Bible in 90 Days

²⁰ Moses said to them, “If you will do this thing, if you will be armed before the Lord for war, ²¹ and all of you, each armed, will go over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies from before Him ²² and the land is subdued before the Lord, then after that you will return and be exempt before the Lord and before Israel, and this land will be your possession before the Lord.

²³ “But if you will not do so, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. ²⁴ Build for yourselves cities for your children and folds for your sheep, and do that which has proceeded out of your mouth.”

²⁵ The children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. ²⁶ Our children, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gilead, ²⁷ but your servants will cross over, each man armed for war, before the Lord to battle, as my lord says.”

²⁸ So Moses commanded Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel. ²⁹ And Moses said to them, “If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will cross over the Jordan with you, each man armed for battle before the Lord, and the land will be subdued before you, you are to give them the land of Gilead as a possession. ³⁰ But if they do not cross over with you armed, they will have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.”

³¹ The children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, “As the Lord has said to your servants, so we will do. ³² We will cross over, armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, so the possession of our inheritance on this side of the Jordan may be ours.”

³³ Moses gave to the children of Gad, to the children of Reuben, and to half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land with the cities within the borders, the cities of the surrounding land.

³⁴ The children of Gad built Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer, ³⁵ Atroth Shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah, ³⁶ Beth Nimrah and Beth Haran, fortified cities, and folds for sheep. ³⁷ And the children of Reuben built Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim, ³⁸ Nebo and Baal Meon (their names being changed) and Sibmah; and they named the other cities which they built.

³⁹ The children of Makir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and captured it and drove out the Amorites who were in it. ⁴⁰ Moses gave Gilead to Makir the son of Manasseh, and he lived in it. ⁴¹ Jair the son of Manasseh went and captured its small towns and called them Havvoth Jair. ⁴² Nobah went and captured Kenath and its villages and called it Nobah, after his own name.

Recounting Israel’s Journey

33 These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. ² Moses recorded the starting points of their journeys at the command of the Lord. These are their journeys according to their starting points.

³ They set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians, ⁴ because the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, whom the Lord had killed among them. Upon their gods the Lord executed judgments.

⁵ The children of Israel set out from Rameses and camped in Sukkoth.

⁶ They set out from Sukkoth and camped in Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness.

⁷ They set out from Etham and turned to Pi Hahiroth, which is before Baal Zephon, and they camped before Migdol.

⁸ They set out from before Pi Hahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days’ journey in the Wilderness of Etham, and camped in Marah.

⁹ They set out from Marah, and came to Elim, and in Elim were twelve fountains of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.

¹⁰ They set out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea.

¹¹ They set out from the Red Sea and camped in the Wilderness of Sin.

¹² They set out from the Wilderness of Sin and camped in Dophkah.

¹³ They set out from Dophkah and camped in Alush.

¹⁴ They set out from Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

¹⁵ They set out from Rephidim and camped in the Wilderness of Sinai.

¹⁶ They set out from the Wilderness of Sinai and camped at Kibroth Hattaavah.

¹⁷ They set out from Kibroth Hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.

¹⁸ They set out from Hazeroth and camped in Rithmah.

¹⁹ They set out from Rithmah and camped at Rimmon Perez.

²⁰ They set out from Rimmon Perez and camped in Libnah.

²¹ They set out from Libnah and camped at Rissah.

²² They set out from Rissah and camped in Kehelathah.

²³ They set out from Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher.

²⁴ They set out from Mount Shepher and camped in Haradah.

²⁵ They set out from Haradah and camped in Makheloth.

²⁶ They set out from Makheloth and camped at Tahath.

²⁷ They set out from Tahath and camped at Terah.

²⁸ They set out from Terah and camped in Mithkah.

²⁹ They went from Mithkah and camped in Hashmonah.

³⁰ They set out from Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth.

³¹ They set out from Moseroth and camped in Bene Jaakan.

³² They set out from Bene Jaakan and camped at Hor Haggidgad.

³³ They set out from Hor Haggidgad and camped in Jotbathah.

³⁴ They set out from Jotbathah and camped at Abronah.

³⁵ They set out from Abronah and camped at Ezion Geber.

³⁶ They set out from Ezion Geber and camped in the Wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh.

