Deuteronomy 1 Summary and Study Guide

Eleven days. That is how long the walk from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea takes, and Moses puts the number in the second verse of the book, right before he tells us it is now the fortieth year. This Deuteronomy 1 summary and study guide covers the chapter where he makes a new generation do that arithmetic.

Setting the Stage

About thirty-eight years before this chapter opens, Israel stood at a place called Kadesh-barnea, on the southern edge of the land God had promised them. Twelve men went in to look it over and came back reporting good land. Israel would not cross the border, and God told that whole generation they would die in the wilderness instead.

Everything since has followed from that refusal. Their children buried their parents, took the long way round Edom and Moab, and beat two kings on the east side of the Jordan. Now they are camped one river from the same land, and the first thing Moses does is take them back to the day their parents said no.

Comprehensive Deuteronomy 1 Summary

Moses is speaking in the land of Moab, on the far side of the Jordan from Canaan, in the fortieth year since Israel left Egypt. Sihon and Og have just been beaten, so two of the strong kings Israel once feared have already fallen. He begins to explain the law, and he starts by going back to Horeb.

There God had told them they had stayed at the mountain long enough and sent them to take the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The nation had grown too large for Moses to carry alone, so the people chose wise and respected men and he set them over Israel as judges, bound by a charge that ran from the smallest case to the greatest.

They crossed the wilderness and reached Kadesh-barnea, where Moses told them to go up and not be afraid. The people asked to send men ahead first. Moses agreed, twelve went, and they came back carrying fruit and one verdict: the land is good.

The nation refused to go. Inside their tents they said God hated them and had brought them out of Egypt to destroy them, and they repeated what they had heard about a people taller than themselves, walls that seemed to reach the sky, and the Anakim living in the land. Moses reminded them how God had fought for them in Egypt and had carried them the whole way here. They still would not trust him.

God swore that of all that generation only Caleb would see the land. Moses was told to hand the task to Joshua, and the children the people had said would be captured were promised the land instead. Israel then armed itself and attacked against God’s word, and the Amorites drove them back to Hormah. They wept, God stayed silent, and they remained at Kadesh a long time.

One Word Summary

• Remember: Moses’ whole method here.
• Unbelief: the verdict of verse 32.
• Reversal: God says go and they refuse, God says stop and they charge.

In One Sentence

Moses reminds Israel that their parents stood at Kadesh-barnea with a good report in hand, refused God’s command to take the land, and were sentenced to die in the wilderness while Caleb, Joshua and their own children were promised it instead.

Theme of Deuteronomy 1

Deuteronomy 1 is about unbelief, and about what unbelief costs. Running alongside that are two ideas the chapter will not let go of: God’s promise holds even when a generation forfeits it, since Caleb and the children still inherit; and justice belongs to God, which is why the judges Moses appoints must give a nobody the same hearing as a notable.

The chapter opens with God telling a nation it has stayed long enough and must move, and closes with that same nation weeping outside the land it would not take. Unbelief is what stands between the two.

Deuteronomy 1 Outline

• Deuteronomy 1:1-5: Moses speaks to Israel east of the Jordan in Moab, in the fortieth year, after Sihon and Og have been defeated.
• Deuteronomy 1:6-8: God’s word at Horeb, that they have stayed long enough at the mountain and must go and take the land sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
• Deuteronomy 1:9-12: Moses tells the people he cannot carry their burdens and their disputes alone, now that God has multiplied them.
• Deuteronomy 1:13-15: The people choose wise and respected men from their tribes, and Moses sets them over groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.
• Deuteronomy 1:16-18: Moses charges the judges to hear both sides, judge fairly, include the foreigner, fear no man, and bring hard cases to him.
• Deuteronomy 1:19-21: They cross the wilderness to Kadesh-barnea and Moses tells them to go up and take the land without fear.
• Deuteronomy 1:22-25: The people ask for men to be sent ahead, Moses agrees, twelve go, and they bring back fruit and a good report.
• Deuteronomy 1:26-33: Israel refuses, accuses God of hating them, and will not believe Moses’ reminder that God fought for them and carried them.
• Deuteronomy 1:34-36: God hears them, is angry, and swears that of that generation only Caleb will see the land.
• Deuteronomy 1:37-40: Moses is told he will not enter either, Joshua is named to lead, the children are promised the land, and Israel is turned back toward the Red sea.
• Deuteronomy 1:41-46: Israel attacks against God’s word, is chased to Hormah by the Amorites, weeps unheard, and stays at Kadesh many days.

