How Did Moses Die?

by

Daniel M. Berry
Cheriton School of Computer Science
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
dberry@uwaterloo.ca

and

Sandra van Eden

Auckland, New Zealand
waiatamanu1@gmail.com

1 Introduction

One mystery of the Torah is “Exactly how did Moses die on Mount Nevo?” The
last chapters of Deut. explain only that God commanded Moses to die on Mount
Nevo, that Moses did die there, and that God buried him in a nearby valley in a
place not known to any person. In particular, the text explains neither the exact
mode nor the exact cause of Moses’s death. This article pieces together a possible
exact mode and cause of Moses’s death by pulling in evidence from Torah
quotations.

2 Moses Learns That He Must Die

Deut. 32:48–50, in which God announces Moses’s upcoming death reads,

‫ בהר‬,‫ … ומת‬,‫ … עלה אל הר … הר נבו‬,‫וידבר יהוה אל משה‬

…

⁴ ⁷
These verses are occasionally, e.g., by the JPS and Plaut , translated as something
like,

And God said to Moses, … ascend the mountain … Mount Nevo, … you will die, on the
mountain …

or as

And God said to Moses, … ascend the mountain … Mount Nevo, … you shall die, on the
mountain …,

as if the all-knowing God is informing Moses that he will die on Mount Nevo, i.e.,
Mount Nevo is the place where he will die, by natural causes or by God’s action.
However, that meaning would have been written in Hebrew as

,‫ … ותמות‬,‫ … עלה אל הר … הר נבו‬,‫וידבר יהוה אל משה‬

… ‫בהר‬

using the singular future form, ‫תמות‬, of ‫למות‬, “to die”. What is written there in
the beginning of Deut. 32:50, ‫מת‬, after the ‫ ו‬for “and” is the singular imperative
form of ‫למות‬, a very blunt command saying, “and die on the mountain”. It is the
pure, unmitigated, and impolite imperative form of the verb. God is telling Moses,
not just that he will die and where the death will occur, but that he, Moses, has to
do something active to bring about his own death.

In modern Hebrew, the future form, such as ‫תמות‬, “you will die”, is used as a
more polite, softened way to give a command. The imperative ‫ מת‬sounds so
blunt, like from a soldier charging the enemy with a bayoneted gun in his hand,
yelling, “Die!” How is Moses supposed to fulfil this command to end his life? He
cannot be expected to know how to stop his heart. Could he, perhaps, intentionally
throw himself off a cliff, hit himself with a rock, or take poison? Also, as nearby
text describes Moses as healthy and vigorous at age 120, he is unlikely to die of
natural causes from hiking up Mount Nevo. Finally, since God is commanding
Moses to die, God is saying to Moses, “Don’t expect me to stop your heart or to
take any explicit action to kill you.” The variation in translations that we see —R.
E. Friedman³, the JPS⁴, and W. G. Plaut⁷ use future tense, J. H. Hertz⁶ and the JPS
in 1917⁵ use direct imperative, while R. E. Fox uses elements of both with his
translation, “You are to die”²*— says that translators over the years have struggled
E. Friedman³, the JPS⁴, and W. G. Plaut⁷ use future tense, J. H. Hertz⁶ and the JPS
in 1917⁵ use direct imperative, while R. E. Fox uses elements of both with his
translation, “You are to die”²*— says that translators over the years have struggled
with this command.

===========================================================
* Among the translations available at the Blue Letter Bible¹, the King James
Version, New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, Young’s Literal
Translation, Webster’s Bible, Latin Vulgate, Targum Onkelos, and Septuagint
translations use imperative, while the New Living Translation, New International
Version, and New English Translation translations use future tense.
===========================================================

3 Carrying Out the Command

There is no explanation of how Moses carried out this command in Deut. 32:50 or
anywhere nearby. All that is said, in Deut. 34 is that Moses died in the land of
Moab, that God buried him in the valley, and no one knows his burial place to this
day.  Specifically, Deut. 34:5 says,

.‫ בארץ מואב על פי יהוה‬,‫וימת שם משה עבד יהוה‬

Moses the servant of YHWH died there, in the land of Moab according to the word of YHWH.

The last three words, ‫יהוה‬‫על פי‬, literally means “according to the mouth of
YHWH”. This phrase and its variation, ‫את פי יהוה‬, are found several places in
the Torah, e.g., Ex. 17:1, Lev. 24:12, Num. 3:16, 39, 51, 4:37, 41, 45, 49, 9:18, 20,
23, 10:13, 13:3, 24:13, 33:2, 38, 36:5, Deut. 9:23, 34:5, and even in the liturgy, as
in

‫ על פי אדוני ביד‬,‫וזאת התורה אשר שם משה לפני בני ישראל‬

.‫משה‬
This is the Torah that Moshe put before the Children of Israel, according to the word of God, by
the hand of Moshe.

In each of these contexts, the phrase is commonly translated as “according to the

In each of these contexts, the phrase is commonly translated as “according to the
word of YHWH” or as “according to the command of YHWH”. Moreover, there
are many instances in the same books of just ‫ פי‬or ‫פה‬, “mouth”, understood to
mean “command”. Therefore, we understand that Moses died as commanded by
God, in Deut. 32:50.

