Notes for Excursus on Moses' Denial
from the Land

1. Moses' denial from the Promised Land is mentioned three times in the book of Deuteronomy: 1:34; 3:21-29 & 4:21-22. In each case it is made the center of the chiasmus that frames the main section of the texts in which it is found.

2. Though the account also denies the land to Aaron, the focus is almost always on Moses. (Click here to read the passage.)

3. P. D. Miller thinks that "In [Deut] 3:22 as well as 4:21-22 the emphasis is even more on Moses' chastisement as representative of and for the people: Moses is prohibited from entering the land on account of the sin of the people who are allowed to enter. We do not have here a fullblown notion of the salvation and forgiveness of the many brought by the punishment of the one, but we are on the way to that," ("Moses My Servant: The Deuteronomic Portrait of Moses," Interpretation 51 (1987):253). But this is exegetically contrived. This is already evident in his qualification on the following page: "The text of Deuteronomy nowhere say that Moses' death outside the land is in order that the people might live in the land, but 4:21-22 especially put these two realities close together" (emphasis his).