Moses’ Charge to the Judges

Inside Moses’ address sits a shorter speech: the charge he gave the judges he appointed. It is five short commands and one reason.

• Hear both sides. “Hear the causes between your brethren” (Deuteronomy 1:16). Listen to the case between one man and another before deciding anything.
• Judge fairly, and include the outsider. “judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him” (Deuteronomy 1:16). A foreigner living among them gets the same hearing an Israelite gets.
• Show no favour. “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great” (Deuteronomy 1:17). A man’s standing must not change the verdict.
• Fear nobody. “ye shall not be afraid of the face of man” (Deuteronomy 1:17). Do not let a powerful man’s presence bend the ruling.
• Send the hard cases up. “the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it” (Deuteronomy 1:17). A judge out of his depth passes the case on rather than guessing.

The reason sits in the middle of verse 17: “for the judgment is God’s.” The verdict is not the judge’s property. He is handling something that belongs to someone else, which is why he cannot sell it, shade it, or hand it to whoever frightens him most.

Observations from Deuteronomy 1

The Chapter Only Records the Good Report (Verses 25 and 28)

Every one of the twelve men comes back saying the same thing in verse 25: “It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us.” That is the only report Moses puts in this chapter.

The frightening words about tall people, high walls and the Anakim arrive in verse 28 as something the people themselves repeat about what “our brethren” said. Numbers 13 gives the bad report in full. Moses leaves it out here, and what is left is a nation that heard good news and refused it.

God Says Go and They Stop, God Says Stop and They Go (Verses 21, 26, 42 and 43)

In verse 21 Moses tells them to go up and take the land. In verse 26 they refuse. In verse 42 God forbids the attack. In verse 43 they attack.

The same words describe both moments, “rebelled against the commandment of the LORD” in verse 26 and again in verse 43. Israel hears God clearly on both occasions and does the opposite each time.

The Charge They Made in Their Tents (Verse 27)

Their first objection in verse 27 is about God himself: “Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt.” They had decided God rescued them in order to kill them, and the size of the enemy came second. Moses answers it in verse 31 by reminding them what they had actually watched God do for them the whole way. The chapter sets their accusation and God’s conduct four verses apart, so a reader meets both at once.

Three Asides Carry the Weight (Verses 2, 11 and 37)

Three of the most loaded lines in the chapter sit inside parentheses. Verse 2 gives the eleven days. Verse 11 is Moses stopping mid-complaint to pray that God would multiply this same difficult crowd a thousand times over, a verse after saying they are already as many as the stars of heaven, which is what God had promised Abram in Genesis 15:5.

Verse 37 is Moses admitting he will not enter either. None of the three belongs to the argument Moses is making. The eleven days measure what the refusal cost, the prayer shows what he actually thought of the crowd he was complaining about, and verse 37 admits the cost reached him too.

Difficult Verses Explained

Did God Send the Spies, or Did the People Ask for Them?

Both, at different stages. Numbers 13:2 has God telling Moses, “Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan,” while Deuteronomy 1:22 has the people coming to Moses first and saying, “We will send men before us.” Read together, the people proposed it, Moses approved it, and God then permitted it and set its terms, one man from each of the twelve tribes. Deuteronomy adds the part Numbers leaves out, which is that the idea started with a nation that had already been told the land was good.

Why Does Moses Say God Was Angry With Him “For Your Sakes”?

Moses is naming the occasion of his exclusion rather than shifting the blame for it onto Israel. The sentence itself was passed years later at Meribah, when he struck the rock and God said, “Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land” (Numbers 20:12).

