Deuteronomy 1

¹These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

²It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.

³Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord

⁴after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei.

⁵On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying,

⁶“The Lord

⁷Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates.

⁸See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord

⁹“And I spoke to you at that time, saying: ‘I alone am not able to bear you.

¹⁰The Lord

¹¹May the Lord

¹²How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints?

¹³Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.’

¹⁴And you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have told us to do is good.’

¹⁵So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.

¹⁶“Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him.

¹⁷You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’

¹⁸And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

¹⁹“So we departed from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord

²⁰And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord

²¹Look, the Lord

²²“And every one of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.’

²³“The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.

²⁴And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.

²⁵They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a good land which the Lord

²⁶“Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord

²⁷and you complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord

²⁸Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.” ’

²⁹“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, or afraid of them.

³⁰The Lord

³¹and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord

³²Yet, for all that, you did not believe the Lord

³³who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.

³⁴“And the Lord

³⁵‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers,

³⁶except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the Lord

³⁷The Lord

³⁸Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

³⁹‘Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.

⁴⁰But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹“Then you answered and said to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord

⁴²“And the Lord

⁴³So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the command of the Lord

⁴⁴And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you as bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah.

⁴⁵Then you returned and wept before the Lord

⁴⁶“So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spent there.