Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 1:2
([There are] eleven days [journey] from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.)
2. It is eleven days ’, etc.] The distance from the accepted position of oreb-Sinai to that of adesh, ‘Ain udeis, is ‘10 or 11 days of common camel-riding’ (C. Trumbull K. B. 71, 215): caravans with children and flocks, like Israel’s, would of course take longer.
Horeb ] Always in E, and Deut., as in 1 Kings 19 and Malachi, the name of the Mt of the Lawgiving, for which J and P have Sinai. The attempt has been made to interpret the two names as of different sites; but the Biblical evidence for their identity is clear; as even so early a scholar as Jerome perceived ( Onom. Sacr. ed. Lagarde, 146). This matter as well as the questions of the position of Sinai-oreb (as between Jebel Musa and Jebel Serbal and between the Sinaitic Peninsula as a whole and the E. coast of the Gulf of ‘Aabah or Mt Se‘r or the neighbourhood of adesh) has already been exhaustively discussed in this series (Driver, Exod. pp. 18, 177 191). It is, therefore, unnecessary to say anything more here; except to recall that the question as between the Sinaitic Peninsula and some site farther N. appears to have been open in the time of the Crusades and of the Moslem geographers in the 14th century. Abu-l Fida c. 1321: ‘the position of Tur Sin is the subject of discussion. Some say it is the mountain near Ailah (at the head of the Gulf of ‘Aabah) and others that it is a mountain in Syria’ (quoted by G. le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 72 f.). The Chronicle d’Ernoui et Bernard le Trsorier says, ‘Cel Mons Synai est entre le Mer Rouge et leCrac (Kerak).’ See further ZDPV xxxvii. 190 ff.
by the way of mount Seir ] Se‘r, the territory of Edom, lay W. as well as E. of the (Deu 1:44; cp. C. Trumbull K. B. 84 ff.; Buhl, Gesch. der Edomiter, 22 ff.); but Mt Se‘r is in Dt (Deu 2:1) and elsewhere (e.g. Gen 14:6) the range E. of the ‘Arabah. Thus the way of Mt Se‘r would be the most easterly of the roads from the Sinai Peninsula to adesh, which passes through the ‘Arabah. Further see Dillm.
Kadesh-barnea ] This form is peculiar to D, deuteronomic passages and P; elsewhere adesh stands alone: and we have besides ‘En-Mishpa, Well of Judgement (Gen 14:7), and Meribath-adesh (see on Deu 33:2). The accepted site, visited first by Seetzen in 1807, then by Rowlands in 1842 (Williams, Holy City, i. 464 ff.), and described and argued for by Trumbull ( Kad. Barn.), is the neighbourhood of the ‘Ain udeis (Seetzen’s and Rowlands’ spelling, confirmed by Musil) about 80 km. S.S.W. of Be’er-sheba‘, but the name must have covered the still more fertile ‘Ain adeyrt and the ‘A. aseymeh. Musil, who visited ‘Ain udeis thrice, doubts its identity with adesh ( Edom i. 212), and suggests a site farther N.; yet he admits there the most fertile landscapes in all the region, describes the wdies as either cultivated or full of relics of ancient cultivation, and even reports one more fertile than the plain about Gaza. See also PEFQ, 1914, 64 ff.; ZDPV, 1914, 7 ff. Barnea‘ has been explained as ‘son’ or ‘desert, of wandering.’ But it may belong to the number of non-Semitic names found in this region (e.g. Gharandel). To a hill S.E. of ‘Ain udeis, there is still attached the name Forni, which appears to be an echo of Barnea‘: the letter ‘ayin is sometimes dropped in mod. Arabic.
The whole fragment, 1 b and 2, thus obviously out of place where it stands, may have been originally a note to Deu 1:19, which its details, so far as they are clear, suit.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 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!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This is added to show that the reason why the Israelites in so many years were advanced no further from Horeb than to these plains, was not the great distance of the places or length of the way, which was but a journey of eleven days at most, but because of their rebellions, as is mentioned before and repeated in this book.
Horeb, or
Sinai, the place where the law was given, which is promiscuously called by both those names.
Mount Seir, or Mount Edom, i.e. the mountainous country of Seir, which was first possessed by the Horims, and afterwards by the Edomites, Deu 2:12.
Kadesh-barnea was not far from the borders of Canaan. See Gen 16:14; Num 13:26.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. There are eleven days’ journeyfrom HorebDistances are computed in the East still by thehours or days occupiesd by the journey. A day’s journey on foot isabout twenty mileson camels, at the rate of three miles an hour,thirty milesand by caravans, about twenty-five miles. But theIsraelites, with children and flocks, would move at a slow rate. Thelength of the Ghor from Ezion-geber to Kadesh is a hundred miles. Thedays here mentioned were not necessarily successive days [ROBINSON],for the journey can be made in a much shorter period. But thismention of the time was made to show that the great number ofyears spent in travelling from Horeb to the plain of Moab was notowing to the length of the way, but to a very different cause;namely, banishment for their apostasy and frequent rebellions.
mount Seirthemountainous country of Edom.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 comments on Jon 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 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 spake these words in the above places, in the eleven days they went from Horeb to Kadesh.
e De loc. Heb. fol. 92. I. f Pococke’s Description of the East, vol. 1. p. 157.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) Eleven days journey from Horeb . . .In our English Version this verse forms a separate sentence; but there seems nothing to prevent our taking it as completing the first verse. The route between Paran on the one side and the line from Tophel to Hazeroth on the other is still further defined as a distance of eleven days journey from Horeb in the direction of Mount Seir, reaching to Kadesh-barnea. The position of this last place is not yet determined with certainty. But the requirements of the text seem, upon the whole, to demand that it should be placed high up in the wilderness of Paran, not far from the border of the wilderness of Zin. It must be close to some passage out of the wilderness of Zin into the Negeb, or south of Judah.
