The Death of Moses on Mount Nebo
Moses is told to climb Nebo, opposite Jericho, and look across at the land he will not enter — the consequence of striking the rock at Meribah instead of speaking to it. From the summit he is shown the whole country, from Gilead to the Mediterranean and south to the Negev.
He dies there at a hundred and twenty, his sight undimmed and his strength unabated, and is buried in a valley in Moab; the text says no one knows the place to this day. Israel mourns for thirty days on the plains before crossing.
Deuteronomy closes with an obituary that later generations never quite matched: no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. Leadership passes to Joshua, on whom Moses had already laid his hands.
Where in scripture
[1] The children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month. The people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there, and was buried there. [2] There was no water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. [3] The people quarreled with Moses, and spoke, saying, “We wish that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh! [4] Why have you brought Yahweh’s assembly into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our animals? [5] Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.” …
Numbers 20:1–13 — opening verses
[48] Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying, [49] “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. [50] 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; [51] 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. [52] 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.”
Deuteronomy 32:48–52
[1] Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. Yahweh showed him all the land of Gilead, to Dan, [2] and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, to the western sea, [3] and the south, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, to Zoar. [4] Yahweh said to him, “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” [5] So Moses the servant of Yahweh died there in the land of Moab, according to Yahweh’s word. [6] He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no man knows where his tomb is to this day. …
Deuteronomy 34:1–12 — opening verses
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
