Deuteronomy 1
Christian Standard Bible
Introduction
1 These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness,(A) in the Arabah(B) opposite Suph,[a] between Paran(C) and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth,(D) and Di-zahab. 2 It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb(E) to Kadesh-barnea(F) by way of Mount Seir.(G) 3 In the fortieth year,(H) in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses told the Israelites everything the Lord had commanded him to say to them. 4 This was after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.(I) 5 Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying:
Departure from Horeb
6 “The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb: ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. 7 Resume your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites(J) and their neighbors in the Arabah, the hill country, the Judean foothills,[b] the Negev(K) and the sea coast—to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates River.(L) 8 See, I have set the land before you. Enter and take possession of the land(M) the Lord swore to give to your ancestors(N) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their future descendants.’(O)
Leaders for the Tribes
9 “I said to you at that time: I can’t bear the responsibility for you on my own. 10 The Lord your God has so multiplied you that today you are as numerous as the stars of the sky.(P) 11 May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times more, and bless you as he promised you. 12 But how can I bear your troubles, burdens, and disputes by myself? 13 Appoint for yourselves wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will make them your leaders.
14 “You replied to me, ‘What you propose to do is good.’
15 “So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and set them over you as leaders: commanders for thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and officers for your tribes. 16 I commanded your judges at that time: Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge rightly between a man and his brother or his resident alien. 17 Do not show partiality when deciding a case;(Q) listen to small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God.(R) Bring me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it. 18 At that time I commanded you about all the things you were to do.(S)
Israel’s Disobedience at Kadesh-barnea
19 “We then set out from Horeb and went across all the great and terrible wilderness you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us. When we reached Kadesh-barnea, 20 I said to you: You have reached 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 and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has told you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.
22 “Then(T) all of you approached me and said, ‘Let’s send men ahead of us, so that they may explore the land for us and bring us back a report about the route we should go up and the cities we will come to.’ 23 The plan seemed good to me, so I selected twelve men from among you, one man for each tribe. 24 They left and went up into the hill country and came to Eshcol Valley, scouting the land. 25 They took some of the fruit from the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us back a report: ‘The land the Lord our God is giving us is good.’(U)
26 “But you were not willing to go up. You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 You grumbled in your tents(V) and said, ‘The Lord brought us out of the land of Egypt to hand us over to the Amorites in order to destroy us, because he hates us. 28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart,[c](W) saying: The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, fortified to the heavens.(X) We also saw the descendants of the Anakim(Y) there.’
29 “So I said to you: Don’t be terrified or afraid of them!(Z) 30 The Lord your God who goes before you(AA) will fight for you,(AB) just as you saw him do for you in Egypt. 31 And you saw in the wilderness how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son all along the way you traveled until you reached this place. 32 But in spite of this you did not trust the Lord your God, 33 who went before you on the journey to seek out a place for you to camp. He went in the fire by night and in the cloud by day to guide you on the road you were to travel.
34 “When the Lord heard your[d] words, he grew angry and swore an oath: 35 ‘None of these men in this evil generation will see the good land I swore to give your ancestors,(AC) 36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land on which he has set foot, because he remained loyal to the Lord.’
37 “The Lord was angry with me also because of you and said, ‘You will not enter there either.(AD) 38 Joshua son of Nun, who attends you, will enter it. Encourage him, for he will enable Israel to inherit it.(AE) 39 Your children, who you said would be plunder, your sons who[e] don’t yet know good from evil, will enter there. I will give them the land, and they will take possession of it. 40 But you are to turn back and head for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.’(AF)
41 “You answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ Then each of you put on his weapons of war and thought it would be easy to go up into the hill country.
42 “But the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them: Don’t go up and fight, for I am not with you to keep you from being defeated by your enemies.’(AG) 43 So I spoke to you, but you didn’t listen. You rebelled against the Lord’s command and defiantly went up into the hill country. 44 Then the Amorites who lived there came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees. They routed you from Seir as far as Hormah.(AH) 45 When you returned, you wept before the Lord, but he didn’t listen to your requests or pay attention to you. 46 For this reason you stayed in Kadesh as long as you did.[f]
Deuteronomy 1
Lexham English Bible
Preamble
1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel on the other side of[a] the Jordan in the desert,[b] in the desert plateau[c] opposite Suph, between Paran and between Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 It is a journey of eleven days[d] from Herob by the way of Mount Seir[e] up to Kadesh Barnea.
3 And it was[f] in the fortieth year, on the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the Israelites[g] according to all that Yahweh had instructed him to speak to them. 4 This happened after defeating[h] Sihon king of the Amorites, who was reigning[i] in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who was reigning[j] in Ashtaroth in Edrei. 5 On the other side of [k] the Jordan in the land of Moab Moses began to explain this law,[l] saying:[m]
Historical Prologue
6 “Yahweh our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying,[n] ‘You have stayed long enough[o] at this mountain. 7 Turn now and move on,[p] and go into the hill of the Amorites[q] and to all of the neighboring regions[r] in the Jordan Valley[s] in the hill country and in the Negev and in the coastal area along the sea, into the land of the Canaanites[t] and into the Lebanon, as far as the great river Euphrates. 8 Look, I have set the land before you;[u] go and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors,[v] to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give it to them and to their offspring after them.’
