Deuteronomy 1

1 These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan, in the desert toward the west, near the Red Sea, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and the Place of Gold. [a] 2 It is a journey of eleven days from Horeb by way of Mount Seir as far as Kadesh-barnea. 3 And in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to all the children of Israel everything the Lord had commanded him for them — 4 after he had struck down Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. 5 Across the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to set out this law. He said:

6 “The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb. He said: You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and set out and go into the hill country of the Amorites, and to all who live near the Arabah, to the hill country and the lowland and the south, and the land of the Canaanites near the sea, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. [b] 8 See, I have handed the land over to you. Go in and take the land I swore to your fathers, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.

9 And I spoke to you at that time and said: I am not able to carry you by myself. 10 The Lord your God has made you many, and here you are today, as many as the stars of heaven. 11 May the Lord God of your fathers add to you a thousand times what you are, and bless you as he has said to you. 12 How am I to carry your trouble and your load and your arguing all by myself? 13 Choose out for yourselves men who are wise and understanding and sensible, for your tribes, and I will set them over you as your leaders. 14 And you answered me and said, ‘What you have told us is a good thing to do.’ 15 So I took men from among you who were wise and understanding and sensible, and set them to rule over you as heads of thousands and heads of hundreds and heads of fifties and heads of tens, and as officers for your judges.

16 And I charged your judges at that time. I said: Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge rightly between a man and his brother, and the newcomer who is with him. 17 You are not to take account of who a man is when you judge. You are to hear small and great alike; you are not to shrink back from any man's face, because the judgment is God's. And whatever case is too hard for you, bring it to me and I will hear it. 18 And I charged you at that time with everything you were to do.

19 And we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw, by the road to the hill country of the Amorite, as the Lord our God charged us; and we came as far as Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said to you: You have come as far as the hill country of the Amorite, which the Lord our God is giving you. 21 See, the Lord your God has handed the land over to you. Go up and take it, as the Lord God of your fathers said to you. Do not be afraid and do not lose heart. 22 And all of you came to me and said, ‘Let us send men ahead of us, and let them go up into the land for us and bring us back word about the road we should go up by and the cities we shall come to.’ 23 And the plan seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from among you, one man for each tribe. 24 And they turned and went up into the hill country and came as far as the Valley of the Cluster and looked it over, 25 and they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it to you and said, ‘The land the Lord our God is giving us is good.’

26 And still you would not go up, but rebelled against the words of the Lord our God. 27 And you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘It is because the Lord hated us that he brought us out of the land of Egypt — to hand us over to the Amorites and destroy us. 28 Where are we going up to?’ And your brothers made your heart melt, saying, ‘It is a nation greater and more numerous and stronger than we are, and there are cities that are great and walled up to heaven; and we saw the sons of the giants there as well.’ 29 And I said to you: Do not be afraid and do not be frightened of them. 30 The Lord your God, who goes ahead of you — he will fight against them for you and with you, exactly as he did for you in the land of Egypt 31 and in this wilderness that you saw, along the road to the hill country of the Amorite — how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his own child at the breast, the whole way you went until you came to this place. [c] 32 And even in this you did not trust the Lord our God, 33 who goes ahead of you along the road to pick out a place for you, guiding you by fire at night to show you the road to go by, and by a cloud in the day.

34 And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and he was greatly provoked, and swore: 35 Not one of these men will see this good land that I swore to give to their fathers — 36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh; he will see it, and to him I will give the land he walked on, and to his sons, because he held to the things of the Lord. 37 And the Lord was angry with me on your account, and said: You are not to go in there either. 38 Joshua son of Nun, who stands at your side — he is the one who will go in there. Give him strength, for he is the one who will settle Israel in it. 39 And every little child who today does not know good from evil — they are the ones who will go in there, and to them I will give it, and they will take it for their own. 40 And you turned and camped in the wilderness, by the road toward the Red Sea. [e]

41 And you answered and said, ‘We have sinned before the Lord our God. We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every one of you took up his weapons of war, and you gathered and went up into the hill country. 42 And the Lord said to me: Tell them, You are not to go up and you are not to fight, because I am not with you; do not let yourselves be broken in front of your enemies. 43 And I spoke to you, and you would not listen to me; you went against the command of the Lord and forced your way up into the hill country. 44 And the Amorite who lived in that hill country came out to meet you and chased you the way bees do, and cut you down from Seir as far as Hormah. 45 And you sat down and wept before the Lord our God, and the Lord did not listen to your voice and would not pay attention to you. 46 And you stayed at Kadesh many days — as many days as you stayed there. [d]