Deuteronomy 1 · a question people ask
They said, "We have sinned." Why didn't the LORD listen when they wept?
Every reading starts from the same verses. The people said, "We have sinned against the LORD" (1:41). The LORD had already sworn that not one of that generation would see the good land (1:34-35), and had told them, "turn, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea" (1:40). When they armed to fight, he said, "Don’t go up and don’t fight; for I am not among you" (1:42). They went up anyway, were beaten, and "returned and wept before the LORD, but the LORD didn’t listen to your voice, nor turn his ear to you" (1:45). Readers differ on what the confession and the weeping were. The two main readings below each rest on verses.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Words without turning
Those who hold this view note that the confession came with a plan the LORD had not given: "We will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us" (1:41), when his command now was to turn back into the wilderness (1:40). Moses tells what followed in the words he used for the first refusal: "you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD" (1:43; compare 1:26). On this reading they named their sin but still "didn’t listen" (1:43), and the weeping came after the defeat (1:44-45).
Deuteronomy 1:40-41 · Deuteronomy 1:26 · Deuteronomy 1:43-45
Real sorrow, after the oath
Those who hold this view start from the oath: the LORD "was angry, and swore" (1:34). Numbers tells the same oath: the LORD said, "I have pardoned according to your word" (Numbers 14:20), and then, "surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers" (Numbers 14:23). Moses himself later pleaded and met the same answer: "the LORD was angry with me because of you, and didn’t listen to me" (3:26). On this reading the weeping may have been real, but the LORD had already sworn, and he didn't turn from it.
Deuteronomy 1:34 · Numbers 14:20-23 · Deuteronomy 3:23-26
The verses
“The LORD heard the voice of your words and was angry, and swore, saying, “Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers,”