8 And the sons of Israel bewail Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; and the days of weeping `and' mourning for Moses are completed.
and they fulfil for him forty days, for so they fulfil the days of the embalmed, and the Egyptians weep for him seventy days.
And they come unto the threshing-floor of Atad, which `is' beyond the Jordan, and they lament there, a lamentation great and very grievous; and he maketh for his father a mourning seven days,
And Samuel dieth, and all Israel are gathered, and mourn for him, and bury him in his house, in Ramah; and David riseth and goeth down unto the wilderness of Paran.
The righteous hath perished, And there is none laying `it' to heart, And men of kindness are gathered, Without any considering that from the face of evil Gathered is the righteous one.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 34
Commentary on Deuteronomy 34 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 34
Having read how Moses finished his testimony, we are told here how he immediately after finished his life. This chapter could not be written by Moses himself, but was added by Joshua or Eleazar, or, as bishop Patrick conjectures, by Samuel, who was a prophet, and wrote by divine authority what he found in the records of Joshua, and his successors the judges. We have had an account of his dying words, here we have an account of his dying work, and that is work we must all do shortly, and it had need be well done. Here is,
Deu 34:1-4
Here is,
Deu 34:5-8
Here is,
Deu 34:9-12
We have here a very honourable encomium passed both on Moses and Joshua; each has his praise, and should have. It is ungrateful so to magnify our living friends as to forget the merits of those that are gone, to whose memories there is a debt of honour due: all the respect must not be paid to the rising sun; and, on the other hand, it is unjust so to cry up the merits of those that are gone as to despise the benefit we have in those that survive and succeed them. Let God be glorified in both, as here.