Deuteronomy 1:1-4:40

Other Translations of Deuteronomy 1:1-4:40

King James Version

Moses Recounts the LORD's Promise to Israel at Horeb

1¹ These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red the Red...: or, Zuph sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ² (There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.) ³ And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them; ⁴ After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei: ⁵ On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, ⁶ The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: ⁷ Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh all...: Heb. all his neighbours thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. ⁸ Behold, I have set set: Heb. given the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

The Appointment of Judges

⁹ And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: ¹⁰ The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. ¹¹ (The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!) ¹² How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? ¹³ Take Take: Heb. Give you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. ¹⁴ And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do. ¹⁵ So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made made: Heb. gave them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. ¹⁶ And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. ¹⁷ Ye shall not respect respect...: Heb. acknowledge faces persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. ¹⁸ And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do.

The Spies Sent Out at Kadesh-barnea

¹⁹ And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadeshbarnea. ²⁰ And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. ²¹ Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. ²² And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. ²³ And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: ²⁴ And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out. ²⁵ And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us. ²⁶ Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God: ²⁷ And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged discouraged: Heb. melted our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. ²⁹ Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; ³¹ And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. ³² Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, ³³ Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.

God's Punishment on Israel

³⁴ And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, ³⁵ Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, ³⁶ Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly wholly...: Heb. fulfilled to go after followed the Lord. ³⁷ Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither. ³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹ Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it. ⁴⁰ But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

The Defeat of Israel at Hormah

⁴¹ Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill. ⁴² And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies. ⁴³ So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and went went...: Heb. ye were presumptuous, and went up presumptuously up into the hill. ⁴⁴ And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah. ⁴⁵ And ye returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you. ⁴⁶ So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.

The Years in the Wilderness

2¹ Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the Lord spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days. ² And the Lord spake unto me, saying, ³ Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. ⁴ And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore: ⁵ Meddle not with them; for I will not give no...: Heb. even to the treading of the sole of the foot you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. ⁶ Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink. ⁷ For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.

⁸ And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, and from Eziongaber, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹ And the Lord said unto me, Distress Distress...: or, Use no hostility against Moab not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession. ¹⁰ The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; ¹¹ Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims. ¹² The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded succeeded: Heb. inherited them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them. ¹³ Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook brook: or, valley Zered. And we went over the brook Zered. ¹⁴ And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook brook: or, valley Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them. ¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed. ¹⁶ So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, ¹⁷ That the Lord spake unto me, saying, ¹⁸ Thou art to pass over through Ar, the coast of Moab, this day: ¹⁹ And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession. ²⁰ (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; Zamzummims: also called, Zuzims ²¹ A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the Lord destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead: ²² As he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day: ²³ And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.)

²⁴ Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin begin...: Heb. begin, possess to possess it, and contend with him in battle. ²⁵ This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.

Israel Conquers Sihon

²⁶ And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, ²⁷ Let me pass through thy land: I will go along by the high way, I will neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left. ²⁸ Thou shalt sell me meat for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only I will pass through on my feet; ²⁹ (As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the Lord our God giveth us. ³⁰ But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day. ³¹ And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land. ³² Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. ³³ And the Lord our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. ³⁴ And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, the men...: Heb. every city of men, and women, and little ones and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain: ³⁵ Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took. ³⁶ From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: the Lord our God delivered all unto us: ³⁷ Only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not, nor unto any place of the river Jabbok, nor unto the cities in the mountains, nor unto whatsoever the Lord our God forbad us.

Israel Conquers Og of Bashan

3¹ Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. ² And the Lord said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon. ³ So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining. ⁴ And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵ All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a great many. ⁶ And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city. ⁷ But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves. ⁸ And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto mount Hermon; ⁹ (Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir;) ¹⁰ All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, unto Salchah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹ For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.

Reuben, Gad, and Half of Manasseh Settle East of the Jordan

¹² And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites. ¹³ And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants. ¹⁴ Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashanhavothjair, unto this day. ¹⁵ And I gave Gilead unto Machir. ¹⁶ And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites I gave from Gilead even unto the river Arnon half the valley, and the border even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon; ¹⁷ The plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdothpisgah Ashdothpisgah: or, the springs of Pisgah, or, the hill eastward. ¹⁸ And I commanded you at that time, saying, The Lord your God hath given you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet meet...: Heb. sons of power for the war. ¹⁹ But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle, (for I know that ye have much cattle,) shall abide in your cities which I have given you; ²⁰ Until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until they also possess the land which the Lord your God hath given them beyond Jordan: and then shall ye return every man unto his possession, which I have given you.

²¹ And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two kings: so shall the Lord do unto all the kingdoms whither thou passest. ²² Ye shall not fear them: for the Lord your God he shall fight for you.

Moses Not Permitted to Enter Canaan

²³ And I besought the Lord at that time, saying, ²⁴ O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? ²⁵ I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. ²⁶ But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. ²⁷ Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, Pisgah: or, the hill and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. ²⁸ But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see. ²⁹ So we abode in the valley over against Bethpeor.

Moses Exhorts Israel to Obedience

4¹ Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. ² Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. ³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you. ⁴ But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day. ⁵ Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. ⁶ Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. ⁷ For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? ⁸ And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

Israel's Experience at Horeb

⁹ Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; ¹⁰ Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. ¹¹ And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst midst: Heb. heart of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. ¹² And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only only...: Heb. save a voice ye heard a voice. ¹³ And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. ¹⁴ And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

Warning against Idolatry

¹⁵ Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: ¹⁶ Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, ¹⁸ The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: ¹⁹ And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided divided: or, imparted unto all nations under the whole heaven. ²⁰ But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day. ²¹ Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance: ²² But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land. ²³ Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. ²⁴ For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. ²⁵ When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger: ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. ²⁸ And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ²⁹ But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. ³⁰ When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; ³¹ (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. ³² For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? ³³ Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? ³⁴ Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him. ³⁶ Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt; ³⁸ To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day. ³⁹ Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. ⁴⁰ Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever.

English Standard Version

Moses Recounts the LORD's Promise to Israel at Horeb

1¹ These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond 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 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 he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. ⁵ Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, ⁶ "The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by 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, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.'

The Appointment of Judges

⁹ "At that time I said to you, 'I am not able to bear you by myself. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has 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 the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and 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 judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. ¹⁷ You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.' ¹⁸ And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

The Spies Sent Out at Kadesh-barnea

¹⁹ "Then we set out from Horeb and went 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 we 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. Do 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 I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. ²⁴ And they 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 you murmured in your tents and said, 'Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, "The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the 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 will 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 carried 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 you did not believe the Lord your God, ³³ who went before you in the way to 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.

