Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 1:46
So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode [there].
46. So ye abode in adesh ] So JE, Num 20:1 b, but apparently of a later residence than this.
many days, according unto the days that ye abode there] ‘An example of the “idem per idem” idiom often employed in the Semitic languages, when a writer is either unable or has no occasion to speak explicitly’ (Driver). Cp. Deu 9:25, Deu 29:16 [15]; 1Sa 23:13, etc.
If this verse be from the writer of the rest of this discourse the time implied cannot, in the light of his further statements in Deu 2:1; Deu 2:14, amount to years; for the 2nd of the 40 years was already either wholly or nearly exhausted and these verses state that all the next 38 were spent between adesh and the Moabite frontier. But as we shall see in the introd. to the next section JE attributes to the people a very long residence in adesh, in fact the bulk of the 38 years. Probably, therefore, the indefinite statement of this verse is not from the writer of the rest of this discourse, but from an editor aware of the divergent traditions; in further evidence of which observe that he uses the simple adesh instead of the adesh-barnea‘ employed in the rest of the discourse.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 46. According unto the days that ye abode there.] They had been a long time at this place, see Nu 13:27; Nu 20:1; Nu 20:14; Nu 20:21. And some think that the words mean, “Ye abode as long at Kadesh, when you came to it the second time, as ye did at the first.” Or, according to others, “While ye were in that part of the desert, ye encamped at Kadesh.”
1. As one grand object of the law of God was to instruct the people in those things which were calculated to promote their peace and insure their prosperity; and as they were apt to lose sight of their spiritual interests, without a due attention to which their secular interest could not be promoted; Moses, not only in this chapter, but through the whole book, calls upon them to recollect their former miserable situation, in which they held neither life nor property but at the will of a merciless tyrant, and the great kindness and power of God manifested in their deliverance from a bondage that was as degrading as it was oppressive. These things properly remembered would lead them to prize their blessings, and duly appreciate the mercy of their Maker.
2. But it was not only this general display of God’s kindness, in the grand act of their deliverance from Egypt, that he wished them to keep constantly in view, but also that gracious providence which was manifested in every step they took; which directed all their movements, provided for all their wants, continually showing what they should do, how they should do it, and also the most proper time and place for every act, whether religious or civil. By bringing before them in one point of view the history of almost forty years, in which the strangest and most stupendous occurrences had taken place that had ever been exhibited to the world, he took the readiest way to impress their minds, not only with their deep obligation to God, but also to show them that they were a people on whom their Maker had set his heart to do them good, and that if they feared him they should lack nothing that was good. He lays out also before them a history of their miscarriages and rebellion, and the privations and evils they had suffered in consequence, that this might act as a continual warning, and thus become, in the hands of God, a preventive of crimes.
3. If every Christian were thus to call his past life into review, he would see equal proofs of God’s gracious regards to his body and soul; equal proofs of eternal mercy in providing for his deliverance from the galling yoke and oppressive tyranny of sin, as the Israelites had in their deliverance from Egypt; and equal displays of a most gracious providence, that had also been his incessant companion through all the changes and chances of this mortal life, guiding him by its counsel, that he might be at last received into glory. O reader, remember what God has done for thee during thy forty, fifty, c., years! He has nourished, fed, clothed, protected, and saved thee. How often and how powerfully has his Spirit striven with thee! How often and how impressively thou hast heard his voice in his Gospel and in his providences! Remember the good resolutions thou hast made, the ingratitude and disobedience that have marked thy life how his vows are still upon thee, and how his mercy still spares thee! And wilt thou live so as to perish for ever? God forbid! He still waits to be gracious, and rejoices over thee to do thee good. Learn from what is before thee how thou shouldst fear, love, believe in, and obey thy God. The Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world, is still before the throne; and whosoever cometh unto God through him shall in nowise be cast out. He who believes these things with an upright heart will soon be enabled to live a sanctified life.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. As you abode in Kadesh many, even forty days, until the spies which you sent returned to give you an account; so you also abode there many days, or a long time after, and were not now permitted to make any further progress towards Canaan.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
46. So ye abode at Kadesh manydaysThat place had been the site of their encampment duringthe absence of the spies, which lasted forty days, and it is supposedfrom this verse that they prolonged their stay there after theirdefeat for a similar period.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So ye abode in Kadesh many days,…. Yea, some years, as some think:
according to the days that ye abode there; that is, according to Jarchi, as they did in the rest of the journeys or stations; so that as they were thirty eight years in all at several places, they were nineteen years in Kadesh; the same is affirmed in the Jewish chronology w. Maimonides says x they were eighteen years in one place, and it is very probable he means this; but Aben Ezra interprets it otherwise, and takes the sense to be, that they abode as many days here after their return as they did while the land was searching, which were forty days, Nu 13:25, but without fixing any determinate time, the meaning may only be, that as they had been many days here before this disaster, so they continued many days after in the same place before they marched onward into the wilderness again.
w Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24. x Moreh Nevochim. par. 3. c. 50.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(46) So ye abode in Kadesh many days.Better, and. In Num. 14:25 the command was, Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness. This command was broken by the attack on the Canaanites, made on the morrow after the command. We cannot be certain that the many days spent in Kadesh were spent after the defeat. It may be merely a note of the fact that the time spent in Kadesh was considerable. The mission of the spies alone occupied forty days.
According unto the days that ye abode there.The Jewish commentator Rashi, quoting from Sder Olm, says they in Kadesh, and nineteen in their wanderings.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
46. Abode in Kadesh many days This verse has been variously interpreted. Some understand it to mean that the Israelites remained there after their discomfiture as many days as they had been there before the return of the spies; some, that they abode there as long as they abode in all other stations that is, half the time of their years of wandering; others, that a portion of the people abode at Kadesh permanently, while Moses and the rest journeyed southward; and the change of the subject to the first person in the next chapter is held to sustain this latter view. From the data that we have, it is impossible to determine how long they abode there. Probably Kadesh was the central point for the whole people, the place of meeting on appointed days. Here the tabernacle may have been kept, and here Moses chiefly dwelt. “Next to Sinai, the most important of all the resting-places of the children of Israel is Kadesh.” STANLEY’S Sinai and Palestine. “There is something mournfully solemn and emphatic in the words, ‘Ye abode in Kadesh.’ Ye were on the very borders of Canaan, but instead of passing the frontier and entering into the Land of Promise ye abode at Kadesh; and when you moved from it, it was not to go northward into Canaan, but southward in the opposite direction; and after thirty-seven years’ weary wandering ye had only arrived at Kadesh again. Such were the consequences of disobedience.” Wordsworth.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 46. In Kadeshaccording unto the days that ye abode there This should rather be at or near Kadesh, which gave name to that part of the desart southward of Kadesh. By the phrase according unto the days that ye abode there, some understand to mean, as long as ye abode at mount Sinai, i.e. nearly a whole year. But the most simple explication is, that they stayed here as long after this as they had done before it, which was at least forty days, the time spent by the spies in searching the land. Houbigant renders it, many days, even so many as ye had passed there before. Calmet, ye abode in Kadesh all the time ye were in that part of the desart. Without fixing the number of the days, says Mr. Chais, we may render it, as ye abode in Kadesh some time before this rebellion, so ye continued there some time after. We are instructed by St. Paul what use to make of the history recapitulated in the present book: he tells us in the epistle to the Hebrews, that as the murmurings and rebellions of the children of Israel caused God to swear that they should not enter into the land of Canaan; so we should take care that we be not excluded by our unbelief, and disobedience to the Gospel, from the heavenly Canaan, and from that rest which is reserved for the people of God.