³⁷ They set out from Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, at the edge of the land of Edom. ³⁸ Aaron the priest went up onto Mount Hor at the word of the Lord and died there in the fortieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month. ³⁹ Aaron was one hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.

⁴⁰ King Arad the Canaanite, who lived in the south in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.

⁴¹ They set out from Mount Hor and camped in Zalmonah.

⁴² They set out from Zalmonah and camped in Punon.

⁴³ They set out from Punon and camped in Oboth.

⁴⁴ They set out from Oboth and camped in Iye Abarim, on the border of Moab.

⁴⁵ They set out from Iye Abarim and camped in Dibon Gad.

⁴⁶ They set out from Dibon Gad and camped in Almon Diblathaim.

⁴⁷ They set out from Almon Diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo.

⁴⁸ They set out from the mountains of Abarim and camped in the plains of Moab near Jordan of Jericho. ⁴⁹ They camped by Jordan, from Beth Jeshimoth to Abel Shittim in the plains of Moab.

Instructions for Conquering Canaan

⁵⁰ The Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying: ⁵¹ Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you are crossing over Jordan into the land of Canaan, ⁵² then you will drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their carved images, and destroy all their molded images, and destroy all their high places, ⁵³ and you will drive out the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, because I have given you the land to inherit it. ⁵⁴ You will possess the land by lot for an inheritance among your families, and to the larger you will give the larger inheritance, and to the smaller you will give the smaller inheritance. Every man’s inheritance will be in the place where his lot falls. By the tribes of your fathers you will inherit.

⁵⁵ But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you let remain will be like thorns in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will show hostility to you in the land in which you live. ⁵⁶ And what I had planned to do to them, I will do to you.

The Borders of Canaan

34 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ² Command the children of Israel, and say to them: When you are going into the land of Canaan, this is the land that will fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan with its borders.

³ Then your south side will be from the Wilderness of Zin along by the border of Edom, and your south border will be the end of the Dead Sea to the east. ⁴ And your border will turn from the south to the Ascent of Akrabbim, and continue to Zin, and the end of it will be from the south to Kadesh Barnea. Then it will continue to Hazar Addar, and pass on to Azmon. ⁵ And the border will circle around from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and the end of it will be at the Mediterranean Sea.

⁶ For the western border, you will have the Mediterranean Sea and its coastline. This will be your western border.

⁷ This will be your northern border: From the Mediterranean Sea you will mark a line to Mount Hor; ⁸ from Mount Hor you will mark a line of your border to Lebo Hamath, and the limits of the border will be to Zedad. ⁹ And the border will go on to Ziphron, and the limits of it will be at Hazar Enan. This will be your northern border.

¹⁰ You will mark a line for your eastern border from Hazar Enan to Shepham. ¹¹ And the border will go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain, and the border will go down and will reach the side of the Sea of Kinnereth to the east. ¹² And the border will go down to the Jordan, and the limits of it will be at the Dead Sea.

This will be your land with its borders all around.

¹³ Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying: This is the land which you will possess by lot, which the Lord commanded to give to the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe ¹⁴ because the tribe of the children of Reuben by the house of their fathers and the tribe of the children of Gad by the house of their fathers have received their inheritance, and half the tribe of Manasseh has received their inheritance. ¹⁵ The two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance on this side of the Jordan near Jericho to the east, toward the sunrise.

The Leaders to Divide the Land

¹⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹⁷ These are the names of the men who will divide the land for you: Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun. ¹⁸ You will take one leader of each tribe to divide the land by inheritance. ¹⁹ These are the names of the men:

²⁹ These are the ones whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance among the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.

The Levites’ Cities^(A)

35 And the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying: ² Command the children of Israel, and they will give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in, and you will give the Levites pasturelands around the city. ³ The cities will be for them to dwell in, and their pasturelands will be for their livestock, and for their property, and for all their animals.

⁴ The pasturelands of the cities, which you will give to the Levites, will reach from the wall of the city and beyond one thousand cubits^[a] all around. ⁵ You will measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits,^[b] and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits, and the city will be in the middle. This will be for them the pasturelands of the cities.

