Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 34:5-8
Here is, I. The death of Moses (Deu 34:5): Moses the servant of the Lord died. God told him he must not go over Jordan, and, though at first he prayed earnestly for the reversing of the sentence yet God's answer to his prayer sufficed him, and now he spoke no more of that matter, Deu 3:26. Thus our blessed Saviour prayed that the cup might pass from him, yet, since it might not, he acquiesced with, Father, thy will be done. Moses had reason to desire to live a while longer in the world. He was old, it is true, but he had not yet attained to the years of the life of his fathers; his father Amram lived to be 137; his grandfather Kohath 133; his great grandfather Levi 137; Exo 6:16-20. And why…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Deuteronomy 34:8
wept for Moses . . . thirty days--Seven days was the usual period of mourning, but for persons in high rank or official eminence, it was extended to thirty (Gen 50:3-10; Num 20:29).
John Gill on Deuteronomy 34:8
And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days,.... According both to Josephus (n) and the Samaritan Chronicle (o), they cried and wept in a very vehement manner, when he signified to them his approaching death, and took his leave of them; and when he was dead they mourned for him, in a public manner, the space of time here mentioned, the time of mourning for his brother Aaron, Numbers 20:29,
so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended; on the eighth of Nisan or March, as says the Targum of Jonathan, and on the "ninth" they prepared their vessels and their cattle for a march, and on the tenth passed over Jordan, and on the "sixteenth" the manna ceas…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Deuteronomy 34:7-8
And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old. Again he celebrates a special favor of God, viz., that all the senses of Moses remained unimpaired to extreme old age, in order that he might be fit for the performance of his duties: for thus it was manifested how dear to God was the welfare of the people, for which He so carefully provided. Some, indeed, though very few, are found, who are capable of public government, even to their hundredth year. Already, however, at that period, the rigor of the whole human race had so diminished that, after their seventieth year, they dragged on their life in "labor and sorrow," as Moses himself bears witness. (Psalm 90:10.) It was, consequently a conspicu…
