 1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite the Red Sea, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab, 2 eleven days from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadeshbarnea. 3 In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them. 4 After he had struck down King Sihon of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon and King Og of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth in Edrei 5 beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law saying, 6 The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb saying, You have had enough of dwelling in this mountain. 7 Turn and pull up stakes and enter the hill country of the Amorites, and to all its neighboring places, in the Arabah in the hill country, and in the low country, and in the south, and in the shore of the sea, the land of the Canaanites and of Lebanon, to the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 Behold, I have set before you the land. Go in and possess the land that the Lord has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them. 9 I spoke to you at that time saying, I am not able to bear you by myself. 10 The Lord your God has multiplied you, and, behold, today you are as the stars of Heaven for multitude. 11 May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you as He has said to you. 12 How can I by myself bear your pressure and your burden and your strife? 13 Give wise and understanding men, and those known to your tribes, and I will appoint them rulers over you. 14 You answered me and said, The thing that you have spoken is good to do. 15 I took the chiefs of your tribes, wise and noted men, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. 16 I commanded your judges at that time saying, Hear the causes between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the stranger with him. 17 You shall not respect persons in judgment. You shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's. And the cause that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it. 18 I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. 19 When we pulled up from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadeshbarnea. 20 I said to you, You have come to the mountain of the Amorites that the Lord our God has given to us. 21 Indeed+, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go and possess it as the Lord God of your fathers has said to you. Do not fear nor be troubled. 22 You came near to me every one of you and said, We will send men before us and they will search out the land and bring us word again by what way we must go and into what cities we shall go. 23 The saying pleased me well and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe. 24 They turned and went up onto the mountain and came to the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out. 25 They took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, It is a good land that the Lord our God gives us. 26 But you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 You grumbled+ in your tents and said, Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where shall we go up? Our brothers have broken our heart saying, We have seen there a people greater and taller than we are. The cities are great and walled up to the heavens, also the sons of the giants. 29 Then I said to you, Do not dread them nor be afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God who goes before you will fight for you according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes. 31 Also, in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son in all the ways that you went until you came to this place. 32 Yet in this you did not believe the Lord your God. 33 He went before you on your way to search out a place for you to pitch your tents in fire by night and in a cloud by day to show you what way you should go. 34 The Lord heard the voice of your words and was angry and swore saying, 35 Surely not one of these men of this evil generation will see that good land that I swore to give to your fathers. 36 Except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. He will see it and I will give to him the land that he has walked on, and to his sons. Because he has fully followed the Lord. 37 The Lord was angry with me for your sakes saying, You shall not go in there. 38 Joshua, the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Make him strong, for he will cause Israel to inherit it. 39 Your little children, whom you said would be a prey, and your sons who in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in there. I will give it to them and they shall possess it. 40 But you turn and pull up into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. 41 You said to me, We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. When each one of you buckled on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the hill. 42 But the Lord said to me, Say to them, Do not go up nor fight. For I am not among you. You will be beaten by your enemies. 43 So I spoke to you and you would not hear but rebelled against the command of the Lord, and went presumptuously into the hill. 44 The Amorites who lived in that mountain came out against you and chased you, even as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, to Hormah. 45 You returned and wept before the Lord. But the Lord would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. 46 So you stayed in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained.
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