God's Punishment on Israel

³⁴ "And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ³⁵ 'Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, ³⁶ except 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 the Lord was angry on your account and said, 'You also shall not go in there. ³⁸ Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹ And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have 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, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.'

The Defeat of Israel at Hormah

⁴¹ "Then you answered me, '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, 'Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for 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 presumptuously went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴ Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. 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 you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.

The Years in the Wilderness

2¹ "Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as 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 long enough. Turn northward ⁴ and command the people, "You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir; and they 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 I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ⁶ You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing."'

⁸ So we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road from Elath and Ezion-geber. "And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹ And the Lord said to me, '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 Ar to the people of Lot for a possession.' ¹⁰ ( The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. ¹¹ Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ¹² The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.) ¹³ 'Now rise up and go over the brook Zered.' So we went over the brook Zered. ¹⁴ And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until 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, do 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 the sons of Lot for a possession.' ²⁰ (It is also counted as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there--but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim-- ²¹ a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites,Hebrew them 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 the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. ²³ As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.)

²⁴ 'Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle. ²⁵ This day I will begin to put the 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.'

Israel Conquers Sihon

²⁶ "So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, ²⁷ '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 You 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 as 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 Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God hardened 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 Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. ³³ And the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people. ³⁴ And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destructionThat is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction) every city, 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 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. The 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 Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

Israel Conquers Og of Bashan

3¹ "Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 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 Sihon 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, and 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, the 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 we devoted them to destruction,That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); twice in this verse as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every city, 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 Hermon Sirion, while the Amorites call it Senir), ¹⁰ all the cities of the tableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹ (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubitsA cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.Hebrew cubit of a man)

Reuben, Gad, and Half of Manasseh Settle East of the Jordan

¹² "When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory beginning at Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities. ¹³ The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, that is, all the region of Argob, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (All that portion of Bashan is called the land of Rephaim. ¹⁴ Jair the Manassite took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called the villages after his own name, Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.) ¹⁵ To Machir I gave Gilead, ¹⁶ and to the Reubenites and 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, the border of the Ammonites; ¹⁷ the Arabah also, with the Jordan as the border, from Chinnereth as far as the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the 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. All 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 (I know that you have much livestock) shall remain in the cities that I have given you, ²⁰ until 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 Joshua 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 the Lord your God who fights for you.'

Moses Not Permitted to Enter Canaan

²³ "And I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, ²⁴ 'O Lord GOD, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what 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 the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.' ²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, 'Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again. ²⁷ Go 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 charge 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 the valley opposite Beth-peor.

Moses Exhorts Israel to Obedience

4¹ "And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rulesOr just decrees; also verses 5, 8, 14, 45 that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ² You 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 at 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 Keep them and do them, for that 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 what great nation is there that has a 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 righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

Israel's Experience at Horeb

⁹ "Only take care, and keep 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. Make them known to your children and your children's children-- ¹⁰ how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, 'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.' ¹¹ And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. ¹³ And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments,Hebrew words and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ And the 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.

Warning against Idolatry

¹⁵ "Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. ¹⁹ And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. ²¹ Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. ²² For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land. ²³ Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. ²⁵ "When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ²⁹ But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them. ³² "For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. ³³ Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? ³⁴ Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. ³⁶ Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after themHebrew his offspring after him and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, ³⁸ driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, ³⁹ know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ⁴⁰ Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time."

The Message

Moses Recounts the LORD's Promise to Israel at Horeb

1¹ These are the sermons Moses preached to all Israel when they were east of the Jordan River in the Arabah Wilderness, opposite Suph, in the vicinity of Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ² It takes eleven days to travel from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea following the Mount Seir route. ³ It was on the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year when Moses addressed the People of Israel, telling them everything God had commanded him concerning them. ⁴ This came after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled from Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who ruled from Ashtaroth in Edrei. ⁵ It was east of the Jordan in the land of Moab that Moses set out to explain this Revelation. He said: ⁶ Back at Horeb, God, our God, spoke to us: "You've stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ On your way now. Get moving. Head for the Amorite hills, wherever people are living in the Arabah, the mountains, the foothills, the Negev, the seashore - the Canaanite country and the Lebanon all the way to the big river, the Euphrates. ⁸ Look, I've given you this land. Now go in and take it. It's the land God promised to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their children after them."

The Appointment of Judges

⁹ At the time I told you, "I can't do this, can't carry you all by myself. ¹⁰ God, your God, has multiplied your numbers. Why, look at you - you rival the stars in the sky! ¹¹ And may God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, keep it up and multiply you another thousand times, bless you just as he promised. ¹² But how can I carry, all by myself, your troubles and burdens and quarrels? ¹³ So select some wise, understanding, and seasoned men from your tribes, and I will commission them as your leaders." ¹⁴ You answered me, "Good! A good solution." ¹⁵ So I went ahead and took the top men of your tribes, wise and seasoned, and made them your leaders - leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, officials adequate for each of your tribes. ¹⁶ At the same time I gave orders to your judges: "Listen carefully to complaints and accusations between your fellow Israelites. Judge fairly between each person and his fellow or foreigner. ¹⁷ Don't play favorites; treat the little and the big alike; listen carefully to each. Don't be impressed by big names. This is God's judgment you're dealing with. Hard cases you can bring to me; I'll deal with them." ¹⁸ I issued orders to you at that time regarding everything you would have to deal with.

The Spies Sent Out at Kadesh-barnea

¹⁹ Then we set out from Horeb and headed for the Amorite hill country, going through that huge and frightening wilderness that you've had more than an eyeful of by now - all under the command of God, our God - and finally arrived at Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰ There I told you, "You've made it to the Amorite hill country that God, our God, is giving us. ²¹ Look, God, your God, has placed this land as a gift before you. Go ahead and take it now. God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, promised it to you. Don't be afraid. Don't lose heart." ²² But then you all came to me and said, "Let's send some men on ahead to scout out the land for us and bring back a report on the best route to take and the kinds of towns we can expect to find." ²³ That seemed like a good idea to me, so I picked twelve men, one from each tribe. ²⁴ They set out, climbing through the hills. They came to the Eshcol Valley and looked it over. ²⁵ They took samples of the produce of the land and brought them back to us, saying, "It's a good land that God, our God, is giving us!" ²⁶ But then you weren't willing to go up. You rebelled against God, your God's plain word. ²⁷ You complained in your tents: "God hates us. He hauled us out of Egypt in order to dump us among the Amorites - a death sentence for sure! ²⁸ How can we go up? We're trapped in a dead end. Our brothers took all the wind out of our sails, telling us, 'The people are bigger and stronger than we are; their cities are huge, their defenses massive - we even saw Anakite giants there!'" ²⁹ I tried to relieve your fears: "Don't be terrified of them. ³⁰ God, your God, is leading the way; he's fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what he did for you in Egypt; ³¹ you saw what he did in the wilderness, how God, your God, carried you as a father carries his child, carried you the whole way until you arrived here. ³² But now that you're here, you won't trust God, your God - ³³ this same God who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go."

