1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel ADeut 4:46across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the BDeut 2:8Arabah opposite 1Perhaps Red SeaSuph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 It is eleven days’ journey from AEx 3:1; 17:6Horeb by the way of Mount BGen 32:3Seir to CNum 13:26; 32:8; Deut 9:23Kadesh-barnea. 3 In the ANum 33:38fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, BDeut 4:1, 2according to all that the Loʀᴅ had commanded him to give to them, 4 after he had 1Lit smittenANum 21:21-26; Deut 2:26-35; Josh 13:10; Neh 9:22defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and BNum 21:33-35; Josh 13:12Og the king of Bashan, who lived in CJosh 12:4Ashtaroth 2So with ancient versions; M.T. omits andand Edrei. 5 Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying,

6 “The Loʀᴅ our God ANum 10:11-13spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have 1Lit dweltstayed long enough at this mountain. 7  ‘Turn and set your journey, and go to AGen 15:18; Deut 11:24; Josh 10:40the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in BGen 12:9the 1I.e. South countryNegev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8  ‘See, I have placed the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Loʀᴅ AGen 12:7; 26:3; 28:13; Ex 33:1; Num 14:23; 32:11; Heb 6:13, 14swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their 1Lit seeddescendants after them.’

9 “I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘AEx 18:18, 24; Num 11:14I am not able to bear the burden of you alone. 10  ‘The Loʀᴅ your God has AGen 15:5; 22:17; Ex 32:13; Deut 7:7; 10:22; 26:5; 28:62multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number. 11  ‘May the Loʀᴅ, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, ADeut 1:8, 10just as He has 1Lit spoken topromised you! 12  ‘How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife? 13  ‘1Lit Give for yourselvesAEx 18:21Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ 14  “You answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’ 15  “So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and 1Lit gaveappointed them heads over you, leaders of thousands and 2Lit leaders ofof hundreds, 2Lit leaders ofof fifties and 2Lit leaders ofof tens, and officers for your tribes.

16 “Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your 1Lit brothersfellow countrymen, and ADeut 16:18; John 7:24judge righteously between a man and his 2Lit brotherfellow countryman, or the alien who is with him. 17  ‘ADeut 10:17; 16:19; 24:17; 2 Chr 19:5, 6; Prov 24:23-26; Acts 10:34; James 2:1, 9You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall BProv 29:25not fear 1Lit because of manman, for the judgment is God’s. CEx 18:22, 26The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ 18  “AEx 18:20I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

19 “Then we set out from ADeut 1:2Horeb, and went through all that BDeut 2:7; 8:15; 32:10; Jer 2:6great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the CDeut 1:7hill country of the Amorites, just as the Loʀᴅ our God had commanded us; and we came to ADeut 1:2Kadesh-barnea. 20  “I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which the Loʀᴅ our God is about to give us. 21  ‘See, the Loʀᴅ your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as the Loʀᴅ, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. AJosh 1:6, 9Do not fear or be dismayed.’

22 “ANum 13:1-3Then all of you approached me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.’ 23  “The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe. 24  “ANum 13:21-25They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25  “Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought us back a report and said, ‘It is a good land which the Loʀᴅ our God is about to give us.’

26 “ANum 14:1-4Yet you were not willing to go up, but BDeut 9:23rebelled against the 1Lit mouthcommand of the Loʀᴅ your God; 27 and ADeut 9:28; Ps 106:25you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the Loʀᴅ hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. 28  ‘Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw ANum 13:28, 33; Deut 9:2the sons of the Anakim there.” ’ 29  “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be shocked, nor fear them. 30  ‘The Loʀᴅ your God who goes before you will AEx 14:14; Deut 3:22; 20:4; Neh 4:20Himself fight on your behalf, 1Lit according to all thatjust as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness where you saw how ADeut 32:10-12; Is 46:3, 4; 63:9; Hos 11:3; Acts 13:18the Loʀᴅ your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ 32  “But 1Lit in this matterANum 14:11; Ps 106:24; Heb 3:19; 4:2; Jude 5for all this, you did not trust the Loʀᴅ your God, 33 AEx 13:21; Num 9:15-23; Neh 9:12; Ps 78:14who goes before you on your way, BNum 10:33to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go.

34 “Then the Loʀᴅ heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and ANum 14:28-30; Heb 3:18took an oath, saying, 35 ‘APs 95:11; 106:26; Ezek 20:15; 1 Cor 10:5; Heb 3:14-19Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, 36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and ANum 14:24; Josh 14:9to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the Loʀᴅ fully.’ 37  “ANum 20:12; Deut 3:26; 4:21The Loʀᴅ was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘BNum 27:13, 18Not even you shall enter there. 38  ‘Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, ANum 14:30he shall enter there; encourage him, for BNum 34:17; Deut 3:28; 31:7; Josh 11:23he will cause Israel to inherit it. 39  ‘Moreover, ANum 14:3, 31your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have BIs 7:15, 16no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it. 40  ‘But as for you, ANum 14:25turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the 1Lit Sea of ReedsRed Sea.’

41 “ANum 14:40Then you said to me, ‘We have sinned against the Loʀᴅ; we will indeed go up and fight, just as the Loʀᴅ our God commanded us.’ And every man of you girded on his weapons of war, and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country. 42  “ANum 14:41-43And the Loʀᴅ said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; otherwise you will be 1Lit smittendefeated before your enemies.” ’ 43  “So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead ANum 14:40you rebelled against the 1Lit mouthcommand of the Loʀᴅ, and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country. 44  “ANum 14:45The Amorites who 1Lit dweltlived in that hill country came out against you and chased you BPs 118:12as bees do, and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. 45  “Then you returned and wept before the Loʀᴅ; but the AJob 27:8, 9; Ps 66:18; John 9:31Loʀᴅ did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. 46  “So you remained in ANum 20:1, 22; Deut 2:7, 14; Judg 11:17Kadesh many days, 1Lit as the daysthe days that you spent there.