Israel’s History after the Exodus

1 These 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.

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

3 In the afortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, baccording to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them,

4 after he had 1adefeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and bOg the king of Bashan, who lived in cAshtaroth 2and Edrei.

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

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

7 ‘Turn and set your journey, and go to athe hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in bthe 1Negev 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 Lord aswore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their 1descendants after them.’

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

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

11 ‘May the Lord, 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 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 1appointed them heads over you, leaders of thousands and 2of hundreds, 2of fifties and 2of tens, and officers for your tribes.

16 “Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your 1fellow countrymen, and ajudge righteously between a man and his 2fellow countryman, or the alien 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 “aI 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 terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the chill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us; and we came to aKadesh-barnea.