The Lord Commands Israel to Leave Mount Horeb

1 These are the words Moses spoke to all the Israelites. At that time, they were in the desert east of the Jordan River. It’s in the Arabah Valley across from Suph. The people were between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. ² It takes 11 days to go from Mount Horeb to Kadesh Barnea if you travel on the Mount Seir road.

³ It was the 40th year since the Israelites had left Egypt. On the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to them. He told them everything the Lord had commanded him to tell them. ⁴ They had already won the battle over Sihon. Sihon was the king of the Amorites. He had ruled in Heshbon. Israel had also won the battle over Og at Edrei. Og was the king of Bashan. He had ruled in Ashtaroth.

⁵ The people were east of the Jordan River in the territory of Moab. There Moses began to explain the law. Here is what he said.

⁶ The Lord our God spoke to us at Mount Horeb. He said, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Take your tents down. Go into the hill country of the Amorites. Go to all the people who are their neighbors. Go to the people who live in the Arabah Valley. Travel to the mountains and the western hills. Go to the people in the Negev Desert and along the coast. Travel to the land of Canaan and to Lebanon. Go as far as the great Euphrates River. ⁸ I have given you all this land. Go in and take it as your own. The Lord promised he would give the land to your fathers. He promised it to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He also said he would give it to their children after them.”

Some Officials Are Chosen to Help Moses

⁹ At that time I spoke to you. I said, “You are too heavy a load for me to carry alone. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has caused there to be many of you. Today you are as many as the stars in the sky. ¹¹ The Lord is the God of your people. May he cause there to be a thousand times more of you. May he bless you, just as he promised he would. ¹² But I can’t handle your problems and troubles all by myself. I can’t settle your arguments. ¹³ So choose some wise men from each of your tribes. They must understand how to give good advice. The people must have respect for them. I will appoint those men to have authority over you.”

¹⁴ You answered me, “Your suggestion is good.”

¹⁵ So I chose the leading men of your tribes who were wise and respected. I appointed them to have authority over you. I made them commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. I appointed them to be officials over the tribes. ¹⁶ Here is what I commanded your judges at that time. I said, “Listen to your people’s cases when they argue with one another. Judge them fairly. It doesn’t matter whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and an outsider living among you. ¹⁷ When you judge them, treat everyone the same. Listen to those who are important and those who are not. Don’t be afraid of anyone. God is the highest judge. Bring me any case that is too hard for you. I’ll listen to it.” ¹⁸ At that time I told you everything you should do.

Twelve Men Check Out the Land of Canaan

¹⁹ The Lord our God commanded us to start out from Mount Horeb. So we did. We went toward the hill country of the Amorites. We traveled all through the huge and terrible desert you saw. Finally, we reached Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰ Then I said to you, “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites. The Lord our God is giving it to us. ²¹ The Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take it. Do what the Lord says. He’s the God of your people. Don’t be afraid. Don’t lose hope.”

²² Then all of you came to me. You said, “Let’s send some men ahead of us. They can check out the land for us and bring back a report. They can suggest to us which way to go. They can tell us about the towns we’ll come to.”

²³ That seemed like a good idea to me. So I chose 12 of you. I picked one man from each tribe. ²⁴ They left and went up into the hill country. There they came to the Valley of Eshkol. They checked it out. ²⁵ They got some of the fruit of that land. Then they brought it down to us and gave us their report. They said, “The Lord our God is giving us a good land.”

Israel Refuses to Obey the Lord

²⁶ But you wouldn’t go up. You refused to obey the command of the Lord your God. ²⁷ You spoke against him in your tents. You said, “The Lord hates us. That’s why he brought us out of Egypt to hand us over to the Amorites. He wanted to destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go? The men who checked out the land have made us afraid. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are. The cities are large. They have walls that reach up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.’ ”

²⁹ Then I said to you, “Don’t be terrified. Don’t be afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God will go ahead of you. He will fight for you. With your own eyes you saw how he fought for you in Egypt. ³¹ You also saw how the Lord your God brought you through the desert. He carried you everywhere you went, just as a father carries his son. And now you have arrived here.”

³² In spite of that, you didn’t trust in the Lord your God. ³³ He went ahead of you on your journey. He was in the fire at night and in the cloud during the day. He found places for you to camp. He showed you the way you should go.

³⁴ The Lord heard what you said. So he became angry. He made a promise. He said, ³⁵ “I promised to give this good land to your people of long ago. But no one alive today will see it. ³⁶ Only Caleb will see the land. He is the son of Jephunneh. I will give him and his children after him the land he walked on. He followed me with his whole heart.”

³⁷ Because of you, the Lord became angry with me also. He said, “You will not enter the land either. ³⁸ But Joshua, the son of Nun, is your helper. Joshua will enter the land. Help him to be brave. Give him hope. He will lead Israel to take the land as their own. ³⁹ You said your little ones would be taken prisoner. But they will enter the land. They do not yet know right from wrong. But I will give them the land. They will take it as their own. ⁴⁰ As for you, turn around. Start out toward the desert. Go along the road that leads to the Red Sea.”