9 “And I spoke to them at that time, saying,[w] ‘I am not able to bear you alone. 10 Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and look; you are today as the stars of the heaven in number.[x] 11 Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,[y] may he add to you as you are now a thousand times, and may he bless you just as he promised you.[z] 12 How can I bear you by myself,[aa] your burden and your load and your strife? 13 Choose for yourselves wise and discerning and knowledgeable men[ab] for each of your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders.’
14 “And you answered me, and you said, ‘The thing you have said to do is good.’ 15 And so I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and then I appointed them as leaders over you as commanders of groups of thousands and commanders of groups of hundreds and commanders of groups of fifties and commanders of groups of tens as officials for your tribes. 16 And at that time I instructed your judges, saying, ‘hear out your fellow men,[ac] and then judge fairly[ad] between a man and between his brother and between his opponent who is a resident alien.[ae] 17 You must not be partial[af] in your judgment; [ag] hear out the small person as also the great person; do not be intimidated by any person,[ah] because the judgment is God’s; and the case that is too difficult[ai] for you, bring it to me, and I will hear it out.’ 18 And so I instructed you at that time concerning all of the things that you should do.
19 “Then we set out from Horeb, and we went through the whole of that great and terrible desert that you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites[aj] as Yahweh our God had commanded us, and so we came up to Kadesh Barnea. 20 I said to you, ‘You have reached[ak] the hill country of the Amorites[al] that Yahweh our God is giving to us. 21 See, Yahweh your God has set before you the land; go up and possess it as Yahweh the God of your ancestors[am] said to you; do not fear and do not be dismayed.’
22 “Then all of you approached me, and you said, ‘Let us send men before us,[an] and let them explore the land for us, and let them bring back a report[ao] to us concerning the way that we should take[ap] and concerning the cities that we shall come to.’ 23 The plan was good in my opinion,[aq] and so I took from among you twelve men, one from each tribe.[ar] 24 And they set out[as] and went up into the hill country,[at] and they went up to the wadi[au] of Eschol, and they spied out the land. 25 They took in their hands[av] some of the fruit[aw] of the land, and they brought it down to us, and they brought to us back a report,[ax] and they said, ‘The land that Yahweh our God is giving to us is good.’ 26 But you were not willing to go up, and you rebelled against the command[ay] of Yahweh your God. 27 And you grumbled in your tents, and you said, ‘Because of the hatred of Yahweh toward us he has brought us out from the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites[az] to destroy us. 28 Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt,[ba] saying,[bb] “The people are greater[bc] and taller than we are,[bd] and there are great fortified cities reaching up to heaven, and we saw the sons of the Anakites living there.”’
29 “And so I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, and do not fear them. 30 Yahweh your God, who is going before you,[be] will himself[bf] fight for you, just as[bg] he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and just as he did in the wilderness[bh] when[bi] you saw that[bj] Yahweh your God carried you, just as someone[bk] carries his son, all along the way that you traveled until you reached[bl] this place.’ 32 But through all of this you did not trust in Yahweh your God, 33 who goes[bm] before you[bn] on your[bo] way, seeking a place for your encampment, in fire at night and in a cloud by day, to show you the way that you should go.[bp]
34 “Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and he was angry, and he swore, saying,[bq] 35 ‘No one of these men[br] of this evil generation will see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors,[bs] 36 except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh; he himself[bt] shall see it, and to him I will give the land upon which he has trodden and to his sons[bu] because he followed Yahweh unreservedly.’[bv] 37 Even with me Yahweh was angry because of you, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there. 38 Joshua, the son of Nun, your assistant,[bw] will go there; encourage him because he will cause Israel to inherit it. 39 And your little children, who you thought shall become plunder, and your sons, who do not today know good or bad, shall themselves[bx] go there, and I will give it to them, and they shall take possession of it. 40 But you turn and set out in the direction of the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.’[by]
41 “You replied and said to me, ‘We have sinned against Yahweh, and now we will go up and fight according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us’; and so each man fastened on his battle gear,[bz] and you regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country. 42 So Yahweh said to me, ‘Say to them, “You shall not go up, and you shall not fight because I am not in your midst; you will be defeated before[ca] your enemies.”’ 43 So I spoke to you, but you did not listen; you rebelled against the command of Yahweh;[cb] you behaved presumptuously, and you went up into the hill country. 44 The Amorites living in the hill country went out to oppose you[cc] and chased you as a swarm of wild honey bees do; and so they beat[cd] you down in Seir as far as Hormah. 45 So you returned and wept before Yahweh;[ce] but Yahweh did not listen to your voice and did not pay any attention to you. 46 You stayed in Kadesh many days; such were the days that you stayed there.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 1:1 Literally “in the beyond of”
- Deuteronomy 1:1 Or “the wilderness”
- Deuteronomy 1:1 Or “desert plain”; others render this as a named location, “Arabah”
- Deuteronomy 1:2 Literally “one and ten days”
- Deuteronomy 1:2 Literally “by the mountain of Seir”
- Deuteronomy 1:3 Literally “and it happened” or “and then”
- Deuteronomy 1:3 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Deuteronomy 1:4 Literally “after he had struck down”
- Deuteronomy 1:4 Or “dwelling,” and in this context “reigning”
- Deuteronomy 1:4 Or “dwelling,” and in this context “reigning”
- Deuteronomy 1:5 Literally “in the beyond of”
- Deuteronomy 1:5 Hebrew torah
- Deuteronomy 1:5 Literally “to say”
- Deuteronomy 1:6 Literally “to say”
- Deuteronomy 1:6 Literally “much time”
- Deuteronomy 1:7 Literally “journey on with respect to yourselves” or “move yourselves out”
- Deuteronomy 1:7 Hebrew “Amorite”
- Deuteronomy 1:7 Or “peoples”
- Deuteronomy 1:7 Literally “Arabah,” arid stretches of land.
