Get thee up into this mountain Abarim. — See Numbers 27:12. The same command was given there, and was answered by Moses with the prayer for a successor, which was granted. All that is narrated between that passage and this may be considered as preliminary to Moses’ departure.
Mount Nebo. — The particular peak of the “Abarim” (“mountains beyond Jordan,” or “passages of Jordan”), where Moses was to die, was not mentioned before. “The rugged summit of mount Nebo rises abruptly 4,000 feet above the plain (where the Israelites were encamped), and still retains its name, with unchanged meaning, in the Arabic Neba, or height” (Couder’s Bible Handbook, p. 254).