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From: Deuteronomy 34:1-12

The Death of Moses

[1] And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pis-
gah, which is opposite Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, Gilead
as far as Dan, [2] all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of
Judah as far as the Western Sea, [3] the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the valley
of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. [4] And the LORD said to him,
“This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give
it to your descendants. ‘I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go
over there.” [5] So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab,
according to the word of the LORD, [6] and he buried him in the valley in the land
of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows the place of his burial to this day.
[7] Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not
dim, nor his natural force abated. [8] And the people of Israel wept for Moses in
the plains of Moab thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses
were ended.

[9] And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had
laid his hands upon him; so the people of Israel obeyed him, and did as the
LORD had commanded Moses.

A Eulogy of Moses

[10] And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the
LORD knew face to face, [11] none like him for all the signs and the wonders
which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his
servants and to all his land, [12] and for all the mighty power and all the great
and terrible deeds which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel.

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Commentary:

34:1-12. Before he dies, Moses looks down on the promised land, and its main
regions (Transjordan), Galilee (Naphtali), Samaria (Ephraim and Manasseh) and
Judea. However, if one looks out from Mount Nebo it is not possible to see all
this panorama: only God could make Moses see all these territories. Zoar may
have been to the south-east of the Dead Sea.

“He buried him” (v. 6): the Hebrew construction does not allow us to say who the
subject of the verb is, but from the context it must be God.

The book of Sirach provides a short summary of the life of this man of God (cf.
Sir 45:1-5).

The Jewish scholar Philo of Alexandria (15 BC-AD 45) also praises his virtues,
and at length: he was the friend and disciple of God, who taught him “face to
face”; he was “a man of God”, able to work wonders and signs; he was greater
than the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph in his intimacy with God
and his grasp of the divine Word, which inspired him and guided him as a leader,
lawgiver, prophet, wonder-worker, ascetic and thinker (cf. “De Vita Mosis”, 1,
80, 154, 158; 2, 187-292; 3, 1-186).

St Gregory of Nyssa, one of the greatest Greek Fathers, praised Moses in the
following terms: “Our brief discourse has offered you, man of God, these things
concerning the perfection of the virtuous life, by describing to you the life of the
great Moses as a visible model of goodness, so that each of us, by imitating his
actions, may himself acquire the features of the beauty we have described. And
to know that Moses attained all possible perfection, what more worthy testimony
can we find than the divine word, when it says, “I know you by name” (Ex 33:12,
17)? Also (there is) the fact that he was called the friend of God by God himself
(cf. Ex 33:11), and the fact that, having chosen to perish with the others unless
God in his kindness overlooked the offense they had done him, he checked God’s
wrath against the Israelites, getting him to change his mind so as not to grieve
his friend (cf. Ex 32:7-14). All these testimonies are a clear proof that in his life
Moses attained the height of perfection” (”De Vita Mosis”, 2, 319).

34:10. “Face to face” conversation with God means a very intimate relationship,
but it does not have to be taken literally. The visions that the patriarchs—Abra-
ham, Moses himself, Elijah. Isaiah etc.—had of God in this world were indirect
ones; what they saw were various manifestations of the divine glory, the splendor
of his greatness. These Old Testament theophanies were surpassed by the epi-
phany of Jesus Christ; God could reveal himself to man in no more perfect way
than in the Incarnation of his eternal Word: “No one has ever seen God; the only
Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (Jn 1:18).

Comparing the mission of Moses with that of Jesus, St Cyril of Alexandria taught:
“Our Lord Jesus Christ set the world free from its ancient offences; for He is the
truth and is holy by his very nature; he sanctifies those who have believed through
his blood, and he sets them above death, and he will, bring them into his own
kingdom of heaven, into the land that is truly holy and desirable—to the loftier man-
sions, to the heavenly city, to the Church of the first-born, whose maker and crea-
tor is God” (”Glaphyra In Deuteronomium”, 34:10).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.