The Bible

Deuteronomy Chapter 1

¹These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suf, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ²It is eleven days' [journey] from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. ³In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses told all the commandnents to the children of Israel that Yahweh had given to him for them, ⁴after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei. ⁵Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying, ⁶"Yahweh our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, You have lived long enough by this mountain. ⁷Turn, and make your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all [the places] near there. The Arabah, the hill country, the lowlands, the South, by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites, and in Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. ⁸Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers- to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob- to give to them and to their offspring after them."

⁹I spoke to you at that time, saying, "I cannot bear [responsibility for] you all by myself. ¹⁰Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and see, today you are as numerous as the stars of the sky. ¹¹[May] Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! ¹²How can I bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife all by myself? ¹³Take wise men of understanding who are respected among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you."

¹⁴You answered me, and said, "The thing which you have spoken is good to do." ¹⁵So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and respected men, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, captains of tens, and officers, according to your tribes. ¹⁶I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Hear [cases] between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him. ¹⁷Don't show partiality in judgment; hear the small and the great alike. Don't be afraid of man, for the judgment is God's. Each case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it. ¹⁸I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do. ¹⁹We traveled from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the road to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰I said to you, "You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God is giving to us. ²¹Look, Yahweh your God has set the land before you. Go up [there], take possession [of it], as Yahweh the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Don't be afraid, nor be dismayed."

²²You came near to me, everyone of you, and said, "Let's send men ahead of us, that they may search the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we must go up, and the cities which we'll come to."

²³The thing pleased me well. I took twelve of your men, one man for every tribe. ²⁴They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. ²⁵They took [some] of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, "It is a good land which Yahweh our God is giving to us."

²⁶Yet you wouldn't go up, but rebelled against Yahweh your God's commandment. ²⁷You murmured in your tents, and said, "Because Yahweh hated us, he has taken us from the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. ²⁸Where are we going to? Our brothers have made our heart melt, saying, 'The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to the sky. In addition we have seen the sons of the Anakim there!'"

²⁹Then I said to you, "Don't be terrified. Dont be afraid of them. ³⁰Yahweh your God, who goes before you, he will fight for you, exactly as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹and in the wilderness where you have seen how Yahweh your God carried you, as a man carries his son, everywhere you went, until you came to this place."

³²Yet in this thing you didn't believe Yahweh your God, ³³who went before you on the journey, to seek out a place for you to pitch your tents in: in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day. ³⁴Yahweh heard the voice of your words and was angry, and swore, saying, ³⁵"Surely not one of these men of this evil generation will see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers, ³⁶except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He'll see it. I will give the land that he has trodden on to him and to his children, because he has wholly followed Yahweh."

³⁷Also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, saying, "You also will not enter there. ³⁸Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, will enter there. Encourage him, for he'll cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹In addition your little ones, whom you said would be captured or killed, your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, will enter there. I will give it to them, and they'll possess it. ⁴⁰But as for you, turn, and make your journey into the wilderness by the road to the Red Sea."

⁴¹Then you answered and said to me, "We have sinned against Yahweh. We will go up and fight, exactly as Yahweh our God commanded us." Every man of you put on his weapons of war, and presumed to go up into the hill country.

⁴²Yahweh said to me, "Tell them, 'Don't go up and don't fight; for I am not with you, otherwise you'll be struck before your enemies.'"

⁴³So I spoke to you, and you didn't listen; but you rebelled against Yahweh's commandment and were presumptuous and went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴The Amorites, who lived in that hill country, came out against you and pursued you as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even to Hormah. ⁴⁵You returned and wept before Yahweh, but Yahweh didn't listen to your voice, nor turn his ear to you. ⁴⁶So [that's why] you stayed in Kadesh for so many days.