Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; but with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day– (Deuteronomy 29:13–14)
וְלֹא אִתְּכֶם לְבַדְּכֶם אָנֹכִי כֹּרֵת אֶת הַבְּרִית הַזֹּאת וְאֶת הָאָלָה הַזֹּאת. כִּי אֶת אֲשֶׁר יֶשְׁנוֹ פֹּה – עִמָּנוּ עֹמֵד הַיּוֹם לִפְנֵי ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ, וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר אֵינֶנּוּ פֹּה – עִמָּנוּ הַיּוֹם. (דברים כ"ט, יג-יד)
Whom did Moses mean by “him that is not here with us this day”?
Rashi understands future generations; Joseph Bekhor Shor adds future converts (see Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 146a).
These interpretations are difficult: why specifically at Moab’s covenant must Moses emphasize future generations or converts? Future generations already belong to Israel, while converts accept the covenant upon joining, without needing inclusion in the original covenant.
His words appear to concern those absent although they could or should have attended. But who were they?
Shadal explains people absent through illness or another reason, whom Moses declares included. Later, however, Moses mentions a family or tribe that might think itself excluded, rather than merely individuals. He therefore appears to mean a large, significant group physically absent.
I propose the two and a half tribes already given their inheritance across the Jordan. They sent armed contingents to join Israel’s conquest, and perhaps these attended the entry ceremony, but only forty thousand were sent (Joshua 4:13), while Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh’s military-age census totaled 110,550 (Numbers 26). Their wives, children, and other men remained in their cities and apparently did not attend the covenant on Moab’s plains. Their total population, including women and children, may be estimated at half a million, making the armed contingents less than ten percent.
Moses feared they would regard themselves as a separate group not bound by the covenant, or that Canaan’s tribes would regard them so. This could separate the Jordan’s two sides and damage unity. He therefore expressly emphasized their inclusion despite physical absence.
This fear continued under Joshua. When the armed contingents returned after conquest and erected a great altar at the Jordan, Canaan’s tribes interpreted it as rebellion against the LORD and an attempt to separate from Israel, nearly causing war (Joshua 22).
Some support lies in the context preceding “Ye are standing this day all of you” (Deuteronomy 29:9). Immediately before, the conquest and transfer to the two and a half tribes appear:
And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites. Observe therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may make all that ye do to prosper. (Deuteronomy 29:7–8)
וַנִּקַּח אֶת אַרְצָם, וַנִּתְּנָהּ לְנַחֲלָה לָראוּבֵנִי וְלַגָּדִי וְלַחֲצִי שֵׁבֶט הַמְנַשִּׁי. וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת דִּבְרֵי הַבְּרִית הַזֹּאת וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם – לְמַעַן תַּשְׂכִּילוּ אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשׂוּן. (דברים כ"ט, ז-ח)
The first verse (29:7) mentions conquest and transfer, the second (29:8) emphasizes keeping the covenant. If these introduce and contextualize Moses’ words, his declaration includes those tribes too.
Thus “Ye are standing this day all of you … even all the men of Israel” means, as he explains, all Israel. Even the physically absent two and a half tribes remaining in their cities are “with us this day,” and included.