- Deuteronomy 1:7 Hebrew “Canaanite”
- Deuteronomy 1:8 Literally “before your face”
- Deuteronomy 1:8 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 1:9 Literally “to say”
- Deuteronomy 1:10 Literally “with respect to multitude/abundance”
- Deuteronomy 1:11 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 1:11 Literally “spoke to you”
- Deuteronomy 1:12 Literally “to me alone”
- Deuteronomy 1:13 Literally “men wise and discerning and knowledgeable”
- Deuteronomy 1:16 Literally “hear between your brothers,” with the idea of listening carefully in this context
- Deuteronomy 1:16 Or “righteously”
- Deuteronomy 1:16 Literally “between his resident alien/non-Israelite who dwells temporarily among Israel”
- Deuteronomy 1:17 Literally “recognize faces”
- Deuteronomy 1:17 Literally “in the process of rendering a judgment”
- Deuteronomy 1:17 Literally “do not fear before the faces of any man”
- Deuteronomy 1:17 Or “hard”
- Deuteronomy 1:19 Hebrew “Amorite”
- Deuteronomy 1:20 Literally “You have come up to”
- Deuteronomy 1:20 Hebrew “Amorite”
- Deuteronomy 1:21 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 1:22 Literally “before our faces” or “ahead of us”
- Deuteronomy 1:22 Literally “a word”
- Deuteronomy 1:22 Literally “we should go up by it”
- Deuteronomy 1:23 Literally “in my eyes”
- Deuteronomy 1:23 Literally “man one from the tribe”
- Deuteronomy 1:24 Literally “turned”
- Deuteronomy 1:24 Literally “went up toward the hill country mountain”
- Deuteronomy 1:24 A valley that is dry most of the year, but contains a stream during the rainy season
- Deuteronomy 1:25 Hebrew “hand”
- Deuteronomy 1:25 Literally “from the fruit”
- Deuteronomy 1:25 Literally “a word”
- Deuteronomy 1:26 Literally “mouth”
- Deuteronomy 1:27 Hebrew “Amorite”
- Deuteronomy 1:28 Literally “caused to melt our hearts”
- Deuteronomy 1:28 Literally “to say”
- Deuteronomy 1:28 Or “bigger”
- Deuteronomy 1:28 Hebrew “than us”
- Deuteronomy 1:30 Literally “to your faces”
- Deuteronomy 1:30 The Hebrew pronoun indicates emphasis
- Deuteronomy 1:30 Literally “like all that”
- Deuteronomy 1:31 Or “desert”
- Deuteronomy 1:31 Or “where”
- Deuteronomy 1:31 Or “how”
- Deuteronomy 1:31 Or “a man”
- Deuteronomy 1:31 Literally “you came”
- Deuteronomy 1:33 Literally “is the one going”
- Deuteronomy 1:33 Literally “before your faces”
- Deuteronomy 1:33 Hebrew “the”
- Deuteronomy 1:33 Literally “you should go in it”
- Deuteronomy 1:34 Literally “to say”
- Deuteronomy 1:35 The beginning of an oath in Hebrew; the text emphatically denies anyone of that evil generation the privilege of seeing the promised land
- Deuteronomy 1:35 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 1:36 Emphatic use of the pronoun
- Deuteronomy 1:36 Or “descendants”
- Deuteronomy 1:36 Literally “he filled his hands after Yahweh”
- Deuteronomy 1:38 Literally “the one standing before you”
- Deuteronomy 1:39 The Hebrew pronoun is used for emphasis
- Deuteronomy 1:40 Literally “sea of reeds”
- Deuteronomy 1:41 Literally “his vessels of battle”
- Deuteronomy 1:42 Literally “in the faces of your enemies”
- Deuteronomy 1:43 Literally “mouth of Yahweh”
- Deuteronomy 1:44 Literally “to meet you”
- Deuteronomy 1:44 Literally “cut”
- Deuteronomy 1:45 Literally “before the faces of Yahweh”
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software