Deuteronomy 1

1 ¹ Moses spoke these words to all Israel across the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ² It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. ³ In the fortieth year, on the eleventh month's first day, Moses told Israel all our Father had commanded him for them, ⁴ after he defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei. ⁵ Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this instruction, saying:

⁶ Our Father spoke to us at Horeb, saying, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain.

⁷ Turn and travel to the Amorite hills and all their neighbors — the Arabah, hills, lowland, Negev, seacoast — the Canaanite land, Lebanon, as far as the great Euphrates River. ⁸ Look, I have set the land before you. Go possess the land I swore to give your fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and their descendants after them."

Shared Shoulders

⁹ At that time I said to you, "I am not able to carry you by myself. ¹⁰ Your Father has multiplied you, and today you are as numerous as the stars of heaven. ¹¹ May our Father multiply you a thousand times over and bless you, as he promised you. ¹² How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? ¹³ Choose 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 your tribal heads—wise, experienced men—and made them leaders over you: commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens, and officers for your tribes. ¹⁶ At that time I instructed your judges: "Hear cases between your brothers, and judge justly between a man, his brother, or the foreigner with him. ¹⁷ Show no favoritism in judgment; hear small and great alike. Fear no one, for judgment belongs to our Father. Bring me any case too hard for you; I will hear it." ¹⁸ And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

Twelve Men Into the Land

¹⁹ We left Horeb and went through that whole vast, frightening wilderness you saw, toward the Amorite hill country, as our Father commanded us, and came to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ I said to you: You have reached the Amorites' hill country, which our Father is giving us. ²¹ See, your Father has put the land before you. Go up, take it, as our Father promised. Don't fear or lose heart.

²² All of you came to me and said, "Let's send men ahead to scout the land for us and bring back word on the route to take and the cities we'll reach."

²³ The plan seemed good to me, so I took twelve of your men, one from each tribe. ²⁴ They turned and went up into the hill country, reached the Valley of Eshcol, and explored it. ²⁵ They took some of the land's fruit in their hands, brought it down to us, and reported: "The land our Father is giving us is good."

Israel's Refusal

²⁶ Yet you would not go up, and you rebelled against the command of your Father. ²⁷ And you grumbled in your tents and said, "Because God hates us, he brought us out of the land of Egypt to put us in the Amorites' hands, to destroy us. ^a a v27 Here the people accuse our Father of the very opposite of his heart — the old lie that the Father does not love his children, when in truth he was carrying them the whole way. ²⁸ Where are we going up? Our brothers melted our hearts, saying, 'A people bigger and taller than us; huge cities walled to the sky; and we saw Anakim's sons there too.'" ^b b v28 The Anakites were a clan of towering warriors feared throughout Canaan.

²⁹ Then I said to you, "Do not be terrified or afraid of them. ³⁰ Your Father, going before you, will himself fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness, where you saw your Father carry you, as a man carries his son, all the way you traveled until you reached this place.

³² Yet in spite of this word you did not believe your Father, ³³ going ahead of you on the road to scout your campsite—fire by night, cloud by day—showing you the way to go.

³⁴ And our Father heard what you said, and he was angry, and he swore,

³⁵ "None of these men, this evil generation, will see the good land I swore to give your fathers, ³⁶ except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him the land he walked on, and his children, because he fully followed our Father."

³⁷ our Father was angry with me too because of you, saying, 'You also will not enter there.' ³⁸ Joshua son of Nun, who stands before you, will enter there. Strengthen him; he will give Israel its inheritance. ³⁹ Your little ones, who you said would be plunder, and your children, who today don't know good from evil—they will enter it. I will give it to them; they will possess it. ⁴⁰ But you—turn and set out into the wilderness by the road to the Red Sea."

⁴¹ Then you answered me, "We sinned against our Father. We will go up and fight, as our Father commanded us." Each of you strapped on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.

⁴² our Father said to me, "Tell them: 'Don't go up or fight, for I'm not among you, or you'll be struck down before your enemies.'"

⁴³ I spoke to you, but you didn't listen. You rebelled against our Father's command, acted arrogantly, and went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴ The Amorites living in that hill country came out against you, chased you like bees, and crushed you in Seir as far as Hormah. ⁴⁵ You returned and wept before our Father, but our Father didn't hear your voice or listen to you. ⁴⁶ So you stayed at Kadesh many days, the many days that you remained there.