Deuteronomy 31:2

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.

Deuteronomy 31:2 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 31:2

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 ( Deuteronomy 31:14 ) ; yet it seems by ( Deuteronomy 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 Gill on Deuteronomy 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 ( Deuteronomy 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" ^F18, 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 ( Deuteronomy 3:27 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 (hwhyw) "praesertim cum et Dominus", V. L. (w) sometimes signifies "for". See Noldius, p. 285. So Ainsworth and Patrick here.

Deuteronomy 31:2 In-Context

1 And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel.

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.

3 The LORD thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the LORD hath said .

4 And the LORD shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them, whom he destroyed .

5 And the LORD shall give them up before your face, that ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you.