Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 34:8
The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the Israelites' reaction in the plains of Moab immediately after Moses dies at age 120, marking the transition before Joshua assumes leadership.
The words — וַיִּבְכּוּ (va-yivku) translates literally as "and they wept," while עַרְבֹת (arvot) denotes the "desert plains" where the event occurs.
The thread — The thirty-day mourning period directly parallels the Israelites' thirty-day lament for Aaron in Numbers 20:29 and stands alongside the forty-day embalming and seventy-day Egyptian mourning for Joseph in Genesis 50:3.
Why it lands — The text establishes a fixed, concluded period of national grief that clears the way for the people to obey Joshua's leadership without lingering in mourning.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
Cross-references
- Genesis 50:3 taking the forty days required to complete the embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
- Numbers 20:29 When the whole congregation saw that Aaron had died, the entire house of Israel mourned for him thirty days.
- Genesis 50:10 When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.
- 1 Samuel 25:1 When Samuel died, all Israel gathered to mourn for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.
- Isaiah 57:1 The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous are taken away from the presence of evil.
- Acts 8:2 God-fearing men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him.