⁴¹ Then you replied, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight. We’ll do just as the Lord our God has commanded us.” So all of you got your swords and put them on. You thought it would be easy to go up into the hill country.

⁴² But the Lord spoke to me. He said, “Tell them, ‘Do not go up and fight. I will not be with you. Your enemies will win the battle over you.’ ”

⁴³ So I told you what the Lord said. But you wouldn’t listen. You refused to obey his command. You were so filled with pride that you marched up into the hill country. ⁴⁴ The Amorites who lived in those hills came out and attacked you. Like large numbers of bees they chased you. They beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah. ⁴⁵ You came back and wept in front of the Lord. But he didn’t pay any attention to your weeping. He wouldn’t listen to you. ⁴⁶ So you stayed in Kadesh for many years. You spent a long time in that area.

Israel Wanders in the Desert

2 We turned back and started out toward the desert. We went along the road that leads to the Red Sea. That’s how the Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir.

² Then the Lord spoke to me. He said, ³ “You have made your way around this hill country long enough. So now turn north. ⁴ Here are the orders I want you to give the people. Tell them, ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives. They are from the family line of Esau. They live in Seir. They will be afraid of you. But be very careful. ⁵ Do not make them angry. If you do, they will go to war against you. I will not give you any of their land. You will not have even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau’s people the hill country of Seir as their own. ⁶ Pay them with silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’ ”

⁷ The Lord your God has blessed you in everything your hands have done. He watched over you when you traveled through that huge desert. For these 40 years the Lord your God has been with you. So you have had everything you need.

⁸ We went on past our relatives. They are from the family line of Esau. They live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah Valley road. It comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber. We traveled along the desert road of Moab.

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, “Do not attack the Moabites. Do not even make them angry. If you do, they will go to war against you. I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Moab to the people in the family line of Lot. I have given it to them as their own.”

¹⁰ The Emites used to live there. They were strong people. There were large numbers of them. They were as tall as the Anakites. ¹¹ Like the Anakites, they too were thought of as Rephaites. But the Moabites called them Emites. ¹² The Horites used to live in Seir. But the people of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites to make room for themselves. Then they settled in their territory. They did just as Israel has done in the land the Lord gave them as their own.

¹³ The Lord said, “Now get up. Go across the Zered Valley.” So we went across it.

¹⁴ Between the time we left Kadesh Barnea and the time we went across the Zered Valley, 38 years had passed. By then, all the fighting men who had been in our camp from the beginning had died. The Lord had warned them that it would happen. ¹⁵ He used his power against them until he had gotten rid of all of them. Not one was left in the camp.

¹⁶ Finally, the last of the fighting men among the people died. ¹⁷ Then the Lord said to me, ¹⁸ “Today you must pass near the border of Moab. Moab is also called Ar. ¹⁹ When you come to the Ammonites, do not attack them. Do not make them angry. If you do, they will go to war against you. I will not give you any of their land as your own. I have given it to the people in the family line of Lot. I have given it to them as their own.”

²⁰ That land was also thought of as a land of the Rephaites. They used to live there. But the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. ²¹ The Rephaites were strong people. There were large numbers of them. They were as tall as the Anakites. The Lord destroyed the Rephaites to make room for the Ammonites. So the Ammonites drove them out. Then they settled in the territory of the Rephaites. ²² The Lord had done the same thing for the people of Esau. They lived in Seir. The Lord destroyed the Horites to make room for Esau’s people. They drove the Horites out. So the people of Esau have lived in Seir in the territory of the Horites to this very day. ²³ The Avvites lived in villages as far away as Gaza. But people came from Crete and destroyed the Avvites. Then the people of Crete made their home in the territory of the Avvites.

Israel Wins the Battle Over Sihon

²⁴ The Lord said, “Start out and go across the valley of the Arnon River. I have handed Sihon over to you. He is the Amorite king of Heshbon. I have also given you his country. Begin to take it as your own. Go to war against him. ²⁵ This very day I will bring fear and terror on all the nations because of you. They will hear about you. They will tremble with fear. Pain and suffering will grip them because of you.”

²⁶ I sent messengers from the Desert of Kedemoth. I told them to go to Sihon, the king of Heshbon. They offered him peace. They said, ²⁷ “Let us pass through your country. We’ll stay on the main road. We won’t turn off it to one side or the other. ²⁸ We’ll pay you the right amount of silver for food to eat and water to drink. Just let us walk through your country. ²⁹ The people of Esau, who live in Seir, allowed us to do that. The people of Moab, who live in Ar, also allowed us to do it. So let us walk through until we go across the Jordan River. Then we’ll be able to go into the land the Lord our God is giving us.” ³⁰ But Sihon, the king of Heshbon, refused to let us walk through. The Lord your God had made him stubborn in his heart and spirit. The Lord wanted to hand him over to you. And that’s exactly what he has done.

³¹ The Lord said to me, “I have begun to hand Sihon and his country over to you. So begin the battle to take his land as your own.”

