He said to them, “I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. Yahweh has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’
Parallel Translations
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He said to them, “I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. Yahweh has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’
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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.
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And he said unto them: 'I am a hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in; and the LORD hath said unto me: Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 31:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 34:7 Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone.
- Numbers 27:17 who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in, that the congregation of Yahweh may not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”
- 1 Kings 3:7 Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am just a little child. I don’t know how to go out or come in.
- Exodus 7:7 Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
- Numbers 20:12 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
- Deuteronomy 3:26-27 But Yahweh was angry with me because of you, and didn’t listen to me. Yahweh said to me, “That is enough! Speak no more to me of this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes; for you shall not go over this Jordan.
- Numbers 27:13-14 When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered; because in the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin, to honor me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)
- Deuteronomy 1:37 Also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, saying, “You also shall not go in there.
- Deuteronomy 4:21-22 Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance; but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land.
- Deuteronomy 32:48-52 Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is across from Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession. Die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people; because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn’t uphold my holiness among the children of Israel. For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.”
- Joshua 14:10-11 “Now, behold, Yahweh has kept me alive, as he spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that Yahweh spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. Now, behold, I am eighty-five years old, today. As yet I am as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, to go out and to come in.
- 2 Samuel 21:17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “Don’t go out with us to battle any more, so that you don’t quench the lamp of Israel.”
- Psalms 90:10 The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.
- Acts 7:23 But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.
- Acts 20:25 “Now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching God’s Kingdom, will see my face no more.
- 2 Peter 1:13-14 I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that the putting off of my tent comes swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain I can no longer execute mine office.
I can no longer execute mine office.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 31:2 And he said unto them, I [am]…
Deu 31:2 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.
Ver. 2. I am a hundred and twenty, &c.] And so might well bespeak them, as Augustus once did his army, and pacified them thereby when they were in a mutiny; Audite senem iuvenes, quem iuvenem senes audierunt. {a}
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{a} Suetonius.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Go out and come in, i.e. perform the office…
Go out and come in, i.e. perform the office of a leader or governor, either because I now find a decay of my mind and body, which seems not well to agree with Deu 34:7, or because I foresee the time of my death approaches.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The Lord thy God, he will go over before…
The Lord thy God, he will go over before thee,.... This he said to encourage the people of Israel; that though he should die, and not go over with them, their ever living and true God, the great Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, he would go before them, and fight their battles for them; so that they had nothing to fear from their enemies:
and he will destroy those nations from before thee; the seven nations which then inhabited the land:
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and thou shalt possess them; their countries, cities, and houses, fields, and vineyards:
and Joshua, he shall go over before thee; as their general to fight for them, subdue their enemies, and put them into the possession of the land, and divide it to them:
as the Lord hath said; Deu 3:28.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Go out and come in - Perform the office…
Go out and come in - Perform the office of a leader or governor, because the time of my death approaches.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. I am a hundred and twenty years…
Verse 2. I am a hundred and twenty years old] The life of Moses, the great prophet of God and lawgiver of the Jews, was exactly the same in length as the time Noah employed in preaching righteousness to the antediluvian world. These one hundred and twenty years were divided into three remarkable periods: forty years he lived in Egypt, in Pharaoh's court, acquiring all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians; (see Ac 7:20; Ac 7:23); forty years he sojourned in the land of Midian in a state of preparation for his great and important mission; (Ac 7:29-30); and forty years he guided, led, and governed the Israelites under the express direction and authority of God: in all, one hundred and twenty years.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain I am an hundred and twenty years old -…
I am an hundred and twenty years old - The 40 years of the wandering had passed since Moses, then 80 years old, “spake unto Pharaoh” (Exo 7:7; Compare Deu 34:7).
I can, no more go out and come in - Render I shall not longer be able to go out and come in: i. e., discharge my duties among you. There is no inconsistency with Deu 34:7. Moses here adverts to his own age as likely to render him in future unequal to the active discharge of his office as leader of the people: the writer of Deu 34:1-12, one of Moses’ contemporaries, remarks of him that up to the close of life “his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” Deu 31:7; i. e. that he was to the last, in the judgment of others, in full possession of faculties and strength.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Come in, to conduct you. (Menochius) --- Especially. Hebrew,…
Come in, to conduct you. (Menochius) --- Especially. Hebrew, "and the Lord." It was not the want of strength which hindered Moses from continuing to perform his arduous functions, as he was still full of vigour both in soul and body; (chap. xxxiv. 7.; Calmet) but it was his submission to the will of God, who had resolved thus to punish his former diffidence. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain also the Lord hath said--should be "for the Lord…
also the Lord hath said--should be "for the Lord hath said" thou shalt not go over this Jordan. While taking a solemn leave of the people, Moses exhorted them not to be intimidated by the menacing opposition of enemies; to take encouragement from the continued presence of their covenanted God; and to rest assured that the same divine power, which had enabled them to discomfit their first assailants on the east of Jordan, would aid them not less effectually in the adventurous enterprise which they were about to undertake, and by which they would obtain possession of "the land which He had sworn unto their fathers to give them."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. I am a hundred and twenty years old…
2. I am a hundred and twenty years old this day — The life of Moses is divided into three periods of forty years each. He was forty years old when he fled from Egypt to Midian. He was eighty when he stood before Pharaoh and told him to let the people go. And forty years of wandering in the wilderness are now drawing to a close. Compare the speech of Stephen in Acts 7; also Exo_7:7; Deu_34:7.
I can no more go out and come in — Though his eye is not dim nor his natural force abated, Moses is conscious that the infirmities of age will render him unsuited for the burdens he has hitherto borne.
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Also the Lord hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan — There is a sad reminder in these words both of his own and the people’s sin. Comp. Deu_3:27.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. an hundred and twenty years old] So P…
2. an hundred and twenty years old] So P Deu_34:7, cp. Exo_7:7. As we have seen, dates in the Pent. are nearly all from P; 120 = 3 × 40, the usual round number for a generation.
go out and come in] See on Deu_13:13 (14) and Deu_28:6.
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the Lord hath said, etc.] Deu_3:27.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain I am a hundred and twenty years old this…
I am a hundred and twenty years old this day. When Moses stood before Pharaoh he was eighty years old; (Exo_7:7) since then forty years had elapsed during the wanderings in the wilderness. I can no more go out and come in; I am no longer able to work among and for the nation as I have hitherto done (cf. Num_27:17) This does not conflict with the statement in Deu_34:7, that up to the time of his death his eyes were not dim nor his natural strength abated, for this is the statement of an observer, and it often happens that an individual feels himself to be failing, when to those around him he appears to possess unabated vigor. There is no need, therefore, for resorting, with Raschi and others, to the expedient of reading "for" instead of "and" in the following clause; as if the cause why Moses could no longer go in and out among the people was God"s prohibition of his going over Jordan. This is simply another and collateral reason why he had now to retire flora his post as leader.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.