REFLECTIONS.They were now in a fair way for possession of the promised land; but Moses reminds them of their perverseness, and the dire consequences which ensued thereupon. They were safely led through the terrible wilderness, and nothing remained but to go up and possess their inheritance. God’s protection had been an earnest of future mercies, and his promise their security. But then their unbelief began to break forth, 1. In sending spies. They should have taken God’s word, and not have desired sight, when they were called to walk by faith. Nothing so dangerous as indulging our own wisdom where God’s word has already decided. 2. In the credit they paid to the lying representation that the spies made. They acknowledged the goodness of the land, but they exaggerated the difficulties of conquering it. Heaven is allowed to be a desirable place, but the straitness of the way deters the carnal and unbelieving heart from going up to it. 3. In their disregard of Moses’s earnest encouragement. Much had they experienced of God’s care of them in Egypt, more in his protection and guidance through the wilderness, and therefore sure they need not now fear; but, blind to their own mercies, they murmur, refusing to go up, reflecting invidiously on God himself, as their destroyer instead of preserver: and thus, under the power of an evil heart of unbelief, departed from the living God. Note; (1.) Unbelief is at the root of all our sins. (2.) Every sin is greatly aggravated, when committed against experience of past mercies. He reminds them of the consequence of this unbelief, in the condemnation which passed upon them all, except Caleb and Joshua. All their other sins had not destroyed them but for this. Unbelief is the only damning sin. He himself also suffered under their provocations, and was excluded from Canaan. Not that God hereby intended to disinherit them: he was ordered to encourage Joshua, and to assure their children that they should possess what their fathers forfeited. Happy for them, if they took warning by their fathers’ examples, to do more after their works. Finally, he mentions their perverse attempt in opposition to the divine command, and the ill success of it. Their tears then were fruitless; the decree was gone forth, and they had nothing to do but to submit. Note; (1.) When the door of mercy is shut, it is too late to knock. (2.) Many weep for their sufferings, not for their sins; and this is no better than the sorrow of the world, which worketh death.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
WHAT a most beautiful representation doth this chapter afford of a faithful, laborious minister, in the character of Moses! Who can behold this aged servant of JEHOVAH, thus sermonizing even to the very close of life, and going over again and again in relation, all the great things the LORD had shown him and the people, without being struck with the loveliness of such a minister, and being led to admire yet more and more those holy principles which he laboured to impress upon the minds of the people.
But here again, as in every other instance, how doth the contemplation of the servant lead the heart yet more immediately to the master. It is thou, blessed JESUS, whose ministry is glorified even in the view of thy servant’s zeal. Thou camest, full of grace and truth, to make known to thy people the everlasting counsel of peace in thy covenant righteousness and blood. And how art thou, even now, still reminding us, by thy SPIRIT, of the LORD’S continual mercies and our unworthiness. Continue, dearest LORD, the sweet influences of thy ministry still, until, like Joshua, thou bringest us where Moses and the law cannot lead, even over the Jordan of death, to behold thy glory, and dwell with thee forever.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 1:46 So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode [there].
Ver. 46. So ye abode in Kadesh many days. ] Many indeed; yea, many years. And here it was, or hereabouts, that they received those laws which are recorded, Num 15:1-41 as also that they stoned him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day; that Korah and his accomplices perished; that fourteen thousand seven hundred died of the plague; that Aaron’s rod flourished; that Moses, seeing the people fall so fast in the wilderness, wrote Psa 90:1-17 , – where he telleth us that the ordinary term of man’s life was reduced to seventy or eighty years, and so made shorter by half than before. All which things are thought to have happened in the last six months of the second year after their coming out of Egypt: the history of those two years only, and of the last of the forty are set forth by Moses: the intercurrent thirty seven years with their events, save only the bare names of their various stations, Num 33:1-56 being passed over in silence. If men will take liberty to commit sin against God, he will make but a short story of them and their works: Lot, for instance. Gen 19:36
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
abode in Kadesh. This is not a summary of the thirty-eight years’ wandering, but of what happened before then. How solemn the word “abode” when the command had been “go up”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Num 14:25, Num 14:34, Num 20:1, Num 20:22, Jdg 11:16, Jdg 11:17
Reciprocal: Gen 14:7 – Kadesh Num 15:1 – General Deu 2:14 – Kadeshbarnea