Prayer of Moses. Moses knew that he was not to enter the Promised Land with the people; but, reluctant to relinquish the enterprise which he had so far conducted until he should see it successfully finished, he besought the Lord that at least he might be permitted to cross the Jordan, and see the goodly land.
This prayer was presented probably just before Moses asked God to set a man over the congregation to be their leader to the promised land (Numbers 27:15-17); for the command to give a charge to Joshua, in that office, follows immediately, as part of God's answer to Moses' request (verse 28), and the expression "at that time" (verse 23) points back to the charge of Moses to Joshua, as contemporaneous with the offering of his prayer.
In this prayer Moses appeals to what he had already experienced of God's favor to him, in that he had begun to show him his greatness and his mighty power. The reference is to the victories already achieved over the Amorites; these were tokens of the Divine power graciously manifested to Israel, and Moses appeals to them as strengthening his plea for further favors (comp.
the pleading, Exodus 33:12, etc.).