Kadesh-barnea.In the regular narrative of the exodus we read of the place to which the twelve spies returned as Kadesh (Num. 13:26), and of the place at which the period of unrecorded wandering closed (Num. 20:1), in the first month of the fortieth year, as Kadesh. The name Kadesh-barnea first appears in Moses speech (Num. 32:8), where he refers to the sending of the twelve spies. And with the exception of three places where the name is used in describing boundaries, Kadesh -harnea is always found in speeches. This first chapter of Deuteronomy is the only one which contains the name both with and without the appendage -barnea, which connects it with the wanderings of Israel (Deu. 1:32). Upon the whole, it seems most likely that only one place or district is intended by the name.
We have now obtained the following view of this first short introduction to the Book of Deuteronomy. It consists of words spoken (in the first instance) to all Israel on their march from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea. But the following verses show that the Law was further declared to Israel in the plains of Moab, at the close of the fortieth year of the exodus and of Moses life. It does not seem possible for us to separate entirely what was spoken earlier from what was declared later. In several places we have the record of words spoken: for example, in this very chapter (Deu. 1:9; Deu. 1:16; Deu. 1:18; Deu. 1:20; Deu. 1:29; Deu. 1:43), and Deu. 5:5, &c. And the very name Deuteronomy implies the repetition of a law previously given. Further, the exhortations contained in this book are all enforced by the immediate prospect of going over Jordan and entering the promised land. But when Israel marched from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, it was with this very same prospect full in view. It does not appear, by what Moses said at that time (Deu. 1:20), that he had any thought of their turning away from the enterprise. But if so, what supposition is more natural than thisthat he delivered the same kind of exhortations in the course of that earlier journey which he afterwards delivered in the plains of Moab? And although the distance is but eleven days march, the Israelites spent something like three months on the way, and in waiting for the spies to return from Canaan.
We conclude, then, that the first two verses of Deuteronomy are an editorial introduction, stating that the substance of this book was first delivered to Israel by Moses between Sinai and Kadesh-barnea. The further introduction which follows (in Deu. 1:3-5) shows the words to have been re-delivered in the plains of Moab, and preserved in their later rather than their earlier form. But it is also possible that the two first verses of Deuteronomy are an introduction to the first discourse above. (See Note on Deu. 4:44.)
Is it possible to advance a step further, and conjecture with any degree of probability to what hand we owe the first two verses of the book? The expression on the other side Jordan (which some take to be a technical term) seems strictly to mean on the opposite side to the writer. The writer must also have been acquainted with the places mentioned (three of which are not named in the previous books); he could not have drawn his knowledge from the earlier part of the Pentateuch. And so entirely has the geography of Deu. 1:1 been lost by tradition, that all the Targums and Jewish commentators agree in spiritualising the passage, and say, these are the words of reproof which Moses.spake to all Israel in respect of their behaviour at these various places. Laban points to their murmuring at the white manna. Dizahab to the golden calf, and so on. Even Rashi, usually a most literal commentator, says, Moses has enumerated the places where they wrought provocation before the PLACE a Rabbinical name for Jehovah: for the whole world is His place, though His place is more than the whole world. This introduction to Deuteronomy seems the work of one who had known the wilderness, and yet wrote from Palestine. Joshua, the next writer to Moses, and possibly also his amanuensis, may have prefixed it to the book. If he did not, it is wholly impossible to say who did.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Ver. 2. Eleven days journey from Horeb This verse seems to have been thrown in to shew, that though the direct way from mount Horeb to the plains of Moab is but a few days’ journey, even to those who make a circuit about by Kadesh-barnea, yet it was so ordered by the Divine Providence, that the Israelites should not accomplish this same short space of way in less than thirty-eight years, as a punishment for their iniquities.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
It is equally to be observed, the time specified yet remaining
to be fulfilled; to show how exact the LORD is to his word, and
to his promise: Reader! let you and I pause in the several
parts of our pilgrimage state; and depend upon it, we shall
find also, no less, how faithful our GOD is. This is one of our
GOD’S precepts, and the observance of it is its own reward; to
remember how the LORD hath dealt by us, that we may know
the righteousness of the LORD. Mic 6:5 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 1:2 ([There are] eleven days’ [journey] from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)
Ver. 2. There are eleven days’journey.] So many days’ march for a foot army. But Philo the Jew saith a horseman might despatch it in three days. a
a Triduo confici potuit.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
eleven days’: i.e. going direct.
Seir = Edom.
Kadesh-barnea. See Num 32:8.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
eleven days
Prolonged by one act of unbelief to forty years. (See Scofield “Num 14:23”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
by the way: Deu 1:44, Deu 2:4, Deu 2:8, Num 20:17-21
unto: Lev 2:14, Lev 9:23, Num 13:26, Num 32:8, Jos 14:6
Reciprocal: Num 33:2 – journeys Deu 1:19 – we came Deu 2:1 – we compassed Deu 2:14 – Kadeshbarnea Deu 11:29 – General 1Ch 4:42 – mount Seir
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 1:2. There are eleven days journey This is added, to show that the reason why the Israelites in so many years were advanced no farther from Horeb than to these plains, was not the distance of the places, but because of their rebellions. Kadesh-barnea Which was not far from the borders of Canaan.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:2
([There are] eleven days’ [journey] from {c} Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)
(c) In Horeb, or Sinai, forty years before the law was given: but because all that were then of age and judgment were now dead, Moses repeats the same to the youth who either then were not born, or had not judgment.