Deuteronomy 1-2 (Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition)

Deuteronomy 1

 ¹These are the words, which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the plain wilderness, over against the Red Sea, between Pharan and Thophel and Laban and Haseroth, where there is very much gold:

    ²Eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Cadesbarne.

    ³In the fortieth year, the eleventh month, the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel all that the Lord had commanded him to say to them:

    ⁴After that he had slain Sehon king of the Amorrhites, who dwelt in Hesebon: and Og king of Basan who abode in Astaroth, and in Edrai,

    ⁴4l And you answered me: We have sinned against the Lord: we will go up and fight, as the Lord our God hath commanded. And when you went ready armed unto the mountain,

    ⁵Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab. And Moses began to expound the law, and to say:

    ⁶The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: You have stayed long enough in this mountain:

    ⁷Turn you, and come to the mountain of the Amorrhites, and to the other places that are next to it, the plains and the hills and the vales towards the south, and by the sea shore, the land of the Chanaanites, and of Libanus, as far as the great river Euphrates.

    ⁸Behold, said he, I have delivered it to you: go in and possess it, concerning which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to them, and to their seed after them.

    ⁹And I said to you at that time:

    ¹⁰I alone am not able to bear you: for the Lord your God hath multiplied you, and you are this day as the stars of heaven, for multitude.

    ¹¹(The Lord God of your fathers add to this number many thousands, and bless you as he hath spoken.)

    ¹²I alone am not able to bear your business, and the charge of you and your differences.

    ¹³Let me have from among you wise and understanding men, and such whose conversation is approved among your tribes, that I may appoint them your rulers.

    ¹⁴Then you answered me: The thing is good which thou meanest to do.

    ¹⁵And I took out of your tribes men wise and honourable, and appointed them rulers, tribunes, and centurions, and officers over fifties, and over tens, who might teach you all things.

    ¹⁶And I commanded them, saying: Hear them, and judge that which is just: whether he be one of your country, or a stranger.

    ¹⁷There shall be no difference of persons, you shall hear the little as well as the great: neither shall you respect any man's person, because it is the judgment of God. And if any thing seem hard to you, refer it to me, and I will hear it.

    ¹⁸And I commanded you all things that you were to do.

    ¹⁹And departing from Horeb, we passed through the terrible and vast wilderness, which you saw, by the way of the mountain of the Amorrhite, as the Lord our God had commanded us. And when we were come into Cadesbarne,

    ²⁰I said to you: You are come to the mountain of the Amorrhite, which the Lord our God will give to us.

    ²¹See the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord our God hath spoken to thy fathers: fear not, nor be any way discouraged.

    ²²And you came all to me, and said: Let us send men who may view the land, and bring us word what way we shall go up, and to what cities we shall go.

    ²³And because the saying pleased me, I sent of you twelve men, one of every tribe:

    ²⁴Who, when they had set forward and had gone up to the mountains, came as far as the valley of the cluster: and having viewed the land,

    ²⁵Taking of the fruits thereof, to shew its fertility, they brought them to us, and said: The land is good, which the Lord our God will give us.

    ²⁶And you would not go up, but being incredulous to the word of the Lord our God,

    ²⁷You murmured in your tents, and said: The Lord hateth us, and therefore he hath brought us out of the land of Egypt, that he might deliver us into the hand of the Amorrhite, and destroy us.

    ²⁸Whither shall we go up? the messengers have terrified our hearts, saying: The multitude is very great, and taller than we: the cities are great, and walled up td the sky, we have seen the sons of the Enacims there.

    ²⁹And I said to you: Fear not, neither be ye afraid of them:

    ³⁰The Lord God, who is your leader, himself will fight for you, as he did in Egypt in the sight of all.

    ³¹And in the wilderness (as thou hast seen) the Lord thy God hath carried thee, as a man is wont to carry his little son, all the way that you have come, until you came to this place.

    ³²And yet for all this you did not believe the Lord your God,

    ³³Who went before you in the way, and marked out the place, wherein you should pitch your tents, in the night shewing you the way by fire, and in the day by the pillar of a cloud.

    ³⁴And when the Lord had heard the voice of your words, he was angry and swore, and said:

    ³⁵Not one of the men of this wicked generation shall see the good land, which I promised with an oath to your fathers:

    ³⁶Except Caleb the son of Jephone: for he shall see it, and to him I will give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath followed the Lord.

    ³⁷Neither is his indignation against the people to be wondered at, since the Lord was angry with me also on your account, and said: Neither shalt thou go in thither.

    ³⁸But Josue the son of Nun, thy minister, he shall go in for thee: exhort and encourage him, and he shall divide the land by lot to Israel.

    ³⁹Your children, of whom you said that they should be led away captives, and your sons who know not this day the difference of good and evil, they shall go in: and to them I will give the land, and they shall possess it.

    ⁴⁰But return you and go into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

    ⁴²The Lord said to me: Say to them: Go not up, and fight not, for I am not with you: lest you fall before your enemies.

    ⁴³I spoke, and you hearkened not: but resisting the commandment of the Lord, and swelling with pride, you went up into the mountain.

