Deuteronomy 1:9–3:29

Tribal Leaders Appointed

⁹“And ⁱI spoke to you at that time, saying: ‘I ⁶alone am not able to bear you. ¹⁰The Lord your God has multiplied you, ^jand here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude. ^11kMay the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you ^las He has promised you! ^12mHow can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints? ¹³Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them ⁷heads over you.’ ¹⁴And you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have told us to do is good.’ ¹⁵So I took ⁿthe heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and ⁸made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.

¹⁶“Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and ^ojudge righteously between a man and his ^pbrother or the stranger who is with him. ^17qYou shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for ^rthe judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, ^sbring to me, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land

¹⁹“So we departed from Horeb, ^tand went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded us. Then ^uwe came to Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; ^vdo not fear or be discouraged.’

²²“And every one of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.’

²³“The plan pleased me well; so ^wI took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. ^24xAnd they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. ²⁵They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a ^ygood land which the Lord our God is giving us.’

^26z“Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; ²⁷and you ^acomplained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord ^bhates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸Where can we go up? Our brethren have ⁹discouraged our hearts, saying, ^c“The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the ^dAnakim there.” ’

²⁹“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, ^eor afraid of them. ^30fThe Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a ^gman carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ ³²Yet, for all that, ^hyou did not believe the Lord your God, ³³ⁱwho went in the way before you ^jto search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.

The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion

³⁴“And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, ^kand took an oath, saying, ^35l‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I ¹swore to give to your fathers, ^36mexcept Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because ⁿhe ²wholly followed the Lord.’ ^37oThe Lord was also angry with me for your sakes, saying, ‘Even you shall not go in there. ^38pJoshua the son of Nun, ^qwho stands before you, he shall go in there. ^rEncourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

^39s‘Moreover your little ones and your children, who ^tyou say will be victims, who today ^uhave no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. ^40vBut as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹“Then you answered and said to me, ^w‘We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain.

⁴²“And the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them, ^x“Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.” ’ ⁴³So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but ^yrebelled against the command of the Lord, and ^zpresumptuously ³went up into the mountain. ⁴⁴And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you ^aas bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.

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

The Desert Years

2“Then we turned and ^ajourneyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, ^bas the Lord spoke to me, and we ¹skirted Mount Seir for many days.

²“And the Lord spoke to me, saying: ³‘You have skirted this mountain ^clong enough; turn northward. ⁴And command the people, saying, ^d“You are about to pass through the territory of ^eyour brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. ⁵Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, ^fbecause I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ⁶You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.

⁷“For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your ²trudging through this great wilderness. ^gThese forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” ’

⁸“And when we passed beyond our brethren, the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir, away from the road of the plain, away from ^hElath and Ezion Geber, we ⁱturned and passed by way of the Wilderness of Moab. ⁹Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given ^jAr to ^kthe descendants of Lot as a possession.’ ”

^10l(The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as ^mthe Anakim. ¹¹They were also regarded as ³giants, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ¹²ⁿThe Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their ⁴place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the Lord gave them.)

¹³“ ‘Now rise and cross over ^othe ⁵Valley of the Zered.’ So we crossed over the Valley of the Zered. ¹⁴And the time we took to come ^pfrom Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Valley of the Zered was thirty-eight years, ^quntil all the generation of the men of war ⁶was consumed from the midst of the camp, ^rjust as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they ⁷were consumed.

¹⁶“So it was, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people, ¹⁷that the Lord spoke to me, saying: ¹⁸‘This day you are to cross over at Ar, the boundary of Moab. ¹⁹And when you come near the people of Ammon, do not harass them or meddle with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to ^sthe descendants of Lot as a possession.’ ”

²⁰(That was also regarded as a land of ⁸giants; giants formerly dwelt there. But the Ammonites call them ^tZamzummim, ^21ua people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, ²²just as He had done for the descendants of Esau, ^vwho dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed ^wthe Horites from before them. They dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, even to this day. ²³And ^xthe Avim, who dwelt in villages as far as Gaza—^ythe Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and dwelt in their place.)

²⁴“ ‘Rise, take your journey, and ^zcross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand ^aSihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin ⁹to possess it, and engage him in battle. ^25bThis day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations ¹under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall ^ctremble and be in anguish because of you.’

King Sihon Defeated

²⁶“And I ^dsent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon, ^ewith words of peace, saying, ^27f‘Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the road, and I will turn neither to the right nor to the left. ²⁸You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink; ^gonly let me pass through on foot, ^29hjust as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord our God is giving us.’

³⁰ⁱ“But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for ^jthe Lord your God ^khardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day.

³¹“And the Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to ^lgive Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.’ ^32mThen Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz. ³³And ⁿthe Lord our God delivered…