Cities of Refuge

⁶ Among the cities which you will give to the Levites there will be six cities of refuge, which you will appoint for the manslayer, that he may flee there, and to them you will add forty-two cities. ⁷ So all the cities which you will give to the Levites will be forty-eight cities. You will give them with their pasturelands. ⁸ The cities which you shall give shall be from the possession of the children of Israel. From the larger tribes you shall give many, and from the smaller tribes you shall give few. Each tribe, in proportion to the inheritance that it receives, shall give of its cities to the Levites.

⁹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹⁰ Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When you are crossing over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ then you shall designate cities as your cities of refuge, so that a manslayer who unintentionally kills a person may flee there. ¹² The cities will be for you a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer does not die until he stands trial before the assembly. ¹³ The cities which you designate shall be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴ You will give three cities across the Jordan, and three cities you will give in the land of Canaan, which will be cities of refuge. ¹⁵ For the children of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the foreign sojourner among them will be six cities. These will be for a refuge. Everyone that unintentionally kills any person may flee there.

¹⁶ If he strikes him with an instrument of iron, so that he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷ If he strikes him with a stone in hand, by which he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if he strikes him with a weapon of wood in hand, by which he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood himself will slay the murderer. When he meets him, he will slay him. ²⁰ But if he pushed him out of hatred, or threw something at him, lying in wait, so he dies, ²¹ or in hatred struck him with his hand, so he died, he that struck him shall surely be put to death, because he is a murderer. The avenger of blood will slay the murderer when he meets him.

²² But if he pushed him suddenly without hatred, or threw anything at him without lying in wait, ²³ or used a stone that may cause death, unintentionally throwing it at him, resulting in death, though they were not enemies, and was not trying to harm him, ²⁴ then the assembly will judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments. ²⁵ And the assembly will deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the assembly will restore him to the city of his refuge where he fled, and he will dwell in it until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶ But if the manslayer will go out at any time beyond the border of the city of his refuge where he fled, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of the city of his refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he will not be guilty of blood, ²⁸ because the manslayer should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.

²⁹ So these things will be for a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

³⁰ Whoever kills a person, the murderer will be put to death by the testimony of witnesses, but one witness will not testify against a person for death.

³¹ And you will not take a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he will surely be put to death.

³² You will not take a ransom for him who fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come out again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest.

³³ So you will not defile the land which you are in, because blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him that shed it. ³⁴ So do not defile the land which you are dwelling in, where I am residing, because I the Lord am residing among the children of Israel.

Marriage of Female Heirs^(B)

36 And the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the chief fathers of the children of Israel. ² And they said, “The Lord commanded my lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel, and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. ³ If they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they are married, so will it be taken from the lot of our inheritance. ⁴ When the jubilee of the children of Israel happens, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they are married, so their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

⁵ Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying: “The tribe of the sons of Joseph has spoken right. ⁶ This is the thing which the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry whom they think best. But they may marry only within a clan of their father’s tribe. ⁷ So the inheritance of the children of Israel will not turn from tribe to tribe, because every one of the children of Israel will keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. ⁸ Every daughter that possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel will be wife to one of the families of the tribe of her father, so every man of the children of Israel may enjoy the inheritance of his fathers. ⁹ Thus no inheritance will turn from one tribe to another tribe, but every tribe of the children of Israel will keep its own inheritance.’ ”

¹⁰ Just as the Lord commanded Moses, thus the daughters of Zelophehad did, ¹¹ for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milkah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to their uncles’ sons. ¹² And they were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.

¹³ These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

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,^[c] 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.

King Og Defeated

3 Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan, and Og, the king of Bashan, came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. ² Then the Lord said to me, “Do not fear him, for I will deliver him and all his people and his land into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

³ So the Lord, our God, delivered Og, the king of Bashan, with all his people, into our hands also, and we struck him down until there was no survivor remaining. ⁴ We took all his cities at that time. There was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵ All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a great many rural towns. ⁶ We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon, king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city. ⁷ But we took all the livestock and the spoil of the cities as plunder for ourselves.

⁸ So at that time we took from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was across the Jordan, from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁹ (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir), ¹⁰ all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salekah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹ For only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of the giants. (Notably, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? It is nine cubits long and four cubits wide,^[d] according to the cubit of a man.)

