Deuteronomy 1:2

_(THERE ARE ELEVEN DAYS' JOURNEY FROM HOREB BY THE WAY OF MOUNT SEIR UNTO KADESH-BARNEA.)_ (There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea), (see the notes at Numbers 33:1.) This statement, which is properly marked in our version as a parenthesis, was designed to indicate the general course of the Israelites after their departure from Sinai. The route traced seems to have been a well-known one, and occupied in journeying between the extremes the space of eleven days, which, at the average rate of 10 miles a day, would make a distance of 110 miles. Distances are computed in the East still by the hours or days occupied by the journey. A day's journey on foot is about 20 miles; on camels, at the rate of 3 miles per hour, 30 miles; and by caravans, about 25 miles. But the Israelites being encumbered with children and flocks, would mov

1-8 Moses spake to the people all the Lord had given him in commandment. Horeb was but eleven days distant from Kadesh-barnea. This was to remind them that their own bad conduct had occasioned their tedious wanderings; that they might the more readily understand the advantages of obedience. They must now go forward. Though God brings his people into trouble and affliction, he knows when they have been tried long enough. When God commands us to go forward in our Christian course, he sets the heavenly Canaan before us for our encouragement....

Verse Deuteronomy 1:2. _THERE ARE ELEVEN DAYS_' JOURNEY] The Israelites were eleven days in going from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, where they were near the verge of the promised land; after which they were thirty-eight years wandering up and down in the vicinity of this place, not being permitted, because of their rebellions, to enter into the promised rest, though they were the whole of that time within a few miles of the land of Canaan!...

These verses are prefixed as a connecting link between the contents of the preceding books and that of Deuteronomy now to follow. The sense of the passage might be given thus: “The discourses of Moses to the people up to the eleventh month of the fortieth year” (compare Deuteronomy 1:3) “have now been recorded.” The proper names which follow seem to belong to places where “words” of remarkable importance were spoken. They are by the Jewish commentators referred to the spots which witnessed the more special sins of the people, and the mention of them here is construed as a pregnant rebuke. The Book of Deuteronomy is known among the Jews as “the book of reproofs.” ON THIS SIDE OF JORDAN - Rather, “beyond Jordan” (as in Deuteronomy 3:20

TITLE AND INTRODUCTION Deuteronomy 1:1. EXPOSITION DEUTERONOMY 1:1 In these verses we have the inscription and general introduction to the book, announcing the contents of the book, the author of it, the parties whom he addressed, and the time and place of his addresses. DEUTERONOMY 1:1 THESE BE THE WORDS. Some would render here "Such are the words," and understand the expression as referring to the preceding books. But it seems more natural to refer it to what follows—to the addresses in this book. The pronoun these (אֵלֶּה) may be used with a prospective reference, as

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 Jonah 3:3, the distance must be two hundred and twenty miles. But Dr. Shaw e 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 f should place Kadeshbarnea at eight hou...

ELEVEN DAYS Prolonged by one act of unbelief to forty years. (_ See Scofield) - (Numbers 14:23). _...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. THE FIRST DISCOURSE OF MOSES AND RETROSPECT _ 1. The Introduction_ CHAPTER 1:1-5 The people were still on this side of Jordan in the wilderness. The second verse, containing a parenthetical statement, gives the story of their unbelief, as recorded in the Book of Numbers. “There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.” They might have reached the place they occupied now, facing Jordan and the land, in eleven days. It took them almost forty years. Unbelief had kept them back. It was towards the end of the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, that Moses began his wonderful addresses. In the first month of that memorable year Miriam had died (Numbers 20:1). His brother Aaron had died in the fifth month (Numbers 33:38

Historical introduction to Deuteronomy 1:6 ff.: a compilation, perhaps intended to introduce the whole book. DEUTERONOMY 1:1. BEYOND JORDAN: therefore the writer dwelt W. of the Jordan; so Deuteronomy 1:5 and often, Deuteronomy 3:8; Deuteronomy 3:20; Deuteronomy 3:25. ARABAN (lit. waste region): the low-lying valley of the Jordan, the Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea, extending from the Sea of Galilee to the Red Sea (Gulf of Akabah

ELEVEN DAYS': i.e. going direct. SEIR. Edom. KADESH-BARNEA. See Numbers 32:8....