Beginning
Moses speaks to the people
1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all the Israelites.[a] They were together in the desert on the east side of the Jordan River. This is in the Jordan Valley near Suph. It is between the towns called Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 (It is a journey of 11 days from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea, along the road past Mount Seir.)[b] 3 Moses spoke to the Israelites on the first day of the 11th month, in the 40th year of their journey. He told the Israelites the message that the Lord had commanded him to speak.[c]
4 This happened after Moses and the Israelites had won against Sihon, king of the Amorites.[d] Sihon ruled in Heshbon. They had also won against Og, the king of Bashan, who ruled in Ashtaroth. The Israelites fought against him at Edrei. 5 Moses began to speak the Lord's message on the east side of the Jordan River, in Moab's country. This is what he said:
6 The Lord our God said to us at Sinai, ‘You have stayed for a long time near this mountain. 7 Now you must continue your journey. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the regions near there. Go to the Jordan Valley and the mountains and the low hills in the west. Go to the Negev in the south, and to the Mediterranean coast. Go to the land of Canaan and to Lebanon, even as far as the great Euphrates river. 8 Look! I have given you all this land. Go there and take it for yourselves. I, the Lord, promised to give this land to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their descendants.’
Moses chooses leaders
9 At that time I, Moses, said this to you: ‘I cannot lead you and help you by myself. It is too difficult for me to do alone. 10 The Lord your God has caused you to become very many people. You are as many as the stars in the sky! 11 I pray that the Lord, your ancestors' God, will cause you to become a thousand times as many people. That is how he has promised to bless you. 12 But I cannot help you with your troubles and arguments all by myself. 13 You must choose some wise men who understand what is right. Choose people that you know, from each of your tribes. Then I will give them authority as your leaders.’
14 You answered me, ‘That is a good idea!’
15 So I chose men that you knew were wise to be the leaders in your tribes. I gave them authority to rule over you. Some were leaders of groups of 1,000 men. Some led groups of 100 men, or 50 men, or ten men. I also chose other officers for each tribe.
16 At that time, I said to your leaders, ‘Listen to the arguments between the Israelites that you lead. Decide what is right. Do that when the argument is between two Israelites. Do the same thing when the argument is between an Israelite and a foreign person who lives among you. 17 When you judge them, do not make any difference between important people and poor people. Listen to all of them in a careful way. Do not be afraid of anyone. God is the one who decides what is right. If it is too difficult for you to decide who is right, bring it to me. I will listen and then I will decide what is right.’
18 So, at that time, I told you about everything that you should do.
Moses sends out men to explore
19 Then we left Sinai, as the Lord our God had commanded us to do. We travelled through the desert towards the hill country of the Amorites. You saw that the desert was very big and it made you very afraid. Finally, we arrived at Kadesh-Barnea. 20 Then I said to you, ‘You have reached the hill country of the Amorites. The Lord our God is giving this land to us. 21 Look at the land! It is now in front of you! The Lord your God has given it to you. Go in and take it for yourselves. The Lord, your ancestors' God, has told you to do this. So do not be afraid. Be brave!’
22 Then all of you came to me and you said, ‘Let us send some men into the land first, before we all go in. They can explore the land. Then they can bring a report to us. They can tell us the best way for us to go in there. They can tell us about the towns that we will come to.’
23 I thought that this was a good idea. I chose 12 men, one from each of your tribes. 24 They left and went up into the hill country. They came to Eshcol valley and they explored it. 25 They picked some of the fruit that they found there and they brought it back to us. They told us, ‘The land that the Lord our God is giving to us is a very good land.’
The people refuse to obey the Lord
26 But you refused to go into the land. You turned against the Lord your God.[e] 27 You complained to each other in your tents. You said, ‘The Lord hates us. That is why he brought us out of Egypt. He wanted to give us to the Amorites, so that they would kill us. 28 We do not know what will happen to us now. Our brothers who explored the land have made us afraid. They say, “Those people in Canaan are taller and stronger than we are. Their cities are big and strong. They have walls around them that reach up to the sky. We even saw some men there who are descendants of Anak.” ’
29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be so frightened of those people. 30 The Lord your God will go in front of you. He will fight to help you, as he fought for you in Egypt. You saw him do it. 31 He was also with you in the desert. He helped you when you were weak, as a father carries his son. You saw how he helped you all the way on your journey. He brought you safely here to this place.’
32 But you did not trust the Lord your God to help you. 33 He was the one who went in front of you on your journey. He was there in a fire during the night and in a cloud during the day. He found good places for you to put up your tents. He showed you the way that you should go.
34 When the Lord heard that you were complaining, he was angry. He made this serious promise: 35 ‘You people who are now alive are wicked. None of you will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors. 36 Only Jephunneh's son Caleb will see it. He has obeyed me faithfully. So I will give to him and to his descendants the land that he walked on.’
37 As for me, the Lord became angry with me also, because of you. He said to me, ‘You also will not go into the land.[f] 38 But your servant Joshua, the son of Nun, will go in there. You must tell him to be brave. He will lead the Israelites into the land. It will become their land. 39 You thought that enemies would catch your small children. But they are the people who will go into the land. Your children who are still too young to know the difference between good and bad will also go in there. I will give the land to them and it will become their land. 40 But now you must all turn back towards the desert. Travel along the road to the Red Sea.’
