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.

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

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

22 “aThen 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 “aThey 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 Lord our God is about to give us.’

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

27 and ayou grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord 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 athe sons of the Anakim there.” ’

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

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

31 and in the wilderness where you saw how athe Lord 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 trust the Lord your God,

33 awho goes before you on your way, bto 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 Lord heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and atook an oath, saying,

35 ‘aNot 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 ato him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the Lord fully.’

37 “aThe Lord 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; encourage him, for bhe will cause Israel to inherit it.

39 ‘Moreover, ayour little ones who you said would become a prey, 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 the Lord; we will indeed go up and fight, just as the Lord 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 the Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; otherwise you will be 1defeated before your enemies.” ’

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

44 “aThe Amorites who 1lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you bas bees do, and crushed you from Seir to Hormah.

45 “Then you returned and wept before the Lord; but the aLord did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.

46 “So you remained in aKadesh many days, 1the days that you spent there.