1These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.
2It is eleven days from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.
3Now it happened in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel according to all that Yahweh had commanded him for them,
4after he had struck down Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.
5Across the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this Torah, saying:
6Yahweh our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
7Turn and set out for yourselves, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors, in the Arabah, in the hill country, and in the Shephelah, and in the Negev, and on the seacoast — the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
8See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.”
9And I said to you at that time, “I am not able by myself to bear you.
10Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, today you are as the stars of the heavens in multitude.
11May Yahweh, the God of your fathers, add to you a thousand times as many as you are, and may he bless you as he has spoken to you!
12How can I bear by myself your burden and your load and your strife?
13Provide for yourselves men — wise, discerning, and known — for your tribes, and I will set them as your heads.”
14And you answered me and said, “The thing that you have spoken is good to do.”
15So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men and known, and set them as heads over you — commanders of thousands, and commanders of hundreds, and commanders of fifties, and commanders of tens, and officers for your tribes.
16And I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the sojourner with him.
17You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid before any man, for the judgment belongs to God. And the matter that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.”
18And I commanded you at that time all the things that you were to do.
19Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and fearful wilderness that you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.
20And I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God is giving to us.
21See, Yahweh your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear and do not be dismayed.”
22Then all of you drew near to me and said, “Let us send men ahead of us, that they may explore the land for us and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up and the cities we shall come to.”
23The thing was good in my eyes, so I took twelve men from you, one man for each tribe.
24They turned and went up into the hill country and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out.
25And they took in their hand some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and they brought back word to us and said, “The land that Yahweh our God is giving to us is good.”
26Yet you were not willing to go up, and you rebelled against the mouth of Yahweh your God.
27And you grumbled in your tents and said, “Because Yahweh hated us, he brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
28Where are we going up? Our brothers have melted our heart, saying, ‘A people greater and taller than we, cities great and fortified up to the heavens; and we even saw the sons of the Anakim there.’”
29Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified and do not be afraid of them.
30Yahweh your God, the one going before you — he himself will fight for you, according to all that he did with you in Egypt before your eyes,
31and in the wilderness, where you saw how Yahweh your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, all along the way that you traveled until you came to this place.’
32Yet in this matter you were not trusting in Yahweh your God,
33who goes before you on the way, to seek out for you a place to encamp — in fire by night, to show you the way you should go, and in the cloud by day.
34And Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and he was angry and swore, saying,
35‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers,
36except Caleb son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him I will give the land on which he walked, and to his sons, because he fully followed after Yahweh.’
37With me too Yahweh was angry on your account, saying, ‘You also shall not enter there.
38Joshua son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there. Strengthen him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
39And your little ones, who you said would become plunder, and your children who this day do not know good from evil — they shall enter there, and to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.
40But as for you, turn and set out for the wilderness, by the way to the Sea of Reeds.’
41Then you answered and said to me, ‘We have sinned against Yahweh. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as Yahweh our God commanded us.’ And each of you strapped on his weapons of war, and you thought it easy to go up into the hill country.
42But Yahweh said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up and do not fight, for I am not in your midst, lest you be struck down before your enemies.”’
43So I spoke to you, but you would not listen; you rebelled against the mouth of Yahweh and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country.
44Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out to meet you and pursued you as bees do, and they beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.
45And you returned and wept before Yahweh, but Yahweh did not listen to your voice and did not give ear to you.
46So you stayed in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained.
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