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are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness across the Jordan, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 (It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by way of Mount Seir.)
3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites everything that the Lord had commanded him to say to them. 4 This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.
5 Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying:
6 “The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. 7 Break camp and journey on through to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all the neighbouring places in the Arabah, the hill country, the Judean foothills, the Negev, and along the sea coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates River. 8 See, I have set up this land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore He would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and to their descendants after them’.
9 “At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to carry the burden of you by myself alone. 10 The Lord your God has multiplied your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11 May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times more, and bless you as He has promised! 12 But how can I alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your disputes all by myself? 13 Choose some wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders’.
14 “You answered me, ‘What you propose to do is good’.
15 “So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you—as commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and as tribal officials. 16 And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the disputes between your brothers and judge fairly, whether between a man and his Israelite brother, or a foreign resident. 17 You must not show partiality when rendering judgment; hear out both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring to me any case that is too hard for you, and I will hear it’. 18 At that time I commanded you about everything you were to do.
19 “Then we set out from Horeb, as the Lord our God commanded us, and we went across all the vast and dreadful wilderness that you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, until we reached Kadesh-barnea. 20 I said to you, ‘You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. 21 See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and take possession of it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not be afraid or discouraged’.
22 “Then all of you came up to me and said, ‘Let us send men ahead of us to, so that they may explore the land for us and bring us back a report about the route we should take and the cities we will come to’.
23 “The plan seemed good to me, so I selected twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. 24 They set out and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25 Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it back to us and reported, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us’.
26 “But you were not willing to go up. You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 You grumbled in your tents and said, ‘The Lord hates us, so He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. 28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They have said: “The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large and fortified to the heavens. We even saw the descendants of Anakim there” ’.
29 “So I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified or afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God, who goes before you, will fight for you, as He did for you in Egypt before your very eyes, 31 and in the wilderness. There you saw the Lord your God carry you, as a father carries his son, all along the way you travelled until you reached this place’.
32 “Yet in spite of all this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, 33 who went ahead of you on the journey to search out a place for you to camp. He was present in the fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you the way you should go.
34 “When the Lord heard your words, He was angry and swore an oath: 35 ‘Not one of these men in this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers, 36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and to him and to his descendants I will give the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord completely’.
37 “Because of you the Lord became angry with me also and said, ‘You shall not enter there either. 38 But Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, will enter there. Encourage him, for he will lead Israel to inherit it. 39 And as your little ones, your children, whom you said would become plunder, who today do not yet know right from wrong, they will enter there. I will give them the land, and they will take possession of it. 40 But as for you, turn around and journey back into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea’.
41 “Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us’. So each of you put on his weapons of war, thinking it would be easy to go up into the hill country.
42 “But the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them: “Do not go up and do not fight, for I will not be among you, and you will be defeated by your enemies” ’.
43 “So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the Lord, and defiantly went up into the hill country. 44 Then the Amorites who lived in the hill country came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees, and beat you down from Seir as far as Hormah. 45 When you returned you wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not listen to your weeping or pay attention to you. 46 For this reason you remained in Kadesh many days, as long as you did.”