Still later, the end of Deut. 34:10 says,

‫ פנים אל‬,‫ אשר ידעו יהוה‬,‫ כמשה‬,‫ולא קם נביא עוד בישראל‬

.‫פנים‬
And there never arose again in Israel a prophet like Moses whom YHWH knew face to face.

This phrase seems to be implying that Moses had seen God’s face. However, in
contrast, Ex. 33:20—23 makes it clear that when Moses asked to see God’s face,
God said to Moses that no one could see His face and live. So, God placed Moses
in a crack in the mountain and put His hand over him, removing His hand only
after He had passed over. All Moses saw was God’s back, because God knew that
if Moses were to see His face, Moses would be killed instantly.

If indeed Moses had seen God’s face on Mount Nevo, what was different this time
that did not apply some 40 years earlier? In the Ex. event, Moses still had to stay
alive to lead His people through the wilderness to the promised land. In the Deut.
event, Moses had already completed this task, was at the end of his life, and, most
importantly, had an explicit command from God to obey, that is, to take some
willful action in order to bring about his own death. So, could Moses’s asking
again to see God’s face be the way that he (Moses) could actively carry out His
command to die? Moses would have known, from God’s answer the first time he
asked, that doing so would be fatal. This time, God would cooperate, granting
Moses his wish, allowing Moses to see His face, knowing that Moses had to obey
His command to die.

4 Knowing God Face to Face

Look again at verse Deut. 34:10. Not only does it say ‫פנים אל פנים‬, “face to
face”, but it uses ‫ ידעו‬when it says “whom YHWH knew face to face”. This is the
Look again at verse Deut. 34:10. Not only does it say ‫פנים אל פנים‬, “face to
face”, but it uses ‫ ידעו‬when it says “whom YHWH knew face to face”. This is the
very intimate “to know” that is used as a euphemism for sexual relations
throughout the Torah. The image here is that God and Moses are face to face, as
close as two naked lovers are. That some translators have problems with ‫ ידעו‬is
indicated by the JPS⁴ and Plaut⁷ translations of ‫ פנים אל‬,‫אשר ידעו יהוה‬
‫ פנים‬as “whom the Lord singled out, face to face”.

The phrase ‫ פנים אל פנים‬appears several times in the Torah. However, the
appearance in Deut. 34:10 is the only one in which the phrase appears with the
very strong verb ‫ידעו‬.

The phrase does appear in Gen. 32:31 with the verb ‫ראיתי‬, “I saw”, to quote
Jacob’s naming of the place where he thought he wrestled with God:

‫ כי ראיתי אלהים פנים אל‬:‫ פניאל‬,‫ויקרא יעקב שם המקום‬

‫ ותנצל נפשי‬,‫פנים‬
And Yaaqov named the place, Pni’el, because I saw God face-to-face, and my life was preserved.

However, the sentence does express a recognition that seeing God’s face is
normally fatal. While Jacob believes that he had been wrestling with God and had
seen God’s face, and therefore, attributes his survival to a divine miracle, the text
in Gen. 32:25 says only that a man wrestled with Jacob until dawn. Thus, Jacob
saw only the face of a man. Maybe this man was in fact an angel assuming the
form of a man. Maybe this man was even God in disguise as a man to prevent
Jacob’s death from seeing His face. Regardless, Jacob ended up believing that he
had seen God’s face, because the man with whom Jacob wrestled took the unusual
step of renaming Jacob to Israel, ‫ ישראל‬, meaning “you have struggled with God”.
All other previous occurrences of ‫פנים‬ ‫ פנים אל‬or the similar ‫פנים בפנים‬,
also “face to face”, in the Torah are with a form of the verb ‫לדבר‬, “to speak”. For
example, Ex. 33:11 says

‫ כאשר ידבר איש אל רעהו‬,‫ודבר יהוה אל משה פנים אל פנים‬

And YHWH spoke to Moses face to face, like a man speaks to his neighbor.,

and Deut. 5:4 has Moses saying to the Children of Israel,

‫ דבר יהוה עמכם בהר מתוך האש‬,‫פנים בפנים‬

Face to face, YHWH spoke with you in the mountain from within the fire.

Each of these interactions involves only speaking, which can be done from a
distance with the speaker’s face hidden. Thus, God is only speaking with Moses or
to the Children of Israel, with His face hidden. The other interactions with God are
‫פה אל פה‬, “mouth to mouth”. For example, Num. 12:7–8 has God speaking to
a jealous Aaron and Miriam, saying,

,‫ פה אל פה אדבר בו‬.‫ נאמן הוא‬,‫ביתי‬-‫ בכל‬:‫ עבדי משה‬,‫לא כן‬

Not so, my servant Moses: in all my house, he is trusted. Mouth to mouth I speak with him.

These interactions involve only speaking. Therefore, Deut. 34:10 is the first time
that Moses, or anyone, had an interaction with God that involved a fatal viewing of
and thus, knowing, in the intimate sense of the word, God’s face.

