Deuteronomy 1

In this book are speeches that Moses said to all the Israelites. He spoke to them after they had set up their tents east of the Jordan River. They were in the desert plain along the Jordan near a place named Suph. Suph is between the desert of Paran {on one side of the Jordan River} and the towns of Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di Zahab {on the other side of the river}.

It usually takes 11 days to walk from Mount Horeb to Kadesh Barnea. People go by way of Mount Seir. \*

Forty years had passed since the Israelites had left Egypt, and it was the first day of the eleventh month. Moses told the Israelite people everything that God had commanded him to tell them.

He did this after they had defeated Sihon and Og. Sihon, the king of the Amorite people, lived in the city of Heshbon. Og, the king of the region of Bashan, ruled in the towns of Ashtaroth and Edrei. \*

The people were in Moab, on the east side of the Jordan River. There, Moses explained to them God’s instructions, saying,

“God our God said to our ancestors at Mount Horeb, ‘You have stayed for a very long time at the base of this mountain. \*

Now you must continue traveling. Go to the hilly area where the Amorite people live and go to the nearby areas. These areas include the plain along the Jordan, the hilly area, the smaller hills in the west, the wilderness in the south, the coast of the Great Sea, the land of Canaan, the Lebanon mountains, and northeast to the great Euphrates River.

Know that I will give that land to you. I, God, promised the land to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I promised that I would give it to them and to their descendants. So go and occupy it.’ \*

I said to your ancestors during that time, ‘I am not able to govern all of you by myself.

God our God has caused us Israelites to become numerous. Today we are as numerous as the stars in the sky.

I pray that God, the God whom our ancestors worshiped, will cause us to become a great many times more numerous than we are now. I pray that he will bless us just as he promised to do. \*

But I cannot solve all of your problems by myself.

So choose some men from your tribes who are wise and who have good sense and whom people respect. Then I will assign them to be your leaders.’

Your parents replied, ‘We agree with what you have suggested.’ \*

So I took the wise men, those whom people respected and whom your families chose from your tribes, and I appointed them to be your leaders. I appointed some to lead groups of 1, 000 people, some to lead groups of 100 people, some to lead groups of 50 people, and some to lead groups of 10 people. I also appointed other officers from throughout your tribes.

Then, I instructed your leaders, ‘Listen when your people are quarreling. Consider each case fairly, including cases where Israelites quarrel with each other. Also consider cases where an Israelite quarrels with someone from another land who lives among you. \*

You must not favor one person more than another. You must treat unimportant people and important people equally. You must not worry about what anyone will think, because you will decide matters as God wants you to decide them. If you are not sure what to decide when people are quarreling, tell me, and I will decide.’

At that time I also told you other things that you should do. \*

Then, just as God our God told us to do, we left Horeb. We went through a huge and dangerous wilderness. The wilderness was on the road to the hilly area where the Amorite people live. We arrived at Kadesh Barnea. \*

I said to your parents, ‘You have now come to the hilly area where the Amorite people live. This is part of the area that God our God is giving to us.

Know that God our God is giving this land to us. So go and occupy it as he commanded. God is the God whom your ancestors worshiped. Do not be at all afraid.’ \*

But your fathers all came to me and said, ‘We should first send some men ahead of us to explore the land. Then, they can return and tell us which will be the best road to go there and what kind of towns are there.’

I thought that what they had planned was good, so I chose 12 men, one man from each tribe.

They went into the hilly area as far as the Valley of Eshkol, and they explored the area. \*

They picked some of the fruit that they found there and brought it to us. They reported that the land that God our God was giving to us was very good. \*

But your parents refused to go and conquer that land. They rebelled against what God our God had commanded them to do.

Your parents stayed in their tents and complained. They said, ‘God hates us, so he has brought us here from Egypt to allow the Amorite people to destroy us.

We do not want to go there. The men whom we sent there have caused us to become very afraid. They have told us that the people there are stronger and bigger than we are. They said that there are very high walls around their towns. They also said that they saw giants there that are descendants of Anak.’ \*

Then I said to your fathers, ‘Do not be even a little bit afraid of those people!

God our God will go before you. He will fight for you just as you saw him do for you in Egypt

and in the wilderness. You saw how he brought you safely here, just like a man holds and protects his son.’ \*

Your parents would not trust God our God, even though I reminded them of what God had done.

He always went ahead of them while they traveled in the desert. He showed them places to set up their tents. He directed them with the fire during the night and with the cloud during the day. \*

God heard your parents complaining, and he became angry. He solemnly declared,

‘Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will enter the land. He has obeyed me completely. So I will give to him and to his descendants some of the land that he explored. None of the rest of these evil people will ever live in that good land that I solemnly promised to give to your ancestors.’ \*

But because of what your fathers did, God was also angry with me. He said to me, ‘You also will not enter that land.

Joshua son of Nun, who is your helper, will enter it. Support him, because he will enable the Israelite people to occupy that land.’ \*

God continued to declare, ‘You said that your enemies would capture your children, {but this did not happen}. Your children are very young, so they do not yet know what is good and what is evil. However, they are the ones who will enter that land. I will give them the land, and they will occupy it.

As for you, turn around and go back into the desert, toward the Sea of Reeds.’ \*

Then your fathers replied, ‘We have sinned by disobeying God. We promise now that we will go and attack the people who live in that land, just as God our God has told us to do.’ Then each of their men equipped himself with weapons. They thought that it would be easy to invade the hill country.

But God said to me, ‘Tell them not to go there and attack those people, because I will not help them. If they go, their enemy will certainly defeat them.’ \*

So I said that to your fathers, but they did not obey what I said. They again rebelled against what God commanded them to do. Their soldiers proudly marched up into that hilly area.

Then the men of the Amorite people who lived in that region came out of their towns. They attacked those soldiers. They chased our soldiers like a swarm of bees would chase a person. The Amorites pursued your ancestors’ soldiers south from the area of Seir and defeated them at the city of Hormah. \*

So your fathers went back to Kadesh Barnea and cried out to request God to help them, but he did not pay any attention to them.

So we stayed there at Kadesh Barnea for a long time. \*