Deuteronomy 1–11

CHAPTER 1

Israel from Seir to Kadesh-barnea

¹These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel ^aacross the Jordan in the wilderness, in the ^bArabah opposite ¹Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab.

²It is eleven days’ journey from ^aHoreb by the way of Mount ^bSeir to ^cKadesh-barnea.

³Now it happened, in the ^afortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, ^baccording to all that ¹Yahweh had commanded him to give to them,

⁴after he had ^astruck down Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ^bOg the king of Bashan, who lived in ^cAshtaroth ¹and Edrei.

⁵Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying,

⁶“Yahweh our God ^aspoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have ¹stayed long enough at this mountain.

⁷‘Turn and set out, and go to ^athe hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the ¹Shephelah and in ^bthe ²Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

⁸‘See, I have given over the land before you; go in and possess the land which Yahweh ^aswore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and to their seed after them.’

⁹“And I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘^aI am not able to bear the burden of you alone.

¹⁰‘Yahweh your God has ^amultiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number.

¹¹‘May Yahweh, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, ^ajust as He has ¹promised you!

¹²‘How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife?

¹³‘^1aChoose wise and understanding and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’

¹⁴“Then 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 gave them as heads over you, leaders of thousands and ¹of hundreds, ²of fifties and ³of tens, and officers for your tribes.

¹⁶“Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and ^ajudge righteously between a man and his brother or the sojourner who is with him.

¹⁷‘^aYou shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall ^bnot fear ¹man, for the judgment is God’s. ^cThe case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’

¹⁸“^aAnd I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

¹⁹“Then we set out from ^aHoreb and went through all that ^bgreat and fearsome wilderness which you saw on the way to the ^chill country of the Amorites, just as Yahweh our God had commanded us; and we came to ^dKadesh-barnea.

²⁰“And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which Yahweh our God is about to give us.

²¹‘See, Yahweh your God has given over the land before you; go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. ^aDo not fear or be dismayed.’

²²“^aThen all of you came near to 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“And the thing was good in my sight, and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe.

²⁴“^aThen they 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 word back to us and said, ‘It is a good land which Yahweh our God is about to give us.’

²⁶“^aYet you were not willing to go up, but ^brebelled against the ¹command of Yahweh your God;

²⁷and ^ayou grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because Yahweh hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.

²⁸‘Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And moreover, we saw ^athe sons of the Anakim there.” ’

²⁹“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread, nor fear them.

³⁰‘Yahweh your God, who goes before you, will ^aHimself fight on your behalf, ¹just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

³¹and in the wilderness where you saw how ^aYahweh 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 ^1afor all this, you did not believe Yahweh your God,

^33awho goes before you on your way, ^bto spy 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 Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and ^aswore an oath, saying,

³⁵‘^aNot one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers,

³⁶except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and ^ato him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed Yahweh fully.’

³⁷“^aYahweh was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘^bNot even you shall enter there.

³⁸‘Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, ^ahe shall enter there; strengthen him, for ^bhe will cause Israel to inherit it.

³⁹‘Moreover, ^ayour little ones who you said would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have ^bno 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, ^aturn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the ¹Red Sea.’

⁴¹“^aThen you said to me, ‘We have sinned against Yahweh; we will indeed go up and fight, just as Yahweh 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“^aAnd Yahweh said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up and do not fight—for I am not among you—so that you are not ¹defeated before your enemies.” ’

⁴³“So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead ^ayou rebelled against the ¹command of Yahweh and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country.

⁴⁴“^aAnd the Amorites who ¹lived in that hill country came out to meet you and pursued you ^bas bees do and crushed you from Seir to Hormah.

⁴⁵“Then you returned and wept before Yahweh; but ^aYahweh did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.

⁴⁶“So you remained in ^aKadesh many days, according to the days that you remained there.

CHAPTER 2

Wanderings in the Wilderness

¹“^aThen we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way to the ¹Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me, and circled ^bMount Seir for many days.

²“And Yahweh spoke to me, saying,

³‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north,

^4aand command the people, saying, “You are going to pass through the ^bterritory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and ^cthey will be afraid of you. So be very careful;

⁵do not ¹provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a ²footstep ^abecause I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

⁶“You shall buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also bargain with them for water with money so that you may drink.

⁷“For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; He has known your ¹wanderings through this ^agreat wilderness. These ^bforty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.” ’

⁸“So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the ^aArabah road, away from Elath and ^bfrom Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

⁹“Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of ¹their land as a possession because I have given ^aAr to ^bthe sons of Lot as a possession.’

¹⁰(The ^aEmim lived there formerly, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim.

¹¹Like the Anakim, they are also regarded as ^aRephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.

^12aNow the Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, ^bjust as Israel would do to the land of ¹their possession which Yahweh gave to them.)

¹³‘Now arise and cross over the ¹brook Zered yourselves.’ So we crossed over the ²brook Zered.

¹⁴“Now the ¹time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the ²brook Zered was ^athirty-eight years, until ^ball the generation of the men of war came to an end from within the camp, as ^cYahweh had sworn to them.

¹⁵“^aMoreover the hand of Yahweh was against them, to bring them into confusion from within the camp until they all came to an end.

¹⁶“So it happened when ^aall the men of war had come to an end in death from among the people,

¹⁷that Yahweh spoke to me, saying,

¹⁸‘Today you are about to cross over ^aAr, the border of Moab.

¹⁹‘And you will come opposite the ^asons of Ammon. Do not harass them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession because I have given it to ^bthe sons of Lot as a possession.’

²⁰(It is also regarded as the land of the ^aRephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin,

²¹a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim, but Yahweh destroyed them before them. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place,

²²just as He did for the sons of Esau, who ^alive in Seir, when He destroyed ^bthe Horites from before them; they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day.

²³And the ^aAvvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the ^1bCaphtorim who came from ^2cCaphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.)

²⁴‘Arise, set out, and pass through the ^1avalley of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession and provoke him to battle.

²⁵‘This day I will begin to put ^athe dread and fear of you ¹upon the…