Deuteronomy

The Command to Leave Horeb

1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in ^athe Arabah opposite ^bSuph, between ^cParan and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to ^dKadesh-barnea. 3 ^eIn the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them, 4 after ^fhe had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ^gOg the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in ^hEdrei. 5 Beyond the Jordan, ⁱin the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, 6 “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ^j‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and take your journey, and go to ^kthe hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in ^athe Arabah, ^lin the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and ^lby the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, ^mto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’

Leaders Appointed

9 “At that time ⁿI said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself. 10 The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, ^oyou are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. 11 ^pMay the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, ^qas he has promised you! 12 ^rHow can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? 13 ^sChoose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ 14 And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ 15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, ^tand set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. 16 And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and ^ujudge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. 17 ^vYou shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for ^wthe judgment is God’s. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall ^xbring to me, and I will hear it.’ 18 And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land

19 “Then we set out from Horeb and ^ywent through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And ^zwe came to Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. 21 See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. ^aDo not fear or be dismayed.’ 22 Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ 23 The thing seemed good to me, and ^bI took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. 24 And ^cthey turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25 And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’

26 “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 And ^dyou murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord ^ehated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, ^fto give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where are we going up? ^gOur brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, ^h“The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen ⁱthe sons of the Anakim there.”’ 29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God who goes before you ^jwill himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God ^kcarried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ 32 Yet in spite of this word ^lyou did not believe the Lord your God, 33 ^mwho went before you in the way ⁿto seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion

34 “And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, 35 ^o‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, 36 ^pexcept Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ 37 Even with me ^qthe Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. 38 ^rJoshua the son of Nun, ^rwho stands before you, he shall enter. ^sEncourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39 And as for ^tyour little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today ^uhave no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. 40 But as for you, ^vturn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’

41 “Then you answered me, ^w‘We have sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. 42 And the Lord said to me, ^x‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, ^yfor I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ 43 So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the Lord and ^zpresumptuously went up into the hill country. 44 ^aThen the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you ^bas bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as ^cHormah. 45 And you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. 46 So ^dyou remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.

The Wilderness Years

2 “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, ^eas the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. 2 Then the Lord said to me, 3 ‘You have been traveling around this mountain country ^flong enough. Turn northward 4 and command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of ^gyour brothers, the people of Esau, ^hwho live in Seir; and ⁱthey will be afraid of you. So be very careful. 5 Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because ^hI have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6 ^jYou shall purchase 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 hands. ^kHe knows your going through this great wilderness. ^lThese forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ 8 So ^mwe went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from ⁿthe Arabah road from ^oElath and ^pEzion-geber.

“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. 9 And the Lord said to me, ^q‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given ^rAr to ^sthe people of Lot for a possession.’ 10 (^tThe Emim formerly lived there, ^ua people great and many, and tall ^vas the Anakim. 11 Like the Anakim they are also counted as ^wRephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. 12 ^xThe Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, ^yas Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.) 13 ‘Now rise up and go over ^zthe brook Zered.’ So we went over ^zthe brook Zered. 14 And the time from our leaving ^aKadesh-barnea until we crossed ^bthe brook Zered was thirty-eight years, ^cuntil the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. 15 For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.

16 “So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, 17 the Lord said to me, 18 ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. 19 And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, ^ddo not harass them or contend 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 ^ethe sons of Lot for a possession.’ 20 (It is also counted as a land of ^fRephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— 21 ^ga people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites,¹ and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, 22 as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed ^hthe Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. 23 As for ⁱthe Avvim, who lived in villages as far as ^jGaza, ^kthe Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) 24 ‘Rise up, set out on your journey and ^lgo over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of ^mHeshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and ⁿcontend with him in battle. 25 This day I will begin to put ^othe dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

The Defeat of King Sihon

26 “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of ^pKedemoth to Sihon the king of ^mHeshbon, ^qwith words of peace, saying, 27 ^r‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. 28 ^sYou shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, 29 ^tas the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’ 30 But ^uSihon the king of ^mHeshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God ^vhardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day. 31 And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ 32 Then ^wSihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 33 And ^xthe Lord our God gave him over to us, and ^ywe defeated him and his sons and all his people. 34 And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction² every ^zcity, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. 35 Only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities that we captured. 36 ^aFrom Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and from ^bthe city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. ^cThe Lord our God gave all into our hands. 37 Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river ^dJabbok and the cities of the hill country, whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

The Defeat of King Og

3 “Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And ^eOg the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at ^fEdrei. 2 But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to ^gSihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ 3 So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, ^hand we struck him down until he had no survivor left. 4 And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, ⁱthe whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. 6 And ^jwe devoted them to destruction,¹ as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every ^kcity, men, women, and children. 7 But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder. 8 So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon 9 (the Sidonians call ^lHermon ^mSirion, while the Amorites call it ⁿSenir), 10 all the cities of the ^otableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as ^pSalecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11 (For ^qonly Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of ^rthe Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in ^sRabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits² was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the ^tcommon cubit.³)

12 “When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory beginning ^uat Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with ^vits cities. 13 ^wThe rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, that is, ^xall the region of Argob, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (All that portion of Bashan is called the land of ^rRephaim. 14 ^yJair the Manassite took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of ^zthe Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called the villages ^aafter his own name, Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.) 15 To Machir ^bI gave Gilead, 16 and to the Reubenites ^cand the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the Valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a border, as far over as the river Jabbok, ^dthe border of the Ammonites; 17 the Arabah also, with the Jordan as the border, from ^eChinnereth as far as ^fthe Sea of the Arabah, ^gthe Salt Sea, under ^hthe slopes of Pisgah on the east.

18 “And I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. ⁱAll your men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the people of Israel. 19 Only your wives, your little ones, and your livestock ^j(I know that you have much livestock) shall remain in the cities that I have given you, 20 ^kuntil the Lord gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also occupy the land that the Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.’ 21 And I commanded ^lJoshua at that time, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. 22 You shall not fear them, for it is ^mthe Lord your God who fights for you.’

Moses Forbidden to Enter the Land

23 “And I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, 24 ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant ⁿyour greatness and your mighty hand. For ^owhat god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? 25 Please let me go over and see ^pthe good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and ^qLebanon.’ 26 But ^rthe Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, ^s‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again. 27 ^tGo up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan. 28 But ^ucharge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see.’ 29 So we remained in ^vthe valley opposite Beth-peor.

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “And now, O Israel, listen to ^wthe statutes and the rules¹ that I am teaching you, and do them, ^xthat you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 ^yYou shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did ^zat Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. 4 But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. 5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 ^aKeep them and do them, for ^bthat will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For ^cwhat great nation is there that has ^da god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so ^erighteous as all this law that I set before you today?

9 ^f“Only take care, and ^gkeep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. ^hMake them known to your children and your children’s children— 10 how on ⁱthe day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ^j‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, ^kso that they may learn to fear ^lme all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ 11 And ^myou came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while ⁿthe mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. 12 Then ^othe Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, ^pbut saw no form; ^qthere was only a voice. 13 ^rAnd he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, ^sthe Ten Commandments,^{2 t}and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And ^uthe Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.