Deuteronomy 1

These {are} the words that Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and between Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Di Zahab.

({It is} 11 days from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.) \*

And it happened, in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on {day} one of the month, Moses spoke to the sons of Israel according to all that God commanded him concerning them,

after he defeated Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, in Edrei. \*

Across the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began explaining this law, saying,

“God our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘Too long you have stayed in this mountain. \*

Turn and journey yourselves and go {to} the hill {country} of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah {and} in the hill {country} and in the lowland and in the Negev and by the shore of the sea, {to} the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river of Euphrates.

Look, I have given the land to your faces. Go and possess the land that God swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.’ \*

And I said to you at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to carry you by myself.

God your God has multiplied you, and behold, you {are} today as the stars of the heavens in number.

God, the God of your fathers, may he add to you, as you {are}, a thousand times, and may he bless you, just as he spoke to you! \*

How will I carry by myself your loads and your burdens and your disputes?

Nominate for yourselves wise and understanding and well-known men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ \*

And you answered me and said, ‘The thing that you have spoken {is} good to do.’ \*

And I took the heads of your tribes, wise and well-known men, and gave them {as} heads over you, leaders of thousands and leaders of hundreds and leaders of fifties and leaders of tens and officials for your tribes.

And I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Listen in between your brothers, and you should judge righteously between a man and between his brother, and between his foreigner. \*

Do not recognize a face in the judgment; you shall hear as the small and the great alike. Do not be afraid from the face of a man, for the judgment, it {belongs} to God. And the matter which is too difficult for you, you shall bring to me, and I shall hear it.’

And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. \*

And we journeyed from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw on the way to the hill {country} of the Amorites, as God our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea. \*

And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill {country} of the Amorites, which God our God is giving to us.

Look, God your God has given the land to your face; go up, take possession, as God, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. You shall not be afraid, and you shall not be discouraged.’ \*

And you drew near to me, all of you, and you said, ‘Let us send men to our faces, and they shall spy out the land for us, and return to us a word {about} the way which we will go up into and the cities which we will come to.’ \*

And the word was good in my eyes, and I took from you 12 men, one man per tribe.

And they turned and went up into the hill {country}, and they came to the Valley of Eshkol, and scouted it. \*

And they took with their hands from the fruit of the land and brought {it} down to us. And they returned to us a word and said, ‘Good {is} the land that God our God is giving to us.’ \*

But you were not willing to go up, and you rebelled {against} the mouth of God your God.

And you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘In the hatred of God against us he brought us from the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.

Where {can} we go up? Our brothers have caused our heart to melt, saying, “The people {are} greater and taller than us, {with} cities great and fortified to the heavens; and also, we have seen the sons of the Anakites there.”’ \*

And I said to you, ‘Do not tremble, and do not be afraid of them.

God your God, who walks to your faces, he will fight for you like everything that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

and in the wilderness, where you have seen how God your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ \*

But in this word you did not believe God your God,

the one who went to your faces on the way to seek out a place for you to make your camp, in fire {by} night to show you the way that you should go in it, and in a cloud {by} day. \*

And God heard the sound of your words and was angry. And he swore, saying,

‘Not {one} man of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers

except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh; he, he shall see it. And to him I will give the land that he has stepped on, and to his sons, because {he is} wholly after God.’ \*

Also God was angry with me because of you, saying, ‘You also will not go in there;

Joshua, the son of Nun, who stands to your face, he will go in there; encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it. \*

And your children that you said would be plunder, and your sons who today do not know good or evil, they will go in there. And to them I will give it, and they will possess it.

But you, turn yourselves and journey into the wilderness on the way to the Sea of Reeds.’ \*

And you answered and said to me, ‘We have sinned against God. We, we shall go up and fight, according to all that God our God has commanded us.’ And {every} man girded on his weapons of war and regarded it as easy to go up to the hill {country}. \*

And God said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up and do not fight, and you will not be defeated to the face of your enemies, because I will not be among you.”’ \*

And I spoke to you, but you did not listen. And you rebelled against the mouth of God, and you were arrogant and went up to the hill {country}.

And the Amorites, who lived in that hill {country}, came out against you and chased you like the bees do and caused you to scatter in Seir as far as Hormah. \*

And you returned and wept to the face of God; but God did not hear your voice, and he did not listen to you.

So you stayed in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you stayed {there}. \*