God's Punishment on Israel

³⁴ When God heard what you said, he exploded in anger. He swore, ³⁵ "Not a single person of this evil generation is going to get so much as a look at the good land that I promised to give to your parents. Not one - ³⁶ except for Caleb son of Jephunneh. He'll see it. I'll give him and his descendants the land he walked on because he was all for following God, heart and soul." ³⁷ But I also got it. Because of you God's anger spilled over onto me. He said, "You aren't getting in either. ³⁸ Your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will go in. Build up his courage. He's the one who will claim the inheritance for Israel. ³⁹ And your babies of whom you said, 'They'll be grabbed for plunder,' and all these little kids who right now don't even know right from wrong - they'll get in. I'll give it to them. Yes, they'll be the new owners. ⁴⁰ But not you. Turn around and head back into the wilderness following the route to the Red Sea."

The Defeat of Israel at Hormah

⁴¹ You spoke up, "We've sinned against God. We'll go up and fight, following all the orders that God, our God, has commanded." You took your weapons and dressed for battle - you thought it would be so easy going into those hills! ⁴² But God told me, "Tell them, 'Don't do it; don't go up to fight - I'm not with you in this. Your enemies will waste you.'" ⁴³ I told you but you wouldn't listen. You rebelled at the plain word of God. You threw out your chests and strutted into the hills. ⁴⁴ And those Amorites, who had lived in those hills all their lives, swarmed all over you like a hive of bees, chasing you from Seir all the way to Hormah, a stinging defeat. ⁴⁵ You came back and wept in the presence of God, but he didn't pay a bit of attention to you; God didn't give you the time of day. ⁴⁶ You stayed there in Kadesh a long time, about as long as you had stayed there earlier.

The Years in the Wilderness

2¹ Then we turned around and went back into the wilderness following the route to the Red Sea, as God had instructed me. We worked our way in and around the hills of Seir for a long, long time. ² Then God said, ³ "You've been going around in circles in these hills long enough; go north. ⁴ Command the people, You're about to cut through the land belonging to your relatives, the People of Esau who settled in Seir. They are terrified of you, but restrain yourselves. ⁵ Don't try and start a fight. I am not giving you so much as a square inch of their land. I've already given all the hill country of Seir to Esau - he owns it all. ⁶ Pay them up front for any food or water you get from them." ⁷ God, your God, has blessed you in everything you have done. He has guarded you in your travels through this immense wilderness. For forty years now, God, your God, has been right here with you. You haven't lacked one thing.

⁸ So we detoured around our brothers, the People of Esau who live in Seir, avoiding the Arabah Road that comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber; instead we used the road through the Wilderness of Moab. ⁹ God told me, "And don't try to pick a fight with the Moabites. I am not giving you any of their land. I've given ownership of Ar to the People of Lot." ¹⁰ The Emites (Monsters) used to live there - mobs of hulking giants, like Anakites. ¹¹ Along with the Anakites they were lumped in with the Rephaites (Ghosts) but in Moab they were called Emites. ¹² Horites also used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau took over and destroyed them, the same as Israel did in the land God gave them to possess. ¹³ God said, "It's time now to cross the Brook Zered." So we crossed the Brook Zered. ¹⁴ It took us thirty-eight years to get from Kadesh Barnea to the Brook Zered. That's how long it took for the entire generation of soldiers from the camp to die off, as God had sworn they would. ¹⁵ God was relentless against them until the last one was gone from the camp. ¹⁶ When the last of these soldiers had died, ¹⁷ God said to me, ¹⁸ "This is the day you cut across the territory of Moab, at Ar. ¹⁹ When you approach the People of Ammon, don't try and pick a fight with them because I'm not giving you any of the land of the People of Ammon for yourselves - I've already given it to the People of Lot." ²⁰ It is also considered to have once been the land of the Rephaites. Rephaites lived there long ago - the Ammonites called them Zamzummites (Barbarians) ²¹ - huge mobs of them, giants like the Anakites. God destroyed them and the Ammonites moved in and took over. ²² It was the same with the People of Esau who live in Seir - God got rid of the Horites who lived there earlier and they moved in and took over, as you can see. ²³ Regarding the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites who came from Caphtor (Crete) wiped them out and moved in.

²⁴ "On your feet now. Get started. Cross the Brook Arnon. Look: Here's Sihon the Amorite king of Heshbon and his land. I'm handing it over to you - it's all yours. Go ahead take it. Go to war with him. ²⁵ Before the day is out, I'll make sure that all the people around here are thoroughly terrified. Rumors of you are going to spread like wildfire; they'll totally panic."

Israel Conquers Sihon

²⁶ From the Wilderness of Kedemoth, I sent messengers to Sihon, king of Heshbon. They carried a friendly message: ²⁷ "Let me cross through your land on the highway. I'll stay right on the highway; I won't trespass right or left. ²⁸ I'll pay you for any food or water we might need. Let me walk through. ²⁹ "The People of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did this, helping me on my way until I can cross the Jordan and enter the land that God, our God, is giving us." ³⁰ But Sihon king of Heshbon wouldn't let us cross his land. God, your God, turned his spirit mean and his heart hard so he could hand him over to you, as you can see that he has done. ³¹ Then God said to me, "Look, I've got the ball rolling - Sihon and his land are soon yours. Go ahead. Take it. It's practically yours!" ³² So Sihon and his entire army confronted us in battle at Jahaz. ³³ God handed him, his sons, and his entire army over to us and we utterly crushed them. ³⁴ While we were at it we captured all his towns and totally destroyed them, a holy destruction - men, women, and children. No survivors. ³⁵ We took the livestock and the plunder from the towns we had captured and carried them off for ourselves. ³⁶ From Aroer on the edge of the Brook Arnon and the town in the gorge, as far as Gilead, not a single town proved too much for us; God, our God, gave every last one of them to us. ³⁷ The only land you didn't take, obeying God's command, was the land of the People of Ammon, the land along the Jabbok and around the cities in the hills.