Division of the Land

¹² This is the land which we possessed at that time from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead and its cities I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites. ¹³ The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (All the region of Argob, with all Bashan, was called the land of giants. ¹⁴ Jair, the son of Manasseh, took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maakathites, and called the villages after his own name, Havvoth Jair, as it is to this day.) ¹⁵ I gave Gilead to Makir. ¹⁶ To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead even as far as the stream bed of the River Arnon, half the valley as the border to the River Jabbok, which is the border of the Ammonites; ¹⁷ the plain also, with the Jordan as the border, from Kinnereth as far as the east side of the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah.

¹⁸ Then I commanded you at that time, saying, “The Lord your God has given you this land to possess it. All you men of valor shall pass over armed before your brothers, the children of Israel. ¹⁹ But your wives and your little ones, and your livestock (for I know that you have much livestock) shall remain in your cities which I have given you ²⁰ until the Lord has given rest to your brothers, as well as to you, and until they also possess the land which the Lord your God has given them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you shall return to his possession which I have given you.”

Moses Forbidden to Cross the Jordan

²¹ I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, “Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So shall the Lord do to all the kingdoms where you pass. ²² Do not fear them, for the Lord your God, He shall fight for you.”

²³ I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, ²⁴ “O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness, and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or in earth that can do according to Your works and according to Your might? ²⁵ Let me, I pray, go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country, and Lebanon.”

²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me, and the Lord said to me, “Enough of that! Speak to Me no more of this matter. ²⁷ Get up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes to the west and north and south and east, and see it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. ²⁸ But charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, for he shall cross over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.” ²⁹ So we remained in the valley over against Beth Peor.

Moses Commands Obedience

4 Now therefore, listen, O Israel, to the statutes and to the judgments which I am teaching you to do, so that you may live; and go in and possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ² You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor shall you take anything from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor; for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. ⁴ But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive to this day, every one of you.

⁵ See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land where you are entering to possess it. ⁶ Therefore, keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes, and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ⁷ For what nation is there so great, who has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is in all things whenever we call on Him? ⁸ And what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I am setting before you today?

⁹ Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but teach them to your sons, and your grandsons. ¹⁰ Especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Gather the people together to Me, so that I will let them hear My words so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they shall live on the earth, and so that they may teach their children.” ¹¹ Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire up to the midst of heaven, with darkness, a cloud, a thick cloud. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words but saw no form—only a voice was heard. ¹³ He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even the Ten Commandments, and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, so that you might do them in the land which you are crossing over to possess.

Idolatry Forbidden

¹⁵ Give good care to yourselves, for you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ lest you corrupt yourselves and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. ¹⁹ And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, you are led astray and worship them, and serve them, that which the Lord your God has allotted to all nations under the whole heaven. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to Him a people of inheritance, as you are today.

²¹ Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you and swore that I should not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not go into that good land which the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. ²² So I must die in this land. I shall not cross over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land. ²³ Watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make yourself a graven image or the likeness of anything as the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is a consuming fire. He is a jealous God.

²⁵ When you produce children and grandchildren and you have remained a long time in the land, and you corrupt yourselves and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God, to provoke Him to anger, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely and suddenly perish from off the land that you are going across the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days on it, but shall be completely destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord shall scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations where the Lord shall lead you. ²⁸ There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ²⁹ But if from there you will seek the Lord your God, you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in distress and all these things come upon you, even in the latter days, if you turn to the Lord your God and shall be obedient to His voice ³¹ (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

³² Indeed, ask about the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man^[e] on the earth, and ask from one end of heavens to the other, whether there has ever been any such thing as this great thing, or has anything like it ever been heard? ³³ Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived? ³⁴ Or has God ever tried to take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁵ To you it was shown so that you might know that the Lord, He is God. There is no one else besides Him. ³⁶ Out of heaven He let you hear His voice so that He might instruct you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them and personally brought you out of Egypt with His mighty power ³⁸ to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you are, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today.

³⁹ Know therefore today, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. ⁴⁰ Therefore, you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you this day, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you may prolong your days in the land, which the Lord your God gives you, forever.

Cities of Refuge^(C)

⁴¹ Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan, toward the east, ⁴² that the manslayer might flee there, that is, anyone who killed his neighbor unintentionally without hating him in time past could flee to one of these cities and live: ⁴³ Bezer in the wilderness in the plateau of the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan of the Manassites.

