Deuteronomy 1:31

the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that … thy God bare thee The second of the Sg. passages in this discourse. If we omit it the rest of the verse in the Pl. address follows suitably on the initial conjunction: and in all the way ye went until ye came to this place. Possibly, therefore, the Sg. clause is a later insertion (so Stärk, Steuern., Berth.). Yet it may be argued that the author has himself naturally changed from Pl. to Sg. under the influence of the metaphor he uses; the nation being personified by the metaphor and therefore conceived in the Sg.

bare thee Rather, hath borne thee. This figure for the Divine Providence is frequent in the O.T.; whether with the accompanying simile, as a man his son, Deuteronomy 1:44; Deuteronomy 8:5; cp. Hosea 11:1 f.; or with another, on eagles" wings, Deuteronomy 32:11; Exodus 19:4 (both JE); or with no addition, Hosea 11:4; Isaiah 46:4; Isaiah 63:9; or as implied in other words Deuteronomy 32:13, he made him to ride; Deuteronomy 33:27, underneath are the everlasting arms. Isaiah 46 contrasts the dead idols that need to be carried with the living God who carries His people. The same idea, that religion is not what we have to carry but what carries us, is enforced nowhere more finely than in D in which faith in God means buoyancy and progress, the experience of being lifted and forwarded.

unto this place Deuteronomy 3:29, the valley over against Beth-Pe-or. Cp. Deuteronomy 9:7; Deuteronomy 11:5, and with a different prepos. Deuteronomy 26:9; Deuteronomy 29:6.