Israel Conquers Og of Bashan

3¹ Then we turned north and took the road to Bashan. Og king of Bashan, he and all his people, came out to meet us in battle at Edrei. ² God said to me, "Don't be afraid of him; I'm turning him over to you, along with his whole army and his land. Treat him the way you treated Sihon king of the Amorites who ruled from Heshbon." ³ So God, our God, also handed Og king of Bashan over to us - Og and all his people - and we utterly crushed them. Again, no survivors. ⁴ At the same time we took all his cities. There wasn't one of the sixty cities that we didn't take - the whole region of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan. ⁵ All these cities were fortress cities with high walls and barred gates. There were also numerous unwalled villages. ⁶ We totally destroyed them - a holy destruction. It was the same treatment we gave to Sihon king of Heshbon, a holy destruction of every city, man, woman, and child. ⁷ But all the livestock and plunder from the cities we took for ourselves. ⁸ Throughout that time we took the land from under the control of the two kings of the Amorites who ruled the country east of the Jordan, all the way from the Brook Arnon to Mount Hermon. ⁹ (Sirion is the name given Hermon by the Sidonians; the Amorites call it Senir.) ¹⁰ We took all the towns of the plateau, everything in Gilead, everything in Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, the border towns of Bashan, Og's kingdom. ¹¹ Og king of Bashan was the last remaining Rephaite. His bed, made of iron, was over thirteen feet long and six wide. You can still see it on display in Rabbah of the People of Ammon.

Reuben, Gad, and Half of Manasseh Settle East of the Jordan

¹² Of the land that we possessed at that time, I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory north of Aroer along the Brook Arnon and half the hill country of Gilead with its towns. ¹³ I gave the half-tribe of Manasseh the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, Og's kingdom - all the region of Argob, which takes in all of Bashan. This used to be known as the Land of the Rephaites. ¹⁴ Jair, a son of Manasseh, got the region of Argob to the borders of the Geshurites and Maacathites. He named the Bashan villages after himself, Havvoth Jair (Jair's Tent-Villages). They're still called that. ¹⁵ I gave Gilead to Makir. ¹⁶ I gave the Reubenites and Gadites the land from Gilead down to the Brook Arnon, whose middle was the boundary, and as far as the Jabbok River, the boundary line of the People of Ammon. ¹⁷ The western boundary was the Jordan River in the Arabah all the way from the Kinnereth (the Sea of Galilee) to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea or Dead Sea) at the base of the slopes of Mount Pisgah on the east. ¹⁸ I commanded you at that time, "God, your God, has given you this land to possess. Your men, fit and armed for the fight, are to cross the river in advance of their brothers, the People of Israel. ¹⁹ Only your wives, children, and livestock (I know you have much livestock) may go ahead and settle down in the towns I have already given you ²⁰ until God secures living space for your brothers as he has for you and they have taken possession of the country west of the Jordan that God, your God, is giving them. After that, each man may return to the land I've given you here."

²¹ I commanded Joshua at that time, "You've seen with your own two eyes everything God, your God, has done to these two kings. God is going to do the same thing to all the kingdoms over there across the river where you're headed. ²² Don't be afraid of them. God, your God, - he's fighting for you."

Moses Not Permitted to Enter Canaan

²³ At that same time, I begged God: ²⁴ "God, my Master, you let me in on the beginnings, you let me see your greatness, you let me see your might - what god in Heaven or Earth can do anything like what you've done! ²⁵ Please, let me in also on the endings, let me cross the river and see the good land over the Jordan, the lush hills, the Lebanon mountains." ²⁶ But God was still angry with me because of you. He wouldn't listen. He said, "Enough of that. Not another word from you on this. ²⁷ Climb to the top of Mount Pisgah and look around: look west, north, south, east. Take in the land with your own eyes. Take a good look because you're not going to cross this Jordan. ²⁸ "Then command Joshua: Give him courage. Give him strength. Single-handed he will lead this people across the river. Single-handed he'll cause them to inherit the land at which you can only look." ²⁹ That's why we have stayed in this valley near Beth Peor.

Moses Exhorts Israel to Obedience

4¹ Now listen, Israel, listen carefully to the rules and regulations that I am teaching you to follow so that you may live and enter and take possession of the land that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, is giving to you. ² Don't add a word to what I command you, and don't remove a word from it. Keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you. ³ You saw with your own eyes what God did at Baal Peor, how God destroyed from among you every man who joined in the Baal Peor orgies. ⁴ But you, the ones who held tight to God, your God, are alive and well, every one of you, today. ⁵ Pay attention: I'm teaching you the rules and regulations that God commanded me, so that you may live by them in the land you are entering to take up ownership. ⁶ Keep them. Practice them. You'll become wise and understanding. When people hear and see what's going on, they'll say, "What a great nation! So wise, so understanding! We've never seen anything like it." ⁷ Yes. What other great nation has gods that are intimate with them the way God, our God, is with us, always ready to listen to us? ⁸ And what other great nation has rules and regulations as good and fair as this Revelation that I'm setting before you today?

Israel's Experience at Horeb

⁹ Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don't forget anything of what you've seen. Don't let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you've seen and heard to your children and grandchildren. ¹⁰ That day when you stood before God, your God, at Horeb, God said to me, "Assemble the people in my presence to listen to my words so that they will learn to fear me in holy fear for as long as they live on the land, and then they will teach these same words to their children." ¹¹ You gathered. You stood in the shadow of the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with fire, blazing high into the very heart of Heaven. You stood in deep darkness and thick clouds. ¹² God spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but you saw nothing - no form, only a voice. ¹³ He announced his covenant, the Ten Words, by which he commanded you to live. Then he wrote them down on two slabs of stone. ¹⁴ And God commanded me at that time to teach you the rules and regulations that you are to live by in the land which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.

