Deuteronomy 1:39

39 Your little children whom you said would be plunder, your sons who[a] don't know good from evil, will enter there. I will give them the land, and they will take possession of it.

Deuteronomy 1:39 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 1:39

Moreover, your little ones, which ye said should be a prey,
&c.] To the Amorites, into whose hands they expected to be delivered, ( Deuteronomy 1:27 ) see ( Numbers 14:3 )

and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and
evil;
not being at years of understanding, and which is a common description of children; it is particularly expressed "in that day", for now they were the very persons Moses was directing his speech unto, and relating this history, it being thirty eight years ago when this affair was, so that now they were grown up to years of discretion:

they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall
possess it:
the relation of which now might serve greatly to encourage their faith, as well as it would be a fulfilment of the promise of the land made unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which was not made of none effect through the unbelief of the Israelites, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, since their posterity was to enjoy it, and did.

Deuteronomy 1:39 In-Context

37 "The Lord was angry with me also because of you and said: 'You will not enter there either.
38 Joshua son of Nun, who attends you, will enter it. Encourage him, for he will enable Israel to inherit it.
39 Your little children whom you said would be plunder, your sons who don't know good from evil, will enter there. I will give them the land, and they will take possession of it.
40 But you are to turn back and head for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.'
41 "You answered me, 'We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us.' Then each of you put on his weapons of war and thought it would be easy to go up into the hill country.

Footnotes 1

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