1These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plain opposite the Red sea, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
2(It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Kadeshbarnea.)
3In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel. He told them everything that the LORD had commanded him to say to them.
4This was after he had killed Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived at Astaroth in Edrei.
6"The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb. He said, 'You have stayed long enough on this mountain."
7"'Turn, and set out on your journey. Go to the mountain of the Amorites, and to all the places near it: in the plain, in the hills, in the valley, in the south, and by the sea side. Go to the land of the Canaanites, and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates."
8"'Look, I have set the land before you. Go in and take the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants after them.'"
9"And I spoke to you at that time. I said, 'I am not able to carry you by myself alone."
10"'The LORD your God has made you many. Look, today you are as many as the stars of heaven."
11"'(May the LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!)"
12"'How can I alone carry your troubles, your burdens, and your quarrels?"
13"'Choose wise men, men of understanding, men well known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.'"
14"And you answered me and said, 'What you have said is a good thing for us to do.'"
15"So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise men and well known, and made them heads over you: captains over thousands, captains over hundreds, captains over fifties, captains over tens, and officers among your tribes."
16"And at that time I charged your judges. I said, 'Listen to the cases between your brothers, and judge with righteousness between every man and his brother, and the stranger who is with him."
17"'You shall not show favour in judgment. You shall listen to the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid of any man's face, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, bring it to me, and I will hear it.'"
18"And at that time I commanded you all the things that you should do."
19"When we left Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw on the way to the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us. And we came to Kadeshbarnea."
20"And I said to you, 'You have come to the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us."
21"'Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up and take it, as the LORD God of your fathers has said to you. Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart.'"
22"And all of you came near to me and said, 'We will send men ahead of us. They shall search out the land for us, and bring us word again about which way we must go up, and which cities we shall come to.'"
23"The plan seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one from each tribe."
24"They turned and went up into the mountain, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out."
25"They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us. They brought us word again and said, 'It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.'"
26"But you would not go up. You rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God."
27"You complained in your tents and said, 'The LORD hated us, and so he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us."
28"'Where shall we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt. They say the people are bigger and taller than we are, the cities are great and walled up to heaven, and they have even seen the sons of the Anakims there.'"
29"Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified, and do not be afraid of them."
30"'The LORD your God goes before you. He will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,"
31"'and in the wilderness, where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.'"
32"Yet in this thing you did not believe the LORD your God,"
33"who went before you on the way to look for a place for you to pitch your tents, in fire by night to show you which way you should go, and in a cloud by day."
34"And the LORD heard what you said. He was angry, and he swore:"
35"'Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land that I swore to give to your fathers,"
36"'except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it. To him and to his children I will give the land that he has walked on, because he has followed the LORD completely.'"
37"The LORD was angry with me too because of you, and said, 'You also shall not go in there."
38"'But Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it."
39"'And your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who that day did not know good from evil, they shall go in there. To them I will give it, and they shall possess it."
40"'But as for you, turn and set out into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.'"
41"Then you answered and said to me, 'We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.' And every man put on his weapons of war, and you were ready to go up into the hill."
42"And the LORD said to me, 'Say to them: Do not go up, and do not fight, for I am not among you. If you do, you will be struck down before your enemies.'"
43"So I spoke to you, and you would not listen. You rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and in your pride you went up into the hill."
44"And the Amorites who lived in that mountain came out against you. They chased you as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, as far as Hormah."
45"And you came back and wept before the LORD, but the LORD would not listen to your voice, and would not pay attention to you."
46"So you stayed in Kadesh many days, as many days as you stayed there."