Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 1:29
Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
29. Dread not, neither be afraid ] See on Deu 1:21. Num 14:9 has only the second verb and in a less emphatic form. Neither be afraid (lo-ta‘arsn) not elsewhere in prose. But see Deu 31:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
22-33. ye came . . . and said, Wewill send men before us, and they shall search us out the landTheproposal to despatch spies emanated from the people through unbelief;but Moses, believing them sincere, gave his cordial assent to thismeasure, and God on being consulted permitted them to follow thesuggestion (see on Nu 13:1). Theissue proved disastrous to them, only through their own sin andfolly.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then I said unto you, dread not, neither be afraid of them. With such like words he had exhorted and encouraged them before the spies were sent, and he still uses the same, or stronger terms, notwithstanding the report that had been made of the gigantic stature and walled cities of the Canaanites. This speech of Moses, which is continued in the two following verses, is not recorded in Nu 14:5, it is only there said, that Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, but no account is given of what was said by either of them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
29. Then I said unto you, Dread not. He here omits the address of Caleb and Joshua: since he only states briefly the heads of what he had spoken to the people. He merely shows that, when he endeavored to recall them to their right senses, his efforts and pains were ineffectual. Moreover, he reasons from experience that they might well place their hopes in the assistance of God, because He went before them as a light; and, in proof of this, he reminds them that, after the discomfiture of the Egyptians, He did not fail still to exert His power, so as to protect even to the end those whom He had once delivered. This, then, is his proposition, that although they might be aware of their own weakness, still, through the power of God, they would be conquerors, since He had taken them under His care, and had declared Himself their leader; which he indicates by the expression, “goes before you.” And, lest any hesitation should remain, he sets against their present obstacles the miracles of God’s power, which they had experienced, not only in the commencement of their redemption, but in the continued progress of their deliverance’s, when, in their lost and desperate state, He had by ways innumerable restored them from death unto life. Hence he concludes that they ought not to be afraid, not that he would wish them to be altogether free from all fear and care, but so that they might overcome all hindrances, when confidence derived from the ready help of God should prevail in their hearts. He says emphatically that God had fought “before their eyes,” to lead them to fuller conviction by the evidence of their own senses.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(29) Dread not, neither be afraid of them . . .The reminder that Jehovah went before them did not avail, for they had already chosen men to go before them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29-33. Then I said unto you Moses here relates his attempt to inspire the disheartened people with confidence in Jehovah their God, by reminding them of what was done for them in Egypt and in the wilderness.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Deu 1:29-31
‘ Then I said to you, “Do not be in such dread, nor be afraid of them. Yahweh your God who goes before you, he will fight for you, in the same way as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you (thou) have seen how Yahweh your God bore you (thee) , as a man bears his son, in all the way in which you (ye) went, until you came to this place.’
Moses assures them that he had immediately stepped in to give them confidence. Let them lose their fears, he had said. Let them remember that Yahweh would go before them. Let them recognise that it was the same Yahweh Who had delivered them from the Egyptians ‘before their very eyes’, Who would go with them. The same Yahweh Who had protected them in the wilderness, and had borne them as a man carries his young son in the face of difficult circumstances, feeding them with manna and quails and providing them with water, and giving them a father figure in Moses, and He had done it in all the ways in which they went. If they thought back they would recognise that He was dependable in every way. He had performed the miraculous for them against the Egyptians in such a way that they had been able to watch it, and He had continually strengthened and comforted and fed them in their journey through the wilderness. This was indeed the same Yahweh as they had described as a ‘Man of War’ in Exo 15:3. As long as they fought on His behalf, He would fight for them.
Note in Deu 1:31 the use of the singular ‘thou’ and ‘thee’ which is primarily because of the illustration. Israel is likened to a son borne by his father. The singular is therefore appropriate. But the application is then immediately to ‘ye’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 29-31. Then I said unto you, &c. This is omitted in the Book of Numbers. Moses here employed two arguments, the strongest possible to persuade the Israelites: the one taken from the promises of protection which God had made them; the second, from the happy proof which they themselves had so often experienced of his paternal care and defence. See Exo 19:4. “Bare thee,” says Dr. Beaumont, “means not a bearing of the body only, but a bearing of their infirmities in the education of them, as a father doth his children’s: the apostle, Act 13:18 follows the Greek of the LXX in this place.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Deu 1:21
Reciprocal: Deu 7:18 – shalt not Deu 31:6 – fear not 2Ch 20:15 – Be not afraid Neh 4:14 – General