Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 31:2
And he said unto them, I [am] a hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
2. an hundred and twenty years old ] So P Deu 34:7, cp. Exo 7:7. As we have seen, dates in the Pent. are nearly all from P; 120 = 3 40, the usual round number for a generation.
go out and come in ] See on Deu 13:13 (14) and Deu 28:6.
the Lord hath said, etc.] Deu 3:27.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am an hundred and twenty years old – The 40 years of the wandering had passed since Moses, then 80 years old, spake unto Pharaoh (Exo 7:7; Compare Deu 34:7).
I can, no more go out and come in – Render I shall not longer be able to go out and come in: i. e., discharge my duties among you. There is no inconsistency with Deu 34:7. Moses here adverts to his own age as likely to render him in future unequal to the active discharge of his office as leader of the people: the writer of Deu 34:1-12, one of Moses contemporaries, remarks of him that up to the close of life his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated Deu 31:7; i. e. that he was to the last, in the judgment of others, in full possession of faculties and strength.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. I am a hundred and twenty years old] The life of Moses, the great prophet of God and lawgiver of the Jews, was exactly the same in length as the time Noah employed in preaching righteousness to the antediluvian world. These one hundred and twenty years were divided into three remarkable periods: forty years he lived in Egypt, in Pharaoh’s court, acquiring all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians; (see Ac 7:20; Ac 7:23); forty years he sojourned in the land of Midian in a state of preparation for his great and important mission; (Ac 7:29-30); and forty years he guided, led, and governed the Israelites under the express direction and authority of God: in all, one hundred and twenty years.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Go out and come in, i.e. perform the office of a leader or governor, either because I now find a decay of my mind and body, which seems not well to agree with Deu 34:7, or because I foresee the time of my death approaches.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2-8. also the Lord hath saidshouldbe “for the Lord hath said” thou shalt not go overthis Jordan. While taking a solemn leave of the people, Mosesexhorted them not to be intimidated by the menacing opposition ofenemies; to take encouragement from the continued presence of theircovenanted God; and to rest assured that the same divine power, whichhad enabled them to discomfit their first assailants on the east ofJordan, would aid them not less effectually in the adventurousenterprise which they were about to undertake, and by which theywould obtain possession of “the land which He had sworn untotheir fathers to give them.”
De31:9-13. HE DELIVERSTHE LAW TO THEPRIESTS, TO READIT EVERYSEVENTH YEARTO THE PEOPLE.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he said unto them, I [am] an hundred and twenty years old this day,…. Whether the meaning is, that that day precisely was his birthday, is a question; it may be the sense is only this, that he was now arrived to such an age; though Jarchi takes it in the first sense, to which are objected his words in De 31:14; yet it seems by
De 32:48 that having delivered to the children of Israel the song he was ordered this day to write, on the selfsame day he was bid to go up to Mount Nebo and die: and it is a commonly received tradition with the Jews, that Moses died on the same day of the month he was born;
[See comments on De 34:7].
I can no more go out and come in; not that he could no longer go out of his tent and return without great trouble and difficulty, being so decrepit; but that he could not perform his office as their ruler and governor, or go out to battle and return as their general; and this not through any incapacity of body or mind, both being vigorous, sound, and well, as is clear from De 34:7; but because it was the will of God that he should live no longer to exercise such an office, power, and authority:
also the Lord hath said unto me, or “for the Lord has said” r, and so is a reason of the foregoing; the Targum is,
“the Word of the Lord said:”
thou shalt not go over this Jordan: to which he and the people of Israel were nigh, and lay between them and the land of Canaan, over which it was necessary to pass in order to go into it; but Moses must not lead them there, this work was reserved for Joshua, a type of Christ; not Moses and his law, or obedience to it, is what introduces any into the heavenly Canaan only Jesus and his righteousness; see De 3:27.
r “praesertim cum et Dominus”, V. L. sometimes signifies “for”. See Noldius, p. 285. So Ainsworth and Patrick here.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
2 And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old. Although Moses had been often proudly and disdainfully rejected, it could not but be the case, nevertheless, that his departure would both awaken the deepest sorrow, and inspire them with much alarm. By setting before them his age, therefore, he consoles their anxiety, and mitigates their grief; and also, by another reason, he represses their lamentations, i.e., that God had fixed his term of life. He adduces it, then, as an alleviation, because both his death was more than mature, and he was no longer fitted in his extreme old age for enduring fatigue. Here, however, the question arises, why he should say that he was failing, and broken in strength, when we shall see a little further on that he retained his senses in their rigor even until his death? But the reply is obvious, that he would not have been useless in his old age, because his eyes were dim or his members tremulous, but because his age no longer allowed him to perform his usual duties. For he had been marvelously and preternaturally preserved up to that time; but, since he had now arrived at the end of his course, it was necessary that he should suddenly sink, and be deprived of his faculties.