Psalm 106:32-33 fills in what “for your sakes” means: the people provoked him, “so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.” When Moses tells the story again in Deuteronomy 3:25-26 he pleads and is refused, and he offers no excuse at all.

What Does “No Knowledge Between Good and Evil” Mean?

It says the children were not accountable for the refusal, not that they were all infants. Hebrew often expresses “nothing at all” by naming two opposites, the way Laban and Bethuel say they cannot speak “bad or good” in Genesis 24:50, and Absalom speaks to Amnon “neither good nor bad” in 2 Samuel 13:22. So verse 39 answers the excuse of verse 27 exactly: the ones the parents claimed were too small to protect are the ones God says had no part in the sin, and they inherit.

Why Does Moses Say “You Rebelled” to People Who Were Children at the Time?

Because he is addressing Israel as one people rather than as a room of individuals. Most of the men listening were under twenty when it happened and some were not born, yet Moses says “ye murmured” and “ye rebelled” throughout. He is not accusing them of their parents’ act. He is telling them the account belongs to them, because the nation that refused and the nation now standing at the river are the same nation, and the same choice is about to be put in front of them.

Common Misunderstandings

• That Deuteronomy 1 tells the story of the ten frightened spies. It does not. Verse 25 records one report and it is a good one, and the discouraging words in verse 28 are quoted by the people as something they heard from others. The ten-against-two account is in Numbers 13, and several popular summaries of this chapter report it as though it were here.
• That the chapter recaps the walk from Egypt. It starts at Horeb, which is the whole force of verse 2. Moses measures the distance from the mountain where they received the law to the border of the land, not from Egypt, and that eleven-day figure is what makes the fortieth year of verse 3 land.
• That “Deuteronomy” means a second, different law. What Moses gives here is the law of Sinai over again, explained at more length for people who were children when it was first delivered. Nothing in this chapter, or in the book, is offered as a replacement for what God said at the mountain.

Christ Connection

Moses cannot bring Israel into the land. The chapter says so twice, in verse 37 and again in verse 38, where Joshua is named as the one who will. The man who carried the law down the mountain leads them to the edge and stops there, and someone else takes them in.

Hebrews states the principle plainly: “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:19). This chapter acts that pattern out. The lawgiver brought Israel to the border and stopped there, and someone else took them over. Joshua and Jesus are the same name, one in Hebrew and one in Greek.

The second connection is the one the New Testament draws from this exact failure, and it turns the chapter into a warning aimed at us. Hebrews 3:19 gives the verdict on Kadesh-barnea: “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Israel stayed outside the land because they refused to trust the God who was giving it to them.

Then Hebrews calls what they heard by its proper name. “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Hebrews 4:2).

Good news reached Israel at the border and left them exactly where they were, because they met it with unbelief. That is the shape of the gospel offer itself, which is why Paul says the wilderness account was “written for our admonition” and adds, “let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:11-12).

One more line runs from this book to Christ. When Jesus was tested in the wilderness, every answer he gave Satan came out of Deuteronomy (Matthew 4:4, 4:7 and 4:10, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:16 and 6:13). Israel fell in the wilderness through unbelief, and Christ stood in the wilderness on the words of the book that records their fall.

When, Where, and Why

• When: The fortieth year after Israel left Egypt, in the eleventh month, on the first day (Deuteronomy 1:3). Moses has only weeks left to live, and the whole book is delivered inside roughly one month.
• Where: The plains of Moab, east of the Jordan and opposite Jericho. The King James phrase “on this side Jordan” in verses 1 and 5 renders a Hebrew word meaning the far side from the speaker, and here that is the east bank. The two other places that matter are Horeb, the mountain where the law was given, and Kadesh-barnea, the watering place at the southern edge of Canaan where Israel turned back.
• Why: Moses is preparing a generation that did not hear the law at Sinai to keep it in a land they have not yet entered. He starts with history rather than legislation because the last time Israel stood at this border they lost the land by not believing God, and he wants the second attempt to be made by people who know exactly what happened to the first.