Warning against Idolatry

¹⁵ You saw no form on the day God spoke to you at Horeb from out of the fire. Remember that. Carefully guard yourselves ¹⁶ so that you don't turn corrupt and make a form, carving a figure ¹⁷ that looks male or female, or looks like a prowling animal or a flying bird ¹⁸ or a slithering snake or a fish in a stream. ¹⁹ And also carefully guard yourselves so that you don't look up into the skies and see the sun and moon and stars, all the constellations of the skies, and be seduced into worshiping and serving them. God set them out for everybody's benefit, everywhere. ²⁰ But you - God took you right out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to become the people of his inheritance - and that's what you are this very day. ²¹ But God was angry with me because of you and the things you said. He swore that I'd never cross the Jordan, never get to enter the good land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance. ²² This means that I am going to die here. I'm not crossing the Jordan. But you will cross; you'll possess the good land. ²³ So stay alert. Don't for a minute forget the covenant which God, your God, made with you. And don't take up with any carved images, no forms of any kind - God, your God, issued clear commands on that. ²⁴ God, your God, is not to be trifled with - he's a consuming fire, a jealous God. ²⁵ When the time comes that you have children and grandchildren, put on years, and start taking things for granted, if you then become corrupt and make any carved images, no matter what their form, by doing what is sheer evil in God's eyes and provoking his anger - ²⁶ I can tell you right now, with Heaven and Earth as witnesses, that it will be all over for you. You'll be kicked off the land that you're about to cross over the Jordan to possess. Believe me, you'll have a very short stay there. You'll be ruined, completely ruined. ²⁷ God will scatter you far and wide; a few of you will survive here and there in the nations where God will drive you. ²⁸ There you can worship your homemade gods to your hearts' content, your wonderful gods of wood and stone that can't see or hear or eat or smell. ²⁹ But even there, if you seek God, your God, you'll be able to find him if you're serious, looking for him with your whole heart and soul. ³⁰ When troubles come and all these awful things happen to you, in future days you will come back to God, your God, and listen obediently to what he says. ³¹ God, your God, is above all a compassionate God. In the end he will not abandon you, he won't bring you to ruin, he won't forget the covenant with your ancestors which he swore to them. ³² Ask questions. Find out what has been going on all these years before you were born. From the day God created man and woman on this Earth, and from the horizon in the east to the horizon in the west - as far back as you can imagine and as far away as you can imagine - has as great a thing as this ever happened? Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? ³³ Has a people ever heard, as you did, a god speaking out of the middle of the fire and lived to tell the story? ³⁴ Or has a god ever tried to select for himself a nation from within a nation using trials, miracles, and war, putting his strong hand in, reaching his long arm out, a spectacle awesome and staggering, the way God, your God, did it for you in Egypt while you stood right there and watched? ³⁵ You were shown all this so that you would know that God is, well, God. He's the only God there is. He's it. ³⁶ He made it possible for you to hear his voice out of Heaven to discipline you. Down on Earth, he showed you the big fire and again you heard his words, this time out of the fire. ³⁷ He loved your ancestors and chose to work with their children. He personally and powerfully brought you out of Egypt ³⁸ in order to displace bigger and stronger and older nations with you, bringing you out and turning their land over to you as an inheritance. And now it's happening. This very day. ³⁹ Know this well, then. Take it to heart right now: God is in Heaven above; God is on Earth below. He's the only God there is. ⁴⁰ Obediently live by his rules and commands which I'm giving you today so that you'll live well and your children after you - oh, you'll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.

New King James Version

Moses Recounts the LORD's Promise to Israel at Horeb

1¹ These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain Hebrew arabah opposite Suph, One manuscript of the Septuagint, also Targum and Vulgate, read Red Sea. between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ² It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. ³ Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them, ⁴ after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read and (compare Joshua 12:4). in Edrei. ⁵ On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying, ⁶ "The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: 'You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the plain, Hebrew arabah in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers--to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--to give to them and their descendants after them.'

The Appointment of Judges

⁹ "And I spoke to you at that time, saying: 'I alone am not able to bear you. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude. ¹¹ May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you as He has promised you! ¹² How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints? ¹³ Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.' ¹⁴ And you answered me and said, 'The thing which you have told us to do is good.' ¹⁵ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made 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 judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him. ¹⁷ You 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 the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.' ¹⁸ And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

The Spies Sent Out at Kadesh-barnea

¹⁹ "So we departed from Horeb, and 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 we came to Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰ And I said to you, 'You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹ Look, 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; do not fear or be discouraged.' ²² And everyone 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 I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. ²⁴ And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. ²⁵ They 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 good land which the Lord our God is giving us.' ²⁶ "Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; ²⁷ and you complained 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 discouraged our hearts, saying, "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 Anakim there." ' ²⁹ Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.' ³² Yet, for all that, you did not believe the Lord your God, ³³ who went in the way before you to 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.

God's Punishment on Israel

³⁴ "And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying, ³⁵ 'Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, ³⁶ except 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 he wholly followed the Lord.' ³⁷ The Lord was also angry with me for your sakes, saying, 'Even you shall not go in there; ³⁸ Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹ Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. ⁴⁰ But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.'

The Defeat of Israel at Hormah

⁴¹ "Then you answered and said to me, '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, "Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies." ' ⁴³ So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the command of the Lord, and presumptuously went up into the mountain. ⁴⁴ And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you as bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵ Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. ⁴⁶ So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spent there.

The Years in the Wilderness

2¹ "Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days. ² And the Lord spoke to me, saying: ³ 'You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward. ⁴ And command the people, saying, "You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. ⁵ Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ⁶ You 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 trudging through this great wilderness. These 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 Elath and Ezion Geber, we turned and passed by way of the Wilderness of Moab. ⁹ Then 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 Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.' " ¹⁰ (The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. ¹¹ They were also regarded as giants, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ¹² The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the Lord gave them.) ¹³ " 'Now rise and cross over the Valley of the Zered.' So we crossed over the Valley of the Zered. ¹⁴ And the time we took to come from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Valley of the Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp, just as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed. ¹⁶ "So it was, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people, ¹⁷ that the Lord spoke to me, saying: ¹⁸ 'This day you are to cross over at Ar, the boundary of Moab. ¹⁹ And 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 the descendants of Lot as a possession.' " ²⁰ (That was also regarded as a land of giants; giants formerly dwelt there. But the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, ²¹ a 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, ²² just as He had done for the descendants of Esau, who dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them. They dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, even to this day. ²³ And the Avim, who dwelt in villages as far as Gaza--the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and dwelt in their place.)

²⁴ " 'Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess it, and engage him in battle. ²⁵ This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.'

Israel Conquers Sihon

²⁶ "And I sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, ²⁷ '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. ²⁸ You 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 just 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.' ³⁰ But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the Lord your God hardened 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 give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.' ³² Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz. ³³ And the Lord our God delivered him over to us; so we defeated him, his sons, and all his people. ³⁴ We took all his cities at that time, and we utterly destroyed the men, women, and little ones of every city; we left none remaining. ³⁵ We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we took. ³⁶ From Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, and from the city that is in the ravine, as far as Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us; the Lord our God delivered all to us. ³⁷ Only you did not go near the land of the people of Ammon--anywhere along the River Jabbok, or to the cities of the mountains, or wherever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

Israel Conquers Og of Bashan

3¹ "Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan; and Og king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. ² And the Lord said to me, 'Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand; you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.' ³ So the Lord our God also delivered into our hands Og king of Bashan, with all his people, and we attacked him until he had no survivors remaining. ⁴ And we took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵ All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a great many rural towns. ⁶ And we utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city. ⁷ But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as booty for ourselves. ⁸ And at that time we took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan, from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁹ (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir), ¹⁰ all the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹ For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit.

