Here is an interesting point that many folks gloss over in their studies but would question it.... if they stopped to think about it.
Yahweh told Moses not to bother the Moabites....nor contend with them [Deuteronomy 2:8-9]....but then He buries him there [Deuteronomy 34:5-6]..........in the Land of Moab?
Wouldn't that be kind of a contradiction on Yahweh's part? If He didn't want the Moabites to be bothered by the presence of Moses don't you think they would also be bothered if the Israelites drug his body back there and buried him in the Nation of Moab? Just silly........
Deu 34:5 - So Moses H4872 the servant
H5650 of the LORD
H3068 died
H4191 there
in the land H776 of Moab, H4124 according to the word
H6310 of the LORD.
H3068
Deu 34:6 - And he buried
H6912 him in a valley
H1516 in the
land H776 of Moab,
H4124 over against
H4136 Bethpeor:
H1047 but no man
H376 knoweth
H3045 of his sepulchre
H6900 unto this day.
H3117
Strong's #776 (land)
'erets
eh'-rets | from an unused root probably meaning to be firm; the earth (at large, or partitively a land):--X common, country, earth, field, ground, land, X natins, way, + wilderness, world. |
Over against Bethpeor. Where is that?
Well....as you can see.....Beth-Peor is further north than the northern boundary of the Dead Sea....northwest of mount Nebo.
The passages below show some of the locations where the Israelites were......at the end of the journey to the Jordan River.
[Numbers 32:3] Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam,
and Nebo, and Beon,
[Numbers 32;38] And
Nebo, and Baalmeon, (their names being changed,) and Shibmah: and gave other names unto the cities which they builded.
[Numbers 33:47] And they removed from Almondiblathaim, and pitched in the mountains of Abarim, before
Nebo.
[Deuteronomy 34:1] And Moses went up from the
plains of Moab unto the
mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that
is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,
So............. the Israelites are told to stay out of Moab and not bother them....but then Moses dies and is buried in Moab?
No! He was buried by Beth Peor, northwest of Mount Nebo in the Land of Moab. This Territory now belonged to the tribe of Reuben ....but still called in Scripture....the Land of Moab. In actuality........it is in the Plains of Moab where Ruth was born and raised. The same area where Naomi and family fled the famine in Judah and traveled to the "Fields of Moab" as it is called in the Literal Hebrew.