Deuteronomy 1:34-40
God judges unbelief without abandoning His promise.
34 Yahweh heard the voice of your words and was angry, and swore, saying,
35 “Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers,
36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it. I will give the land that he has trodden on to him and to his children, because he has wholly followed Yahweh.”
37 Also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, saying, “You also shall not go in there.
38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
39 Moreover your little ones, whom you said would be captured or killed, your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, shall go in there. I will give it to them, and they shall possess it.
40 But as for you, turn, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
God judges unbelief without abandoning His promise.
To declare the LORD's sworn judgment against the unbelieving wilderness generation while showing that His promise to give the good land continues through Caleb, Joshua, and the children whom the rebels thought would be lost.
Moses speaks on the plains of Moab and retells the LORD's judicial response to Israel's refusal at Kadesh Barnea. Israel's new generation, including many who had been children during the earlier rebellion and who now stand ready to receive the land their fathers forfeited. The passage belongs to the exodus-Sinai-to-land movement, after redemption from Egypt and before the conquest under Joshua, marking the transfer of inheritance expectation from the unbelieving generation to the children and the appointed successor.
The LORD Commands and Israel Refuses
Moses opens Israel's covenant-renewal address by rehearsing the journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, showing that the generation now on the plains of Moab stands under both the mercy of a God who commands them forward and the warning of a generation destroyed by unbelief.