“
To go out, and come in,” is equivalent to performing the functions of life: thus it is said in the Psalm, “Thou has known my going out and coming in.” (231) (Psa 121:8.) And in this sense David is said to have gone out and come in, when he performed the duty intrusted to him by Saul. (1Sa 18:5.)
In the latter clause, where he refers to his exclusion from the land of Canaan, and his being prevented from entering it, he indirectly rebukes the people, for whose offense God had been wroth with himself and Aaron. Thus by this tacit reproof the Israelites were admonished to bear patiently the penalty of their ingratitude. At the same time., as he shows himself to be submissive to the divine decree, he bids them also acquiesce in it.
(231) C. here quotes from memory: the words of the Psalm are, “The Lord shall preserve thy going out and coming in; and so also in the other quotation, the actual words are, “And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
2. I am a hundred and twenty years old this day The life of Moses is divided into three periods of forty years each. He was forty years old when he fled from Egypt to Midian. He was eighty when he stood before Pharaoh and told him to let the people go. And forty years of wandering in the wilderness are now drawing to a close. Compare the speech of Stephen in Acts 7; also Exo 7:7; Deu 34:7.
I can no more go out and come in Though his eye is not dim nor his natural force abated, Moses is conscious that the infirmities of age will render him unsuited for the burdens he has hitherto borne.
Also the Lord hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan There is a sad reminder in these words both of his own and the people’s sin. Comp. Deu 3:27.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The age of Moses is twice recorded by him; once in this place, and again, Deu 34:7 . And it is very remarkable, that as this period of 120 years, if divided into three parts, makes 40 each: so at everyone of these portions, he was placed by the LORD in a different situation. The first forty years of his life he lived in the court of Pharaoh; the second as a shepherd, when sojourning with his father-in-law the priest of Midian; and the third in the wilderness, as a leader of the LORD’S people. How strange and mixed are the events in the life, even of the most eminent of GOD’S servants! Who would have thought, that the poor child Pharaoh’s daughter took up and nursed for her own, and who was apparently exposed to immediate danger, should have been in the very same moment, all along designed by the LORD for the deliverance of his people. But Reader! turn your thoughts from hence to an infinitely higher character than Moses, even Moses’ LORD; and in the person of the LORD JESUS CHRIST behold, from equally slender appearances, the foundation of the sinner’s hope. Who that beheld the SON of GOD, in the days of his appearing, when brought into the temple in substance of our flesh, would have conceived that this was He who was appointed of GOD, to deliver his people from sin and death by an everlasting salvation? None but those to whom, like Holy Simeon, the HOLY GHOST made him known, could have conceived such mighty things were hid under the humblest appearance. Luk 2:26-29 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 31:2 And he said unto them, I [am] an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
Ver. 2. I am a hundred and twenty, &c. ] And so might well bespeak them, as Augustus once did his army, and pacified them thereby when they were in a mutiny; Audite senem iuvenes, quem iuvenem senes audierunt. a
a Suetonius.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I am an: The life of Moses, the great prophet of Jehovah and lawgiver of the Jews, was exactly the same in length as the time Noah employed in preaching righteousness to the antediluvian world. These one hundred and twenty years were divided into three remarkable periods. Forty years he lived in Egypt, in the court of Pharaoh, acquiring all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians – Act 7:20, Act 7:23, forty years he sojourned in Midian, in a state of preparation for his great and important mission – Act 7:29, Act 7:30, and forty years he guided, led, and governed the Israelites under the express direction and authority of God: in all 120 years. Deu 34:7, Exo 7:7, Jos 14:10, Jos 14:11, Psa 90:10, Act 7:23
I can no more: Deu 34:7, Num 27:17, 2Sa 21:17, 1Ki 3:7
Thou shalt not: Deu 3:26, Deu 3:27, Deu 4:21, Deu 4:22, Deu 32:48-52, Num 20:12, Num 27:13, Num 27:14, Act 20:25, 2Pe 1:13, 2Pe 1:14
Reciprocal: Deu 28:6 – General Deu 31:14 – that thou must die Jos 23:1 – waxed old 1Ch 22:5 – David prepared 2Ch 1:10 – go out Act 1:21 – went
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
31:2 And he said unto them, I [am] an hundred and twenty years old this day; I {a} can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
(a) I can no longer execute my office.