Reuben, Gad, and Half of Manasseh Settle East of the Jordan

¹² "And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, and half the mountains of Gilead and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites. ¹³ The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. (All the region of Argob, with all Bashan, was called the land of the giants. ¹⁴ Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and called Bashan after his own name, Havoth Jair, to this day.) ¹⁵ Also I gave Gilead to Machir. ¹⁶ And to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave from Gilead as far as the River Arnon, the middle of the river as the border, as far as the River Jabbok, the border of the people of Ammon; ¹⁷ the plain also, with the Jordan as the border, from Chinnereth as far as the east side of the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah. ¹⁸ "Then I commanded you at that time, saying: 'The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brethren, the children of Israel. ¹⁹ But your wives, your little ones, and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock) shall stay in your cities which I have given you, ²⁰ until the Lord has given rest to your brethren as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.'

²¹ And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, '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 through which you pass. ²² You must not fear them, for the Lord your God Himself fights for you.'

Moses Not Permitted to Enter Canaan

²³ "Then I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying: ²⁴ 'O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds? ²⁵ I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.' ²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me: 'Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter. ²⁷ Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. ²⁸ But command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.' ²⁹ So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Moses Exhorts Israel to Obedience

4¹ "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. ² You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. ³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor; for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. ⁴ But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. ⁵ Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. ⁶ Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' ⁷ For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? ⁸ And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?

Israel's Experience at Horeb

⁹ "Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, ¹⁰ especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, 'Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.' ¹¹ Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. ¹² And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice. ¹³ So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

Warning against Idolatry

¹⁵ "Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. ¹⁹ And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. ²¹ Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. ²² But I must die in this land, I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possess that good land. ²³ Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. ²⁵ "When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ²⁹ But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice ³¹ (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. ³² "For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. ³³ Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? ³⁴ Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him. ³⁶ Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, ³⁸ driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. ³⁹ Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ⁴⁰ You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time."

New Living Translation

Moses Recounts the LORD's Promise to Israel at Horeb

1¹ These are the words that Moses spoke to all the people of Israel while they were in the wilderness east of the Jordan River. They were camped in the Jordan Valley near Suph, between Paran on one side and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab on the other. ² Normally it takes only eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, going by way of Mount Seir. ³ But forty years after the Israelites left Egypt, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses addressed the people of Israel, telling them everything the Lord had commanded him to say. ⁴ This took place after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and at Edrei had defeated King Og of Bashan, who ruled in Ashtaroth. ⁵ While the Israelites were in the land of Moab east of the Jordan River, Moses carefully explained the Lord 's instructions as follows. ⁶ "When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, 'You have stayed at this mountain long enough. ⁷ It is time to break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the neighboring regions-the Jordan Valley, the hill country, the western foothills, the Negev, and the coastal plain. Go to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, and all the way to the great Euphrates River. ⁸ Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it is the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants.'"

The Appointment of Judges

⁹ Moses continued, "At that time I told you, 'You are too great a burden for me to carry all by myself. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has increased your population, making you as numerous as the stars! ¹¹ And may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, multiply you a thousand times more and bless you as he promised! ¹² But you are such a heavy load to carry! How can I deal with all your problems and bickering? ¹³ Choose some well-respected men from each tribe who are known for their wisdom and understanding, and I will appoint them as your leaders.' ¹⁴ "Then you responded, 'Your plan is a good one.' ¹⁵ So I took the wise and respected men you had selected from your tribes and appointed them to serve as judges and officials over you. Some were responsible for a thousand people, some for a hundred, some for fifty, and some for ten. ¹⁶ "At that time I instructed the judges, 'You must hear the cases of your fellow Israelites and the foreigners living among you. Be perfectly fair in your decisions ¹⁷ and impartial in your judgments. Hear the cases of those who are poor as well as those who are rich. Don't be afraid of anyone's anger, for the decision you make is God's decision. Bring me any cases that are too difficult for you, and I will handle them.' ¹⁸ "At that time I gave you instructions about everything you were to do.

The Spies Sent Out at Kadesh-barnea

¹⁹ "Then, just as the Lord our God commanded us, we left Mount Sinai and traveled through the great and terrifying wilderness, as you yourselves remember, and headed toward the hill country of the Amorites. When we arrived at Kadesh-barnea, ²⁰ I said to you, 'You have now reached the hill country of the Amorites that the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹ Look! He has placed the land in front of you. Go and occupy it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Don't be afraid! Don't be discouraged!' ²² "But you all came to me and said, 'First, let's send out scouts to explore the land for us. They will advise us on the best route to take and which towns we should enter.' ²³ "This seemed like a good idea to me, so I chose twelve scouts, one from each of your tribes. ²⁴ They headed for the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and explored it. ²⁵ They picked some of its fruit and brought it back to us. And they reported, 'The land the Lord our God has given us is indeed a good land.' ²⁶ "But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and refused to go in. ²⁷ You complained in your tents and said, 'The Lord must hate us. That's why he has brought us here from Egypt-to hand us over to the Amorites to be slaughtered. ²⁸ Where can we go? Our brothers have demoralized us with their report. They tell us, "The people of the land are taller and more powerful than we are, and their towns are large, with walls rising high into the sky! We even saw giants there-the descendants of Anak!"' ²⁹ "But I said to you, 'Don't be shocked or afraid of them! ³⁰ The Lord your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt. ³¹ And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.' ³² "But even after all he did, you refused to trust the Lord your God, ³³ who goes before you looking for the best places to camp, guiding you with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.

God's Punishment on Israel

³⁴ "When the Lord heard your complaining, he became very angry. So he solemnly swore, ³⁵ 'Not one of you from this wicked generation will live to see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, ³⁶ except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see this land because he has followed the Lord completely. I will give to him and his descendants some of the very land he explored during his scouting mission.' ³⁷ "And the Lord was also angry with me because of you. He said to me, 'Moses, not even you will enter the Promised Land! ³⁸ Instead, your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will lead the people into the land. Encourage him, for he will lead Israel as they take possession of it. ³⁹ I will give the land to your little ones-your innocent children. You were afraid they would be captured, but they will be the ones who occupy it. ⁴⁰ As for you, turn around now and go on back through the wilderness toward the Red Sea. '

The Defeat of Israel at Hormah

⁴¹ "Then you confessed, 'We have sinned against the Lord ! We will go into the land and fight for it, as the Lord our God has commanded us.' So your men strapped on their weapons, thinking it would be easy to attack the hill country. ⁴² "But the Lord told me to tell you, 'Do not attack, for I am not with you. If you go ahead on your own, you will be crushed by your enemies.' ⁴³ "This is what I told you, but you would not listen. Instead, you again rebelled against the Lord 's command and arrogantly went into the hill country to fight. ⁴⁴ But the Amorites who lived there came out against you like a swarm of bees. They chased and battered you all the way from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵ Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but he refused to listen. ⁴⁶ So you stayed there at Kadesh for a long time.