    ⁴⁴And the Amorrhite that dwelt in the mountains coming out, and meeting you, chased you, as bees do: and made slaughter of you from Seir as far as Horma.

    ⁴⁵And when you returned and wept before the Lord, he heard you not, neither would he yield to ;your voice.

    ⁴⁶So you abode in Cadesbarne a long time.

   

Deuteronomy 2

 ¹And departing from thence we came into the wilderness that leadeth to the Red Sea, as the Lord had spoken to me: and we compassed mount Seir a long time.

    ²And the Lord said to me:

    ³You have compassed this mountain long enough: go toward the north:

    ⁴And command thou the people, saying: You shall pass by the borders of your brethren the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, and they will be afraid of you.

    ⁵Take ye then good heed that you stir not against them. For I will not give you of their land so much as the step of one foot can tread upon, because I have given mount Seir to Esau, for a possession.

    ⁶You shall buy meats of them for money and shall eat: you shall draw waters for money, and shall drink.

    ⁷The Lord thy God hath blessed thee in every work of thy hands: the Lord thy God dwelling with thee, knoweth thy journey, how thou hast passed through this great wilderness, for forty years, and thou hast wanted nothing.

    ⁸And when we had passed by our brethren the children of Esau, that dwelt in Seir, by the way of the plain from Elath and from Asiongaber, we came to the way that leadeth to the desert of Moab.

    ⁹And the Lord said to me: Fight not against the Moabites, neither go to battle against them: for I will not give thee any of their land, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot in possession.

    ¹⁰The Emims first were the inhabitants thereof, a people great, and strong, and so tall, that like the race of the Enacims,

    ¹¹They were esteemed as giants, and were like the sons of the Enacims. But the Moabites call them Emims.

    ¹²The Horrhites also formerly dwelt in Seir: who being driven out and destroyed, the children of Esau dwelt there, as Israel did in the land of his possession, which the Lord gave him.

    ¹³Then rising up to pass the torrent Zared, we came to it.

    ¹⁴And the time that we journeyed from Cadesbarne till we passed over the torrent Zared, was thirty-eight years: until all the generation of the men that were fit for war was consumed out of the camp, as the Lord had sworn:

    ¹⁵For his hand was against them, that they should perish from the midst of the camp.

    ¹⁶And after all the fighting men were dead,

    ¹⁷The Lord spoke to me, saying:

    ¹⁸Thou shalt pass this day the borders of Moab, the city named Ar:

    ¹⁹And when thou comest nigh the frontiers of the children of Ammon, take heed thou fight not against them, nor once move to battle: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon, because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.

    ²⁰It was accounted a land of giants: and giants formerly dwelt in it, whom the Ammonites call Zomzommims,

    ²¹A people great and many, and of tall stature, like the Enacims whom the Lord destroyed before their face: and he made them to dwell in their stead,

    ²²As he had done in favour of the children of Esau, that dwell in Seir, destroying the Horrhites, and delivering their land to them, which they possess to this day.

    ²³The Hevites also, that dwelt in Haserim as far as Gaza, were expelled by the Cappadocians: who came out of Cappadocia, and destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.

    ²⁴Arise ye, and pass the torrent Arnon: Behold I have delivered into thy hand Sehon king of Hesebon the Amorrhite, and begin thou to possess his land and make war against him.

    ²⁵This day will I begin to send the dread and fear of thee upon the nations that dwell under the whole heaven: that when they hear thy name they may fear and tremble, and be in pain like women in travail.

    ²⁶So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Cademoth to Sehon the king of Hesebon with peaceable words, saying:

    ²⁷We will pass through thy land, we will go along by the highway: we will not turn aside neither to the right hand nor to the left.

    ²⁸Sell us meat for money, that we may eat: give us water for money and so we will drink. We only ask that thou wilt let us pass through,

    ²⁹As the children of Esau have done, that dwell in Seir, and the Moabites, that abide in Ar: until we come to the Jordan, and pass to the land which the Lord our God will give us.

    ³⁰And Sehon the king of Hesebon would not let us pass: because the Lord thy God had hardened his spirit, and fixed his heart, that he might be delivered into thy hands, as now thou seest.

    ³¹And the Lord said to me: Behold I have begun to deliver unto thee Sehon and his land, begin to possess it.

    ³²And Sehon came out to meet us with all his people to fight at Jasa.

    ³³And the Lord our God delivered him to us: and we slew him with his sons and all his people.

    ³⁴And we took all his cities at that time, killing the inhabitants of them, men and women and children. We left nothing of them:

    ³⁵Except the cattle which came to the share of them that took them: and the spoils of the cities, which we took:

    ³⁶From Aroer, which is upon the bank of the torrent Amen, a town that is situate in a valley, as far as Galaad. There was not a village or city, that escaped our hands: the Lord our God delivered all unto us:

    ³⁷Except the land of the children of Ammon, to which we approached not: and all that border upon the torrent Jeboc, and the cities in the mountains, and all the places which the Lord our God forbade us.