5 The Tradition That Moses Died With a Divine Kiss

⁷
Interestingly, as indicated by Plaut’s commentary on Deut. 34:5,

.‫ בארץ מואב על פי יהוה‬,‫וימת שם משה עבד יהוה‬

“At the command of the Lord. Literally, ‘by the mouth of the Lord,’ whence the
tradition arose that Moses died by a divine kiss”. Plaut is referring to a tradition
reported elsewhere [<http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-divine-kiss/>].
See also [,<https://rabbibrant.com/2007/10/05/gods-kiss/>, <http://forward.com/
culture/140842/legend-of-moses-death-sets-the-example-for-an-easy/>]. On the
surface, this tradition is similar to this article’s conclusion that Moses died from
knowing, in the intimate sense, the face of God. However, this article’s conclusion
is derived from a different verse, Deut. 34:10,

.‫ פנים אל פנים‬,‫ אשר ידעו יהוה‬,‫… כמשה‬

The death-by-divine-kiss tradition requires a very unusual interpretation of ‫פי‬ ‫על‬

‫יהוה‬, an oft-occurring phrase that means “as commanded by YHWH”
everywhere else. Specifically, there is no other use of ‫ על פי יהוה‬that can be
read as the “kiss of God”.

The supposition of the authors of this article is that Plaut, having translated ,‫ומת‬
‫ בהר‬as “You will die on the mountain” knows of no command with which to
reconcile the usual meaning of ‫ על פי יהוה‬as “by the command of YHWH”.
So, he is forced to find another meaning of ‫על פי יהוה‬. Since a kiss comes
from a mouth, perhaps this instance of ‫ על פי יהוה‬means “by a kiss from
YHWH”. This article’s interpretation of the verse ‫ בהר‬,‫ ומת‬avoids this
linguistic gymnastics with ‫ על פי יהוה‬and is able to reconcile the command
‫ בהר‬,‫ ומת‬with the declaration ‫ פנים אל‬,‫ אשר ידעו יהוה‬,‫כמשה‬
‫ פנים‬to arrive at its conclusion about the death of Moses.
6 God’s Good-Bye and Thank-You Gift to Moses

As a punishment for Moses’s sin of disobeying God at the waters of Meribah

Kadesh, God did not allow Moses to enter the Promised Land. So, just as the
Children of Israel arrived at the Promised Land, God commanded Moses to climb
Mount Nevo, from whose summit, God would show him the land that he was not
allowed to enter. Showing Moses the Promised Land and then not allowing him to
enter it could be considered somewhat mean spirited, rubbing salt into a wound.
However, another way to look at this event is that God’s allowing Moses to see the
Promised Land from the top of Mount Nevo is a consolation prize. Moses could
not enter because he had disobeyed God. So did most of the Children of Israel
who left Egypt when they made the golden calf, but Moses got special treatment.
He was was the only sinner who got to even see the Promised Land; all the other
sinners died during the 40 years of wandering, before even arriving at the entrance
to the Promised Land.

Also, it seems to these authors that despite Moses’s sin of disobedience — which
was so noteworthy that it is mentioned in the Torah — after all his years as a
faithful servant, surely God would not treat Moses badly. These authors suggest
that granting Moses his greatest wish to see God’s face before he died could
actually be God's unique way of rewarding Moses, of saying “Thank you for all
that you have done for me!” God knew that Moses had wanted to see His face for
over 40 years, but He could not have granted this wish earlier because He needed
Moses to lead the Children of Israel to the Promised Land. But now, since Moses
has to die anyway at God’s own command, why not grant this wish as a very
special thank-you gift?

7 Conclusion

This article has gathered from the Torah evidence that

1. God commanded Moses to take active steps to die on Mount Nevo,

2. the main active step on Moses’s part was to request again to see God’s face, the
showing of which both knew would be fatal to Moses, and

3. after God denied Moses’s first such request, forty years earlier, God granted
Moses’s repeated request, both to allow Moses to actively carry out His command
to die and to thank Moses for his loyal service.

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Rabbi Lori Cohen for alerting them to other uses of the phrase
‫פנים אל פנים‬, Sarah Gregory for her help in understanding Septuagint Greek,
and Daniel Schwabe for the suggestion to emphasize the willfullness of Moses’s
actions.

References

[1] BlueLetterBible.org, The Blue Letter Bible, <http://www.blueletterbible.org/>

[2] E. Fox, The Five Books of Moses (New York, NY: Schocken Books, 1995)

[3] R. E. Friedman, Commentary on the Torah: With a New English Translation

(New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2001)

[4] JPS Hebrew---English Tanakh ‫( תנ׳׳ך‬New York, NY: Jewish Publication

Society, 1999)

5] Mechon-Mamre.org, The Hebrew Bible in English, according to the JPS 1917

Edition, <http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et0.htm>

[6] J. H. Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs: Hebrew Text English Translation
and Commentary (Brooklyn, NY: Soncino, 1960)

[7] W. G. Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary (New York, NY: Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, 1981)