C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Deuteronomy 1:38-44

Deu 1:38-44

“Who standeth before thee,” equivalent to “in thy service” (Exo 24:13; Exo 33:11 : for this meaning, see Deu 10:8; Deu 18:7; 1Ki 1:28). “Strengthen him:” comp. Deu 31:7; and with regard to the installation of Joshua as the leader of Israel, see Num 27:18-19. The suffix in ינחילנּה points back to הארץ in Deu 1:35. Joshua would divide the land among the Israelites for an inheritance, viz., (v. 39) among the young Israelites, the children of the condemned generation, whom Moses, when making a further communication of the judicial sentence of God (Num 14:31), had described as having no share in the sins of their parents, by adding, “who know not to-day what is good and evil.” This expression is used to denote a condition of spiritual infancy and moral responsibility (Isa 7:15-16). It is different in 2Sa 19:36. - In Deu 1:40-45 he proceeds to describe still further, according to Num 14:39-45, how the people, by resisting the command of God to go back into the desert (Deu 1:41, compared with Num 14:25), had simply brought still greater calamities upon themselves, and had had to atone for the presumptuous attempt to force a way into Canaan, in opposition to the express will of the Lord, by enduring a miserable defeat. Instead of “they acted presumptuously to go up” (Num 14:44), Moses says here, in Deu 1:41, “ye acted frivolously to go up;” and in Deu 1:43, “ye acted rashly, and went up.” הזיד from זוּד, to boil, or boil over (Gen 25:29), signifies to act thoughtlessly, haughtily, or rashly. On the particular fact mentioned in Deu 1:44, see at Num 14:45.