called Carnea, beyond the plains of Jordan; and it is a tradition that there was the house of Job.

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: lbid. E.
• F9: De loc. Heb. fol. 89. M.

On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab
On that side of Jordan in which the land of Moab was, and which with respect to the land of Canaan was beyond Jordan; this the Vulgate Latin version joins to the preceding verse:

began Moses to declare this law :
to explain it, make it clear and manifest; namely, the whole system and body of laws, which had been before given him, which he "willed" ^F11 , as some render the word, or willingly took upon him to repeat and explain unto them, which their fathers had heard, and had been delivered unto them; but before he entered upon this, he gave them a short history of events which had befallen them, from the time of their departure from Horeb unto the present time, which is contained in this and the two next chapters:

saying ;
as follows.

FOOTNOTES:

• F11: (lyawh) "voluit", Montanus; "placuit", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "statuit", Tigurine version.