Introduction to the Law

⁴⁴ This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. ⁴⁵ These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, after they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶ on this side of the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck down, after they had come out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ They possessed his land, and the land of Og, king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan toward the east, ⁴⁸ from Aroer, which is by the edge of the River Arnon, even as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), ⁴⁹ with all the Arabah across the Jordan to the east, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments^(D)

5 Then Moses called all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances which I am speaking in your hearing today, so that you may learn them, and keep, and do them. ² The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. ³ The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, we who are living now and here today. ⁴ The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. ⁵ I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and would not go up to the mountain. He said:

⁶ I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

⁷ You shall have no other gods before Me.

⁸ You shall not make yourself any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth; ⁹ you shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, ¹⁰ but showing mercy to thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments.

¹¹ You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not exonerate anyone who takes His name in vain.

¹² Keep the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, just as the Lord your God has commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor the foreigner that is within your gates, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

¹⁶ Honor your father and your mother, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁷ You shall not murder.

¹⁸ You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁹ You shall not steal.

²⁰ You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

²¹ You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor shall you covet your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

²² These are the words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness with a great voice, and He added no more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

²³ When you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain did burn with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. ²⁴ You said, “See, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man, yet he lives. ²⁵ Now, therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we will die. ²⁶ For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁷ Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say. Then speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.”

²⁸ The Lord heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, “I have heard the sound of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. ²⁹ O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

³⁰ “Go say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ ³¹ But as for you, stand here by Me, so that I may speak to you all the commandments, and the statutes, and the ordinances which you shall teach them, that they may keep them in the land which I am giving them to possess.”

³² Therefore, be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³³ You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

The Greatest Commandment

6 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, so that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, ² so that you might fear the Lord your God in order to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you—you, and your son, and your grandson—all the days of your life, so that your days may be prolonged. ³ Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do it, so that it may be well with you and so that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord the God of your fathers has promised you in the land that flows with milk and honey.

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God. The Lord is one! ⁵ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be in your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰ Then it shall be when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you great and fine cities, which you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are full, ¹² then beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

¹³ You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him and shall swear by His name. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people which surround you ¹⁵ (for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you). Otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be inflamed against you and destroy you from off the face of the earth. ¹⁶ You shall not tempt the Lord your God, as you tempted Him in Massah. ¹⁷ You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to your fathers, ¹⁹ to drive out all your enemies before you, just as the Lord has spoken.

²⁰ When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God has commanded you?” ²¹ then you shall say to your son, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² And the Lord showed great and devastating signs and wonders upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. ²³ He brought us out from there, so that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He swore to our fathers. ²⁴ The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us, as He has to this day. ²⁵ It will be our righteousness if we are careful to keep all these commandments before the Lord our God, just as He has commanded us.”

The Chosen People

7 When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess and has driven out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you strike them down, then you must utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. ³ What is more, you shall not intermarry with them. You shall not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. ⁴ For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will be inflamed against you, and He will quickly destroy you. ⁵ But this is how you shall deal with them: You shall destroy their altars and break down their images and cut down their Asherim^[f] and burn their graven images with fire. ⁶ For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be His special people, treasured above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

⁷ The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all the peoples. ⁸ But it is because the Lord loved you and because He kept the oath which He swore to your fathers. The Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy with them who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations, ¹⁰ yet He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him. He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I command you today, by doing them.

¹² If you listen to these judgments, keep them, and do them, then the Lord your God shall keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. ¹³ He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain, and your wine, and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples. There will not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵ The Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, but will lay them on all those who hate you. ¹⁶ You must consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will deliver to you. Your eye shall have no pity on them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

¹⁷ If you say in your heart, “These nations are greater than I—how can I dispossess them?” ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them. You must surely remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, ¹⁹ the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched-out arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So the Lord your God will do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them, until they who are left and hide themselves from you perish. ²¹ You must not be frightened of them, for the Lord your God is among you, a great and awesome God. ²² The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be able to destroy them all at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them to you and will throw them into a great confusion until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will deliver their kings into your hand so that you may erase their names from under heaven. No man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ You must burn the graven images of their gods with fire. You must not desire the silver or gold that is on them nor take any of it, lest you be snared by them, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ You shall not bring an abomination into your house, lest you become cursed like it, but you must absolutely detest and abhor it, for it is a cursed thing.