Deuteronomy 1:8–32

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.

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,