Deuteronomy 1:1-46
1 These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Rift Valley opposite Suph between Paran on the one hand and Tophel and Laban and Haseroth and Di-Zahab on the other.
2 It is eleven days from Horeb by way of the highlands of Seʽir to Kadesh-Barneaʽ;
3 and in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses spoke to the sons of Israel just as Jehovah had commissioned him to,
4 after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, whose capital was Heshbon, and King ʽOg of the Bashan, whose capitals were ʽAshtaroth and Edreʽi.
5 On the other side of the Jordan, in the country of Moab, Moses set himself to expound this code, saying
6 “Our God Jehovah told us at Horeb ‘No more staying on this highland:
7 turn and march, and go into the Amorite highland and to all its neighbors in the Rift Valley and in the highlands, and in the lowlands and in the South and on the coast, the Canaanite country and the Lebanon, to the great river, the river Euphrates.
8 Look, I have given the country up to your conquest: go in and take possession of the country that Jehovah swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob he would give to them and their descendants after them.’
9 “And I said to you at that time ‘I cannot carry you alone.
10 Your God Jehovah has increased you, and here you are today as numerous as the stars in the sky;
11 may your fathers’ God Jehovah add to you a thousand times as many and bless you as he promised you!
12 How am I alone to carry the weight and load of you, and your disputes?
13 Nominate wise and clearheaded men, well known in your tribes, whom I may appoint as your heads.’
14 And you answered me ‘That is a good idea that you propose.’
15 And I took from among you wise and well-known men and made them heads over you, chiefs of thousands and of hundreds and of fifties and of tens, and marshals for your tribes;
16 and I gave your judges the order at that time ‘Hear causes between your brothers, and judge fairly between a man and his brother or his immigrant employee.
17 You are not to recognize persons in judging: you are to listen to great and small alike. You are not to quail before any man, because judgment belongs to God. And a thing that is too hard for you you are to present to me, and I will hear the case.’
18 And I gave you orders at that time for all the things you were to do.
19 “And we marched from Horeb, and went over all the great and terrible wilderness that you have seen toward the Amorite highland, as our God Jehovah had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-Barneaʽ.
20 And I said to you ‘You have come to the Amorite highland, which our God Jehovah is giving to us.
21 See, your God Jehovah has given the country up to your conquest: go up, take possession, as your fathers’ God Jehovah has promised you; do not be afraid nor dismayed.’
22 “And you all came up to me and said ‘Let us send some men before us to explore the country for us and bring us back word of the route we are to go up by and the cities we are to come to’;
23 and the idea pleased me, and I took from among you twelve men, one man to a tribe,
24 and they turned and went up to the highland and came to Cluster Arroyo and scouted through it,
25 and took in their hands some of the fruit of the country and brought it down to you, and brought you back word ‘The country our God Jehovah is giving us is a good one.’
26 But you were not willing to go up, but disobeyed your God Jehovah
27 and found fault in your tents, and said ‘It was in Jehovah’s hatred for us that he brought us out of Egypt to give us into the hands of the Amorites to make away with us.
28 Where are we going up to? our brothers have melted down our hearts with their “a race larger and taller than we, large cities fortified up into the sky, and we even saw ʽAnakites there.’”
29 And I said to you ‘You are not to be overawed or afraid of them:
30 your God Jehovah, who is going before you, he will fight for you, doing just as he did with you before your eyes in Egypt
31 * and in the wilderness in which you saw how Jehovah carried you as a man carries his own son all along the road you have come till you came to this place.’
32 But in this matter you did not trust your God Jehovah,
33 who goes before you along the road to look out for a camping-place for you, in fire by night that you may see along the road you are to go on, and in a cloud by day.
34 “And Jehovah heard your talk and was incensed, and swore
35 * ‘Not a man among these men shall see the good country I swore to give their fathers,
36 but Caleb the son of Jephunneh: he shall see it, and to him I will give the country he trod on, and to his sons, since he altogether followed Jehovah.’
37 —At me too Jehovah broke out in anger on your account, saying ‘You shall not go in there either:
38 Joshuaʽ the son of Nun, your subaltern, he shall go in there. Encourage him, because he shall establish Israel in it.’—
39 ‘And your sons, who today do not know good from bad, they shall go in there, and to them I will give the country, and they shall take possession of it.
40 But as for you, turn and march into the wilderness toward the Red Sea.’
41 * “And you answered me ‘We have sinned against Jehovah: we will go up and fight, just as our God Jehovah commanded us to’; and you belted on your arms and got ready to go up to the highland.
42 * But Jehovah said to me ‘Tell them not to go up nor to fight, because I am not among them and they would be beaten by their enemies.’
43 And I spoke to you, but you would not listen but disobeyed Jehovah and went up presumptuously to the highland;
44 and the Amorites that live in that highland came out to meet you and chased you as bees do, and pounded you up in Seʽir, clear to Hormah.
45 And you came back and wept before Jehovah; but Jehovah would not obey you nor give ear to you.
46 “And you stayed at Kadesh a long time, as long as you did stay there;
Footnotes
^ 1:31 Lit. the wilderness that you saw that Jehovah carried you
^ 1:35 Var. these men, this wicked generation,
^ 1:41 (got ready) Unc.
^ 1:42 Lit. Tell them ‘You shall not go up nor fight, because I am not among you, and you shall not be beaten
