-
The Appointment of Leaders
At that time I said to you, “You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone.
-
Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.”
-
You answered me, “What you propose to do is good.”
-
So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials.
-
Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.”
-
Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.”
-
The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe.
-
Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.’”
-
Because of you the Lord became angry with me also and said, “You shall not enter it, either.
-
But the Lord said to me, “Tell them, ‘Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.’”
-
Wanderings in the Wilderness
Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir.
-
Then the Lord said to me,
-
So we went on past our relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber, and traveled along the desert road of Moab.
-
Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.”
-
Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.
-
Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died,
-
the Lord said to me,
-
When you come to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to war, for I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.”
-
From the Desert of Kedemoth I sent messengers to Sihon king of Heshbon offering peace and saying,
-
The Lord said to me, “See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his country over to you. Now begin to conquer and possess his land.”
-
When Sihon and all his army came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz,
-
At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them—men, women and children. We left no survivors.
-
Defeat of Og King of Bashan
Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei.
-
The Lord said to me, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your hands, along with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.”
-
We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city—men, women and children.