Key Verses

“There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.” Deuteronomy 1:2

Eleven days is the walking distance from the mountain to the border, and Moses is saying this in the fortieth year. He never comments on the gap between those two numbers. He sets them one verse apart and leaves the reader to close it.

“Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Deuteronomy 1:8

God says the land is already laid out in front of them, and tells them to walk in and take it, because he promised it on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Verse 7 draws its far edge at the river Euphrates, which is where God had drawn it when he first cut the promise with Abram (Genesis 15:18). Nothing here waits on Israel being strong enough. The gift has already been made, and the only thing left is to go in and hold it.

“And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.” Deuteronomy 1:31

Out in the desert they had watched God lift and carry them the way a man carries his own child, over the entire distance to where they now stood. It answers directly what they had said four verses earlier about being hated, and it answers with a picture rather than an argument.

“Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God.” Deuteronomy 1:32

For all they had seen, they still would not take God at his word on this one matter. Moses lays the loss at that one door rather than at the giants or the walls.

“Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.” Deuteronomy 1:36

Caleb is lifted out of the sentence and given the ground his own feet had walked on, and his children after him, because he followed God all the way. He shows that the refusal was a choice, since one man in the same camp on the same day chose otherwise.

Forty-five years later Caleb stood in front of Joshua and used the words of this chapter back: his companions “made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God” (Joshua 14:8), and he asked for the hill country God had sworn to give him.

Key Lessons from Deuteronomy 1

• Staying where God has blessed when he tells you to leave can be disobedience, because God told Israel they had stayed at Horeb long enough and it was time to move (Deuteronomy 1:6).
• What you decide about God’s heart will shape what you do with God’s word, because Israel’s refusal in verse 26 rests on the charge they made in verse 27 that God hated them.
• God does not always remove the difficulty before he asks to be trusted, since the report was good, the people in the land were genuinely strong, and he still said go (Deuteronomy 1:25 and 1:29-30).
• God named the one man who followed him all the way, in the middle of a sentence passed on everybody else (Deuteronomy 1:36).
• Obedience offered after God has said no is not obedience, because Israel armed themselves and marched exactly when they had been told not to (Deuteronomy 1:41-43).
• Wherever you have any say over another person’s case, a powerful face is the thing most likely to bend your verdict, and that is exactly what the judges were warned about (Deuteronomy 1:17).

For where this chapter sits in the book as a whole, see our Book of Deuteronomy Summary by Chapter. To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Deuteronomy 1.

Bible Study Questions

1. Read Deuteronomy 1:2 and 1:3 together. What is Moses doing by putting those two numbers side by side without explaining them?
2. In verse 22 the people ask to send men ahead, and in verse 23 Moses says the plan pleased him. Given what God had already said in verses 20 and 21, what were they actually asking for?
3. Verses 16 and 17 tell the judges to include the foreigner, to hear the small as well as the great, and to fear no man’s face. What do those three instructions together say about the God who gave them?
4. Compare verse 27 with verse 31. What had Israel decided about God, and what had they actually seen him do?
5. In verse 39 God gives the land to the very children the people said would be captured. What does that answer say about the excuse in verse 27?
6. Verses 41 to 45 show a confession of sin, weapons, and real effort, and God calls it rebellion. What separates repentance from regret?
7. Caleb is named in verse 36 for following God completely while everyone around him did not. What made that possible for him, and what would it cost you?

Frequently Asked Questions

Deuteronomy 1, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

2 (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.)

3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them;

4 After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:

5 On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,

6 The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount:

7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.

8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

9 And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone:

10 The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.

11 (The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)

12 How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?

13 Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.

14 And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do.

15 So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.

16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.

17 Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.

18 And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do.

19 And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.

20 And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us.

21 Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.

22 And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.

23 And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe:

24 And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out.

25 And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us.

26 Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:

27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.

29 Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.

30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;

31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.

32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,

33 Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.

34 And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying,

35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers,

36 Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.

37 Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.

38 But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

39 Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.

40 But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

41 Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill.

42 And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.

43 So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the hill.

44 And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.

45 And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you.

46 So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.