Moses Forbids the People to Follow Him, James Tissot c. 1896-1902. thejewishmuseum.org
Did the Exodus Generation Die in the Wilderness or Enter Canaan?
In the context of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy is read as a continuation of Numbers, in which God decrees that the exodus generation must wander in the wilderness until they have all died, and that only their children may enter the land. Yet Deuteronomy’s core narrative presents Moses addressing the same Israelites who left Egypt and wandered forty years in the wilderness on the eve of their entry into the Promised Land.
Published: October 4, 2019
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
These verses are from the Priestly strand of the account of the scouts. The non-Priestly strand has the same concept, though it is less explicit in its details. Editor’s note: For one division of the story into sources, see TABS Editors, "Unscrambling the Scout Story with the Documentary Hypothesis," TheTorah (2014).
Recalling the wilderness period as a positive opportunity is reflected in various occurrences outside the Deuteronomic narrative: Exod 16.35; Deut 32.10; Jer 2.2, 6, 31.1–3; Hos 13.4–6; Amos 2.10; Neh 9.20–21. Editor’s note: For a look at the wilderness account as a separate origin tradition, see David Frankel, "Exodus: Not the Only Tradition about Israel's Past," TheTorah (2015); idem, "The Song of the Sea and the History of Ancient Israel and Judah," TheTorah (2016).
A similar emphasis appears later in the chapter:
דברים ח:טו הַמּוֹלִיכֲךָ בַּמִּדְבָּר הַגָּדֹל וְהַנּוֹרָא נָחָשׁ שָׂרָף וְעַקְרָב וְצִמָּאוֹן אֲשֶׁר אֵין מָיִם הַמּוֹצִיא לְךָ מַיִם מִצּוּר הַחַלָּמִישׁ. ח:טז הַמַּאֲכִלְךָ מָן בַּמִּדְבָּר אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדְעוּן אֲבֹתֶיךָ לְמַעַן עַנֹּתְךָ וּלְמַעַן נַסֹּתֶךָ לְהֵיטִבְךָ בְּאַחֲרִיתֶךָ.
Deut 8:15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its seraph serpents and scorpions, a parched land with no water in it, who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock; 8:16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers had never known, in order to test you by hardships only to benefit you in the end.
Editor’s note: David Frankel has argued that both of these passages from chapter 8 have been revised to include references to the manna and water miracles, while in the original text, the very fact of the Israelites surviving on virtually nothing is the miracle and the text. See David Frankel, "Were the Israelites Craving for Meat or Starving for Food?" TheTorah (2017).
Similarly, regarding the Horeb revelation,
דברים ד:ט …וְהוֹדַעְתָּם לְבָנֶיךָ וְלִבְנֵי בָנֶיךָ. ד:י יוֹם אֲשֶׁר עָמַדְתָּ לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּחֹרֵב…
4:9 … And make them known to your children and to your children's children: 4:10 The day you stood before YHWH your God at Horeb…
Jeffrey Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS Commentary (Philadelphia: JPS, 1996) 46.
Mayes explains the verse as the author’s intention “to stress the continuing validity of the covenant law for his own generation.” Andrew D.H. Mayes, Deuteronomy, New Century Bible (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981), 165. Driver talks about “the practice of Deuteronomy to comprehend the past, the present and the future generations of Israel in an ideal unity” by conveying that “the covenant concluded at Horeb is not an ancient covenant… but is one binding on the Israel of today.” Samuel R. Driver, Deuteronomy, 3rd ed., International Critical Commentary (London: Bloomsbury-T&T Clark, 2000; orig., 1901), lxix. Weinfeld claims that “Israel throughout its generations is thus presented in Deuteronomy as one body, a corporate personality.” Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1–11, Anchor Bible; (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 238. This interpretation is common to the rabbinic attitude: “In every generation a person must regard himself as though he personally had gone out of Egypt.” Mishnah, Pesachim 10.5, famously cited in the Passover Haggadah.
On the textual relationship between Deuteronomy 1–2 and the non-Priestly account in Numbers see in, Gili Kugler, When God Wanted to Destroy the Chosen People: Biblical Traditions and Theology on the Move, BZAW 515 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), 82–92. Editor’s note: See also, David Ben-Gad HaCohen, "Using Deuteronomy to Fill in the Lacunae of the Numbers Spies Story," TheTorah (2016).
Editor’s note: For a discussion of how Joshua mirrors Moses, see Carl S. Ehrlich, "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better: Joshua as Moses," TheTorah (2018).
