Beginning

The Command to Leave Horeb

1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. ² (It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.)

³ In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them. ⁴ It was after he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived at Ashtaroth in Edrei.

⁵ Across the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying: ⁶ The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, “You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Turn, and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors, in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the Negev and by the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.”

Leaders Appointed

⁹ I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you by myself. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has multiplied you, and surely you are this day as numerous as the stars of heaven. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times more numerous and bless you, just as He has promised you! ¹² How can I myself bear your load and your burden and your strife? ¹³ Choose wise, discerning, and knowing men, among your tribes, and I will appoint them as leaders over you.”

¹⁴ You answered me, and said, “The thing which you have said is good for us to do.”

¹⁵ So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and well-known men, and appointed them as leaders over you, leaders over thousands, and leaders over hundreds, and leaders over fifties, and leaders over tens, and officers among your tribes. ¹⁶ I charged your judges at that time, saying, “Hear the issues between your countrymen, and judge righteously between every man and his fellow countryman, and the foreigner that is with him. ¹⁷ You shall not show partiality in judgment, but you shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring it to me, and I will hear it.” ¹⁸ At that time, I commanded you all the things you should do.

Israel Sends Spies

¹⁹ When we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us, and we came to Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰ I said to you, “You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving to us. ²¹ See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and possess it, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, spoke to you. Do not fear or be discouraged.”

²² So all of you came near to me and said, “Let us send men before us, so that they shall scout out the land, and bring back to us word concerning what way we should go up and into what cities we shall come.”

²³ The thing pleased me, and I took twelve men from you, one out of each tribe. ²⁴ They turned and went up into the hill country and came to the Valley of Eshkol and scouted it out. ²⁵ They took the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, “It is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us.”

Israel Rebels

²⁶ Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God. ²⁷ You murmured in your tents, and said, “Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. ²⁸ Where shall we go up? Our brothers have discouraged our hearts, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and walled up to heaven. And moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakites there.’ ”

²⁹ Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God who goes before you, He shall fight for you, just as all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.”

³² Yet in this thing you did not believe the Lord your God, ³³ who went in the way before you, to find you a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

³⁴ The Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and vowed, saying, ³⁵ “Not one of these men of this evil generation will see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers. ³⁶ The exception will be Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him I will give the land upon which he has walked, and to his children, because he has wholly followed the Lord.”

³⁷ Also the Lord was angry with me on your account, saying, “You also shall not go in. ³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in. Encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹ Moreover, your little ones, who you said would be a prey, and your children, who in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in, and to them will I give it, and they shall possess it. ⁴⁰ But as for you, turn around, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

⁴¹ Then you answered and said to me, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.” So each of you girded on his weapons of war and you thought it easy to go up into the hill country.

⁴² Then the Lord said to me, “Tell them, ‘Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ ”

⁴³ So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead, you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord and went presumptuously up into the hill country. ⁴⁴ The Amorites, who lived in the hill country, came out against you, and chased you as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir as far as Hormah. ⁴⁵ Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would neither listen to your voice nor give ear to you. ⁴⁶ So you dwelt in Kadesh many days, according to the days you dwelt there.

The Wilderness Years

2 Then we turned, and set out toward the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we circled Mount Seir for many days.

² Then the Lord spoke to me, saying, ³ “You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north. ⁴ Command the people, saying: You are to pass through the territory of your brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, and they shall be afraid of you. So carefully watch yourselves. ⁵ Do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as a footprint, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession. ⁶ You may buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you may also buy water from them with money so that you may drink.

⁷ “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the works of your hands. He knows your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”

⁸ So we passed by our brothers, the children of Esau, who lived in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath and from Ezion Geber, and we turned and passed by the way of the Wilderness of Moab.

⁹ The Lord said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot as a possession.”

¹⁰ (The Emites lived there in times past, a people as great and as many and as tall as the Anakites. ¹¹ These people, as well as the Anakites, also were regarded as giants,^[a] but the Moabites call them Emites. ¹² The Horites also formerly lived in Seir, but the children of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them, and settled there in their place, just as Israel did to the land of its possession, which the Lord gave to them.)

¹³ “Cross over the Zered Valley.” So we went over the Zered Valley.

¹⁴ Now the length of time it took for us to come to Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war perished from among the army, just as the Lord swore to them. ¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from among their midst, until they were gone.

¹⁶ So it came to pass, when all the men of war were gone and dead from among the people, ¹⁷ then the Lord spoke to me, saying, ¹⁸ “Today, you are to pass over through Ar, the border of Moab. ¹⁹ When you come close to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the Ammonites as a possession, because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.”

²⁰ (That also is considered the land of giants. Giants formerly lived there, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummites. ²¹ They were a great people, as numerous and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites. Then they dispossessed them and lived in their place, ²² just as He had done for the children of Esau, who lived in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them, and they dispossessed them, and lived in their place even to this day. ²³ And the Avvites, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and lived in their place.)

King Sihon Defeated

²⁴ “Arise, set out, and cross the River Arnon. See, I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand. Begin to possess it and contend with him in battle. ²⁵ This day I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of you.”

²⁶ I sent messengers out of the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, ²⁷ “Let me pass through your land. I will only go on the main road. I will not turn aside to the right or the left. ²⁸ You shall sell me food for money so that I may eat, and give me water for money so that I may drink, only allow me to pass through on foot, ²⁹ just as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I pass over the Jordan into the land which the Lord our God is giving us.” ³⁰ But Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, so that He might deliver him into your hand as he is to this day.

³¹ The Lord said to me, “See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land to you. Begin to possess it, so that you may inherit his land.”

³² Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. ³³ Then the Lord our God delivered him over to us, and we struck him down with his sons and all his people. ³⁴ We took all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed the men, the women, and the children of every city. We left no survivors. ³⁵ We took only the livestock for plunder and the spoils of the cities which we took. ³⁶ From Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley, all the way to Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us. The Lord our God delivered all to us. ³⁷ Only you did not come near the land of the Ammonites, nor to any place on the River Jabbok, nor to the cities in the hill country, nor to any place the Lord our God had forbidden us.