The Years in the Wilderness

2¹ "Then we turned around and headed back across the wilderness toward the Red Sea, just as the Lord had instructed me, and we wandered around in the region of Mount Seir for a long time. ² "Then at last the Lord said to me, ³ 'You have been wandering around in this hill country long enough; turn to the north. ⁴ Give these orders to the people: "You will pass through the country belonging to your relatives the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. The Edomites will feel threatened, so be careful. ⁵ Do not bother them, for I have given them all the hill country around Mount Seir as their property, and I will not give you even one square foot of their land. ⁶ If you need food to eat or water to drink, pay them for it. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing."'

⁸ "So we bypassed the territory of our relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We avoided the road through the Arabah Valley that comes up from Elath and Ezion-geber. "Then as we turned north along the desert route through Moab, ⁹ the Lord warned us, 'Do not bother the Moabites, the descendants of Lot, or start a war with them. I have given them Ar as their property, and I will not give you any of their land.'" ¹⁰ (A race of giants called the Emites had once lived in the area of Ar. They were as strong and numerous and tall as the Anakites, another race of giants. ¹¹ Both the Emites and the Anakites are also known as the Rephaites, though the Moabites call them Emites. ¹² In earlier times the Horites had lived in Seir, but they were driven out and displaced by the descendants of Esau, just as Israel drove out the people of Canaan when the Lord gave Israel their land.) ¹³ Moses continued, "Then the Lord said to us, 'Get moving. Cross the Zered Brook.' So we crossed the brook. ¹⁴ "Thirty-eight years passed from the time we first left Kadesh-barnea until we finally crossed the Zered Brook! By then, all the men old enough to fight in battle had died in the wilderness, as the Lord had vowed would happen. ¹⁵ The Lord struck them down until they had all been eliminated from the community. ¹⁶ "When all the men of fighting age had died, ¹⁷ the Lord said to me, ¹⁸ 'Today you will cross the border of Moab at Ar ¹⁹ and enter the land of the Ammonites, the descendants of Lot. But do not bother them or start a war with them. I have given the land of Ammon to them as their property, and I will not give you any of their land.'" ²⁰ (That area was once considered the land of the Rephaites, who had lived there, though the Ammonites call them Zamzummites. ²¹ They were also as strong and numerous and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed them so the Ammonites could occupy their land. ²² He had done the same for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir, for he destroyed the Horites so they could settle there in their place. The descendants of Esau live there to this day. ²³ A similar thing happened when the Caphtorites from Crete invaded and destroyed the Avvites, who had lived in villages in the area of Gaza.)

²⁴ Moses continued, "Then the Lord said, 'Now get moving! Cross the Arnon Gorge. Look, I will hand over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and I will give you his land. Attack him and begin to occupy the land. ²⁵ Beginning today I will make people throughout the earth terrified because of you. When they hear reports about you, they will tremble with dread and fear.'"

Israel Conquers Sihon

²⁶ Moses continued, "From the wilderness of Kedemoth I sent ambassadors to King Sihon of Heshbon with this proposal of peace: ²⁷ 'Let us travel through your land. We will stay on the main road and won't turn off into the fields on either side. ²⁸ Sell us food to eat and water to drink, and we will pay for it. All we want is permission to pass through your land. ²⁹ The descendants of Esau who live in Seir allowed us to go through their country, and so did the Moabites, who live in Ar. Let us pass through until we cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.' ³⁰ "But King Sihon of Heshbon refused to allow us to pass through, because the Lord your God made Sihon stubborn and defiant so he could help you defeat him, as he has now done. ³¹ "Then the Lord said to me, 'Look, I have begun to hand King Sihon and his land over to you. Begin now to conquer and occupy his land.' ³² "Then King Sihon declared war on us and mobilized his forces at Jahaz. ³³ But the Lord our God handed him over to us, and we crushed him, his sons, and all his people. ³⁴ We conquered all his towns and completely destroyed everyone-men, women, and children. Not a single person was spared. ³⁵ We took all the livestock as plunder for ourselves, along with anything of value from the towns we ransacked. ³⁶ "The Lord our God also helped us conquer Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Gorge, and the town in the gorge, and the whole area as far as Gilead. No town had walls too strong for us. ³⁷ However, we avoided the land of the Ammonites all along the Jabbok River and the towns in the hill country-all the places the Lord our God had commanded us to leave alone.

Israel Conquers Og of Bashan

3¹ "Next we turned and headed for the land of Bashan, where King Og and his entire army attacked us at Edrei. ² But the Lord told me, 'Do not be afraid of him, for I have given you victory over Og and his entire army, and I will give you all his land. Treat him just as you treated King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon.' ³ "So the Lord our God handed King Og and all his people over to us, and we killed them all. Not a single person survived. ⁴ We conquered all sixty of his towns-the entire Argob region in his kingdom of Bashan. Not a single town escaped our conquest. ⁵ These towns were all fortified with high walls and barred gates. We also took many unwalled villages at the same time. ⁶ We completely destroyed the kingdom of Bashan, just as we had destroyed King Sihon of Heshbon. We destroyed all the people in every town we conquered-men, women, and children alike. ⁷ But we kept all the livestock for ourselves and took plunder from all the towns. ⁸ "So we took the land of the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River-all the way from the Arnon Gorge to Mount Hermon. ⁹ (Mount Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians, and the Amorites call it Senir.) ¹⁰ We had now conquered all the cities on the plateau and all Gilead and Bashan, as far as the towns of Salecah and Edrei, which were part of Og's kingdom in Bashan. ¹¹ (King Og of Bashan was the last survivor of the giant Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It can still be seen in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.)

