Deuteronomy 1:11-21

English Standard Version

¹¹^(A)May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, ^(B)as he has promised you! ¹²^(C)How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? ¹³^(D)Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ ¹⁴And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ ¹⁵So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, ^(E)and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. ¹⁶And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and ^(F)judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. ¹⁷^(G)You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for ^(H)the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall ^(I)bring to me, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

Israel's Refusal to Enter the Land

¹⁹“Then we set out from Horeb and ^(J)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 ^(K)we came to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹See, 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. ^(L)Do not fear or be dismayed.’