1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.
3 In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel, according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them;
4 after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.
5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying,
6 The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, You have lived long enough in this mountain:
7 turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill-country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.
9 I spoke to you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone:
10 The Lord your God has multiplied you, and, behold, you are this day as the stars of the sky for multitude.
11 The Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!
12 How can I myself alone bear your encumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
13 Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will make them heads over you.
14 You answered me, and said, The thing which you have spoken is good for us to do.
15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens, and officers, according to your tribes.
16 I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him.
17 You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.
18 I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.
19 We traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness which you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.
20 I said to you, You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God gives to us.
21 Behold, the Lord your God has set the land before you: go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you; don't be afraid, neither be dismayed.
22 Then all of you came near me and said, Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come.
23 The thing seemed good to me; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe:
24 and they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.
25 They took 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 the Lord our God gives to us.
26 Yet you wouldn't go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God:
27 and you murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
28 Where are we going up? 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; and besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.
29 Then I said to you, Don't be in dread or afraid of them.
30 The Lord your God who goes before you, he will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how that the Lord your God bore you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went, until you came to this place.
32 Yet in this thing you didn't believe the Lord your God,
33 who went before you in the way, to seek you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.
34 The Lord heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying,
35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers,
36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh: he shall see it; and to him will I give the land that he has trodden on, and to his children, because he has wholly followed the Lord.
37 Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, You also shall not go in there:
38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there: encourage him; for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
39 And as for your little ones, whom you said should be a prey, and your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and to them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
40 But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.
41 Then you answered me, We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country.
42 The Lord said to me, Tell them, Don't go up or fight; for I am not among you; or else you will be defeated before your enemies.
43 So I spoke to you, and you wouldn't listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and were presumptuous, and went up into the hill-country.
44 The Amorites, who lived in that hill country, came out against you, and chased you as bees do, and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.
45 You returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord didn't listen to your voice or give ear to you.
46 So you remained in Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.