³² Sihon and his whole army came out to fight against us at Jahaz. ³³ But the Lord our God handed him over to us. We struck him down together with his sons and his whole army. ³⁴ At that time we took all his towns. We completely destroyed them. We killed all the men, women and children. We didn’t leave any of them alive. ³⁵ But we took for ourselves the livestock and everything else from the towns we had captured. ³⁶ Not a single town was too strong for us. That includes all the towns from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon River valley all the way to Gilead. It also includes the town in the valley. The Lord our God gave us all of them. ³⁷ And you obeyed the Lord’s command. You didn’t go near any part of the land of the Ammonites. That includes the land along the Jabbok River. It also includes the land around the towns in the hills.

Israel Wins the Battle Over Og

3 Next, we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan. Og marched out with his whole army. They fought against us at Edrei. Og was the king of Bashan. ² The Lord said to me, “Do not be afraid of Og. I have handed him over to you. I have also handed over his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon. Sihon was the Amorite king who ruled in Heshbon.”

³ So the Lord our God also handed Og, the king of Bashan, and his whole army over to us. We struck them down. We didn’t leave any of them alive. ⁴ At that time we took all his cities. There were 60 of them. We took the whole area of Argob. That was Og’s kingdom in Bashan. ⁵ All those cities had high walls around them. The city gates were made secure with heavy metal bars. There were also large numbers of villages that didn’t have walls. ⁶ We completely destroyed them. We did to them just as we had done to Sihon, the king of Heshbon. We destroyed all their cities. We destroyed the men, women and children. ⁷ But we kept for ourselves the livestock and everything else we took from their cities.

⁸ So at that time we took the territory east of the Jordan River. We captured it from those two Amorite kings. The territory goes all the way from the Arnon River valley to Mount Hermon. ⁹ Hermon is called Sirion by the people of Sidon. The Amorites call it Senir. ¹⁰ We captured all the towns on the high plains. We took the whole land of Gilead. And we captured the whole land of Bashan as far away as Salekah and Edrei. Those were towns that belonged to Og’s kingdom in Bashan. ¹¹ Og, the king of Bashan, was the only Rephaite left. His bed was decorated with iron. It was more than 13 feet long and six feet wide. It is still in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.

Moses Divides Up the Land

¹² I divided up the land we took over at that time. I gave the tribes of Reuben and Gad the territory north of Aroer by the Arnon River valley. It includes half of the hill country of Gilead together with its towns. ¹³ I gave the rest of Gilead to half of the tribe of Manasseh. I also gave them the whole land of Bashan, the kingdom of Og. The whole area of Argob in Bashan used to be known as a land of the Rephaites. ¹⁴ Jair took the whole area of Argob. He was from the family line of Manasseh. Argob goes all the way to the border of the people of Geshur and Maakah. It was named after Jair. So Bashan is called Havvoth Jair to this very day. ¹⁵ I gave Gilead to Makir. ¹⁶ But I gave to the tribes of Reuben and Gad the territory that reaches from Gilead down to the Arnon River valley. It goes all the way to the Jabbok River. The Jabbok is the northern border of Ammon. The middle of the Arnon River valley is its southern border. ¹⁷ The western border of Reuben and Gad is the Jordan River in the Arabah Valley. It reaches from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. It runs below the slopes of Pisgah.

¹⁸ Here is the command I gave at that time to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh. I said, “The Lord your God has given you this land as your very own. But all your strong men must be prepared for battle. They must cross over ahead of the rest of the Israelites. ¹⁹ But your wives and children can stay in the towns I’ve given you. You can keep your livestock there too. I know you have a lot of livestock. ²⁰ The Lord has given you peace and rest. Then let your families and livestock stay in those towns until the Lord gives peace and rest to the other tribes. And let your families stay until the other tribes have taken over the land the Lord your God is giving them. That land is across the Jordan River. After that, each of you may go back to the land I’ve given you as your very own.”

The Lord Will Not Allow Moses to Cross the Jordan River

²¹ At that time I gave Joshua a command. I said, “Your own eyes have seen everything the Lord your God has done to Sihon and Og. He will do the same thing to all the kingdoms in the land where you are going. ²² Don’t be afraid of them. The Lord your God himself will fight for you.”

²³ At that time I made my appeal to the Lord. I said, ²⁴ “Lord and King, you have begun to show me how great you are. You have shown me how strong your hand is. You do great works and mighty acts. There isn’t any god in heaven or on earth who can do what you do. ²⁵ Let me go across the Jordan River. Let me see the good land beyond it. I want to see that fine hill country and Lebanon.”

²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me because of what you did. He wouldn’t listen to me. “That is enough!” the Lord said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter. ²⁷ Go up to the highest slopes of Pisgah. Look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes. But you are not going to go across this Jordan River. ²⁸ So appoint Joshua as the new leader. Help him to be brave. Give him hope and strength. He will take these people across the Jordan. You will see the land. But he will lead them into it to take it as their own.” ²⁹ So we stayed in the valley near Beth Peor.