Deuteronomy 1:1-8 comments: Moses reviews the instructions the Israelites were given and the history of their wanderings

 

The Fifth Book of Moses called Deuteronomy is a second giving of the Law from God to Moses to the children of Israel. Deuteronomy literally means in Greek “second law.” I will treat this a little different from Leviticus and Numbers as I try to harmonize the recounting of God’s Law to the Hebrews. Most of this book are sermons from Moses to the Israelites.

 

Deuteronomy, chapter 1

Deuteronomy 1:1 ¶  These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2  (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.) 3  And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them; 4  After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei: 5  On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, 6  The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: 7  Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. 8  Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

 

Ishmael dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, next to the Red Sea according to most Bible maps. Over against typically means next to or across from.

 

Genesis 21:21  And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

 

Notice this from Numbers about the movement of the Israelities.

 

Numbers 10:12  And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.

 

David will meet Nabal and Abigail in the wilderness of Paran in 1Samuel 25.

 

Tophel is mentioned only here. Laban is elsewhere referring to Jacob’s uncle but here it refers to a wilderness encampment. Hazeroth is a place where the Israelites encamped and Dizahab, meaning according to Strong’s ‘a place of gold,’ is now a resort called Dehab according to some commentators.

 

Now, it says that these are eleven days march from Horeb by way of Mount Seir and Kadeshbarnea.

 

Mount Seir was Esau’s place in the country of Edom.

 

Genesis 32:3  And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

 

Exodus 3:1 ¶  Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

 

Moses led the priest of Midian’s flock to a remote part of the wilderness, the backside of the desert. The mountain of God, even to Horeb shows that by connecting with the word even that Horeb is the mountain of God.

1Kings 19:8  And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.

Sinai was the name of the area.

Exodus 19:1  In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. 2  For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.

So, Sinai and Horeb will be used interchangeably for the name of this mountain.

1Kings 8:9  There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 31:18  And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God…32:4  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Psalm 106:19  They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.

Malachi 4:4 ¶  Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

You can take the traditional locations that the tourism industry and huge church organizations and their government allies have given these places or just accept that place names can change, desert locations can disappear, and sometimes things are named with an agenda with over two thousand year of history clouding the issue. These places are in the Sinai Peninsula outside of the land promised to the Israelites, a land sick and festering with religious prostitution, child sacrifice, bestiality, and all manner of perversion under the guise of worshipping the supernatural.

It has been forty years since they began their travels and here Moses begins a sermon of great importance and gravity.

Sihon, king of the Amorites, and his fate are referred to in Numbers 21.

Numbers 21:21 ¶  And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 22  Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king’s high way, until we be past thy borders. 23  And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness: and he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 24  And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon: for the border of the children of Ammon was strong. 25  And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof. 26  For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon. 27  Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared: 28  For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon. 29  Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites. 30  We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba. 31  Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. 32  And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.

 

Og, king of Bashan, and his fate ….

 

Numbers 21:33  And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the

king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei. 34  And the LORD said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon. 35  So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left him alive: and they possessed his land.