Reuben, Gad, and Half of Manasseh Settle East of the Jordan

¹² "When we took possession of this land, I gave to the tribes of Reuben and Gad the territory beyond Aroer along the Arnon Gorge, plus half of the hill country of Gilead with its towns. ¹³ Then I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan-Og's former kingdom-to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (This entire Argob region of Bashan used to be known as the land of the Rephaites. ¹⁴ Jair, a leader from the tribe of Manasseh, conquered the whole Argob region in Bashan, all the way to the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. Jair renamed this region after himself, calling it the Towns of Jair, as it is still known today.) ¹⁵ I gave Gilead to the clan of Makir. ¹⁶ But I also gave part of Gilead to the tribes of Reuben and Gad. The area I gave them extended from the middle of the Arnon Gorge in the south to the Jabbok River on the Ammonite frontier. ¹⁷ They also received the Jordan Valley, all the way from the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea, with the Jordan River serving as the western boundary. To the east were the slopes of Pisgah. ¹⁸ "At that time I gave this command to the tribes that would live east of the Jordan: 'Although the Lord your God has given you this land as your property, all your fighting men must cross the Jordan ahead of your Israelite relatives, armed and ready to assist them. ¹⁹ Your wives, children, and numerous livestock, however, may stay behind in the towns I have given you. ²⁰ When the Lord has given security to the rest of the Israelites, as he has to you, and when they occupy the land the Lord your God is giving them across the Jordan River, then you may all return here to the land I have given you.'

²¹ "At that time I gave Joshua this charge: 'You have seen for yourself everything the Lord your God has done to these two kings. He will do the same to all the kingdoms on the west side of the Jordan. ²² Do not be afraid of the nations there, for the Lord your God will fight for you.'

Moses Not Permitted to Enter Canaan

²³ "At that time I pleaded with the Lord and said, ²⁴ 'O Sovereign Lord, you have only begun to show your greatness and the strength of your hand to me, your servant. Is there any god in heaven or on earth who can perform such great and mighty deeds as you do? ²⁵ Please let me cross the Jordan to see the wonderful land on the other side, the beautiful hill country and the Lebanon mountains.' ²⁶ "But the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. 'That's enough!' he declared. 'Speak of it no more. ²⁷ But go up to Pisgah Peak, and look over the land in every direction. Take a good look, but you may not cross the Jordan River. ²⁸ Instead, commission Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead the people across the Jordan. He will give them all the land you now see before you as their possession.' ²⁹ So we stayed in the valley near Beth-peor.

Moses Exhorts Israel to Obedience

4¹ "And now, Israel, listen carefully to these decrees and regulations that I am about to teach you. Obey them so that you may live, so you may enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. ² Do not add to or subtract from these commands I am giving you. Just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you. ³ "You saw for yourself what the Lord did to you at Baal-peor. There the Lord your God destroyed everyone who had worshiped Baal, the god of Peor. ⁴ But all of you who were faithful to the Lord your God are still alive today-every one of you. ⁵ "Look, I now teach you these decrees and regulations just as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy. ⁶ Obey them completely, and you will display your wisdom and intelligence among the surrounding nations. When they hear all these decrees, they will exclaim, 'How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation!' ⁷ For what great nation has a god as near to them as the Lord our God is near to us whenever we call on him? ⁸ And what great nation has decrees and regulations as righteous and fair as this body of instructions that I am giving you today?

Israel's Experience at Horeb

⁹ "But watch out! Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren. ¹⁰ Never forget the day when you stood before the Lord your God at Mount Sinai, where he told me, 'Summon the people before me, and I will personally instruct them. Then they will learn to fear me as long as they live, and they will teach their children to fear me also.' ¹¹ "You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while flames from the mountain shot into the sky. The mountain was shrouded in black clouds and deep darkness. ¹² And the Lord spoke to you from the heart of the fire. You heard the sound of his words but didn't see his form; there was only a voice. ¹³ He proclaimed his covenant-the Ten Commandments -which he commanded you to keep, and which he wrote on two stone tablets. ¹⁴ It was at that time that the Lord commanded me to teach you his decrees and regulations so you would obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy.

Warning against Idolatry

¹⁵ "But be very careful! You did not see the Lord 's form on the day he spoke to you from the heart of the fire at Mount Sinai. ¹⁶ So do not corrupt yourselves by making an idol in any form-whether of a man or a woman, ¹⁷ an animal on the ground, a bird in the sky, ¹⁸ a small animal that scurries along the ground, or a fish in the deepest sea. ¹⁹ And when you look up into the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars-all the forces of heaven-don't be seduced into worshiping them. The Lord your God gave them to all the peoples of the earth. ²⁰ Remember that the Lord rescued you from the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt in order to make you his very own people and his special possession, which is what you are today. ²¹ "But the Lord was angry with me because of you. He vowed that I would not cross the Jordan River into the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession. ²² You will cross the Jordan to occupy the land, but I will not. Instead, I will die here on the east side of the river. ²³ So be careful not to break the covenant the Lord your God has made with you. Do not make idols of any shape or form, for the Lord your God has forbidden this. ²⁴ The Lord your God is a devouring fire; he is a jealous God. ²⁵ "In the future, when you have children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time, do not corrupt yourselves by making idols of any kind. This is evil in the sight of the Lord your God and will arouse his anger. ²⁶ "Today I call on heaven and earth as witnesses against you. If you break my covenant, you will quickly disappear from the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy. You will live there only a short time; then you will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ For the Lord will scatter you among the nations, where only a few of you will survive. ²⁸ There, in a foreign land, you will worship idols made from wood and stone-gods that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ²⁹ But from there you will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him. ³⁰ "In the distant future, when you are suffering all these things, you will finally return to the Lord your God and listen to what he tells you. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn covenant he made with your ancestors. ³² "Now search all of history, from the time God created people on the earth until now, and search from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything as great as this ever been seen or heard before? ³³ Has any nation ever heard the voice of God speaking from fire-as you did-and survived? ³⁴ Has any other god dared to take a nation for himself out of another nation by means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, a strong hand, a powerful arm, and terrifying acts? Yet that is what the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, right before your eyes. ³⁵ "He showed you these things so you would know that the Lord is God and there is no other. ³⁶ He let you hear his voice from heaven so he could instruct you. He let you see his great fire here on earth so he could speak to you from it. ³⁷ Because he loved your ancestors, he chose to bless their descendants, and he personally brought you out of Egypt with a great display of power. ³⁸ He drove out nations far greater than you, so he could bring you in and give you their land as your special possession, as it is today. ³⁹ "So remember this and keep it firmly in mind: The Lord is God both in heaven and on earth, and there is no other. ⁴⁰ If you obey all the decrees and commands I am giving you today, all will be well with you and your children. I am giving you these instructions so you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time."