IThese are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel168 across the Jordan169 in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Di-zahab, 2eleven days from Horeb ‡ by way of Mount Seir up to Kadesh-barnea. 3And it was in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel of everything that YHWH commanded him to them. 4After he struck Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth at Edrei, 5across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to make this instruction clear, saying, 6“YHWH our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, ‘You’ve had enough of staying at this mountain. 7Turn and travel and come to the Amorite hill country and to all its neighboring places, in the plain, in the hill country, and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seashore, the land of the Canaanite and Lebanon as far as the big river, the Euphrates River. 8See: I’ve put the land in front of you. Come and possess the land that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.’
9“And I said to you at that time, saying, ‘I’m not able to carry you by myself. 10YHWH, your God, has made you multiply, and here today you’re like the stars of the skies for multitude. 11(May YHWH, your fathers’ God, add on to you a thousand times more like you! And may He bless you as He spoke to you.) 12How shall I carry your stress and your burden and your quarrels by myself? 13Get wise and understanding and knowledgeable people for your tribes, and I’ll set them among your heads.’
14“And you answered me, and you said, ‘The thing that you’ve spoken is good to do.’
15“And I took heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable people, and I set them as heads over you, chiefs of thousands and chiefs of hundreds and chiefs of fifties and chiefs of tens and officers for your tribes. l6And I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear between your brothers, and you shall judge with justice between a man and his brother or between him and his alien. 17You shall not recognize a face in judgment: you shall hear the same for small and for big. Don’t be fearful in front of a man— because justice is God’s. And a matter that will be too hard for you, you shall bring forward to me, and I’ll hear it.’ l8And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.
19“And we traveled from Horeb and went through all that big and fearful wilderness that you’ve seen by way of the Amorite hill country as YHWH, our God, commanded us, and we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20And I said to you, ‘You’ve come to the Amorite hill country that YHWH, our God, is giving us. 2ISee: YHWH, our God, has put the land in front of you. Go up, possess it as YHWH, your fathers’ God, spoke to you. Don’t be afraid and don’t be dismayed.’
22“And you came forward to me, all of you, and said, ‘Let’s send men ahead of us, and let them explore the land for us and bring us back word of the way by which we’ll go up and of the cities to which we’ll come.’ 23And the thing was good in my eyes, and I took twelve men from you, one man per tribe. 24And they turned and went up to the hill country and came to the Wadi Eshcol and spied it out. 25And they took some of the land’s fruit in their hand and brought it down to us, and they brought us back word and said, the land that YHWH, our God, is giving us is good. 26But you weren’t willing to go up, and you rebelled against the word of YHWH, your God, 27and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because of YHWH’s hatred for us He brought us out from the land of Egypt, to put us in the Amorite’s hand to destroy us! 28To where are we going up? Our brothers have melted our heart, saying, “We saw a bigger and taller people than we are, big cities and fortified to the skies, and also giants!”’
29“And I said to you, ‘Don’t be scared and don’t be afraid of them. 3°YHWH, your God, who is going in front of you, He will fight for you—like everything that He did with you in Egypt before your eyes 31and in the wilderness, as you’ve seen that YHWH, your God, carried you the way a man would carry his child through all the way that you’ve gone until you came to this place. 32And in this thing, don’t you trust in YHWH, your God, 33who was going in front of you on the way to scout a camping place for you, in fire at night to let you see the way in which you would go, and in a cloud by day?!’
34“And YHWH heard the sound of your words and was angry and swore, saying, 35‘Not a man of these people, this bad generation, will see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers; 36just Caleb son of Jephunneh: he will see it, and I shall give the land on which he went to him and to his children because he went after YHWH fully.’ 37(YHWH was incensed at me, too, because of you, saying, ‘You, too, shall not come there. 38Joshua son of Nun, who is standing in front of you: he shall come there. Strengthen him, because he shall get Israel its legacy.’) 39And your infants whom you said would become a spoil,170 and your children today who haven’t known good and bad, they will come there, and I’ll give it to them, and they will possess it. 4°But you: turn and travel to the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.’
4I“And you answered and said to me, ‘We’ve sinned against YHWH. We’ll go up! And we’ll fight, according to everything that YHWH, our God, commanded us.’ And you each put on his weapons of war, and you were willing to go up to the hill country.
42“And YHWH said to me, ‘Say to them: You shall not go up, and you shall not fight, because I am not among you, so you won’t be stricken before your enemies.’ 43And I spoke to you, but you didn’t listen, and you rebelled against YHWH’s word and acted presumptuously and went up to the hill country. 44And the Amorite who lives in that hill country came out at you and pursued you the way bees do, and they crushed you in Seir as far as Hormah. 45And you came back and wept in front of YHWH, but YHWH didn’t listen to your voices and didn’t hear you!
46“So you lived in Kadesh many days—as many days as you lived there.