41 Then you answered me. You said, ‘Yes, we have done wrong things against the Lord. We will now go and fight those people. We will do what the Lord our God has told us to do.’ So then each one of you picked up his weapons. You thought that it would be easy to go up into the hill country.
42 But the Lord told me, ‘Do not let them go up there to fight. I will not be with you to help you. Your enemies will win against you.’
43 So I told you what the Lord had said, but you would not agree. Instead, you turned against the Lord. You were so proud that you marched up into the hill country. 44 The Amorite people who lived in those hills came out to attack you. You ran away from them, as if they were a crowd of bees. They attacked you as you ran down into the country of Edom, all the way to Hormah.
45 Then you came back to Kadesh-Barnea. You wept to show the Lord that you were very sorry. But he would not listen to your prayers. 46 So you stayed in Kadesh for a long time, until it was time to leave.
40 years in the desert
2 Then we turned back to travel towards the desert. We went along the road to the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me. For many days, we walked around the region of Mount Seir.[g]
2 Then the Lord said to me, 3 ‘You have walked round this mountain for a long time. Now turn to the north. 4 Give this message to the Israelites: “You will soon go through the country that belongs to Esau's descendants. They have the same ancestors that you have. They live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so be very careful.[h] 5 Do not attack them at all. I will not give any of their land to you, not even enough ground to put your foot on. I have given the hills around Mount Seir to Esau, for his descendants to live there. 6 When you eat their food and you drink their water, you must pay them for it. 7 I, the Lord your God, have blessed you in everything that you have done. I have taken care of you as you travelled through this great desert. I have been with you for 40 years. You have received everything that you needed.” ’
8 So we went on. We passed the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They have the same ancestors that we have. We left the road through the Jordan Valley that goes from Elath and Ezion-Geber. Instead, we travelled on the road through the Moab desert.
9 Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not make the people of Moab angry. Do not start a fight against them. I will not give any part of their land to you. I have given Ar to Lot's descendants to be their city.’[i]
10 (Some people called the Emites once lived there. There were many of them and they were as strong and tall as the Anakites. 11 Some people called the Emites and the Anakites, ‘Rephaites’. But the people from Moab called them ‘Emites’. 12 Before this time, the Horites lived in Seir, but the descendants of Esau chased them away. They destroyed the Horites and they lived in their country. The Israelites did the same thing to the people who had lived in the land that the Lord gave to them.)
13 Then the Lord said, ‘Get up now and cross the Zered valley.’ So we went across the stream.
14 38 years had passed since we left Kadesh-Barnea. By the time we crossed the Zered valley, all the men who had been old enough to fight had now died. The Lord had said that this would happen.[j] 15 The Lord himself removed them so that they all died, one by one.
16 Finally, the last one of these men died and no longer lived among the people. 17 Then the Lord said to me, 18 ‘Today you will cross the border of Moab at Ar. 19 You will go into the land of the Ammonites. Do not make them angry so that they fight against you. I will not give any of their land to you. I have already given it to Lot's descendants so that they can live there.’
20 (People also call this region the land of the Rephaites, who had once lived there. The Ammonites called them Zamzummites. 21 There were many Zamzummites and they were as tall and strong as the Anakites. The Lord destroyed the Rephaites when the Ammonites moved in. Then the Ammonites lived there instead of the Rephaites. 22 The Lord had done the same thing for Esau's descendants who lived in Seir. The Lord destroyed the Horites when Esau's descendants moved in and chased them out. Esau's descendants still live in their country today. 23 The same thing happened to the Avvites.[k] They had lived in villages as far west as Gaza. But Philistines came from Crete island and they killed the Avvites. The Philistines lived there instead.)
24 Then God said, ‘Now go across Arnon valley. Look, I have given you the land of King Sihon, the Amorite. He is the king of Heshbon. You must go and fight against him. Attack him and take his land for yourselves. 25 Today I will begin to make all the people in the world afraid of you. They will hear reports about you. That will cause them to be very frightened. They will shake with fear!’
Sihon, king of Heshbon
26 When we were in Kedemoth desert, I sent a message to Sihon, king of Heshbon. We wanted to agree that we would not fight against each other. 27 I said to him, ‘Please let us go through your country. We will only travel along the road. We will not turn away from the road, to the right side or to the left side. 28 Please sell us food to eat and water to drink. We will pay you with silver coins. We only want to walk through your country. 29 The descendants of Esau who live in Seir let us do this. So did the descendants of Moab who live in Ar. We will go through your country and then we will cross the Jordan River. We will go into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’
30 But Sihon, the king of Heshbon, refused to let us travel through his country. He was too proud to agree with us. The Lord our God had caused him to be like that. He wanted to put King Sihon under your power and give his land to you. You still live in his land today.
31 The Lord said to me, ‘Look! I have begun to give King Sihon and his country to you. Now you must begin to fight against him and take his land for yourselves.’
32 Then Sihon and all his army came out to fight a battle against us at Jahaz. 33 The Lord our God put him under our power. We won the battle against him. We killed King Sihon and his sons and all his soldiers. 34 At that time we took all his towns and we gave everything as a gift to the Lord. We killed the men, women and children. We left no one alive. 35 But we kept the farm animals and other valuable things in the cities for ourselves. 36 The Lord our God gave us all their towns. That included Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon valley, the city in the valley and other towns all the way to Gilead. No town was too strong for us to take.
37 But we did not go into the Ammonites' country. We did not go into the Jabbok valley. We did not go near the towns in the hill country. The Lord our God had commanded us not to attack those places.
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