Deuteronomy 1 - 2
Israel from Seir to Kadesh-barnea
1These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel aacross the Jordan in the wilderness, in the bArabah opposite 1Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2It is eleven days’ journey from aHoreb by the way of Mount bSeir to cKadesh-barnea. 3Now it happened, in the afortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, baccording to all that 1Yahweh had commanded him to give to them, 4after he had astruck down Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and bOg the king of Bashan, who lived in cAshtaroth 1and Edrei. 5Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying,
6“Yahweh our God aspoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have 1stayed long enough at this mountain. 7‘Turn and set out, and go to athe hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the 1Shephelah and in bthe 2Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8‘See, I have given over the land before you; go in and possess the land which Yahweh aswore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and to their seed after them.’
9“And I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘aI am not able to bear the burden of you alone. 10‘Yahweh your God has amultiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number. 11‘May Yahweh, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, ajust as He has 1promised you! 12‘How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife? 13‘1,aChoose wise and understanding and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ 14“Then you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’ 15“So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and gave them as heads over you, leaders of thousands and 1of hundreds, 2of fifties and 3of tens, and officers for your tribes.
16“Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and ajudge righteously between a man and his brother or the sojourner who is with him. 17‘aYou shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall bnot fear 1man, for the judgment is God’s. cThe case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ 18“aAnd I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.
19“Then we set out from aHoreb and went through all that bgreat and fearsome wilderness which you saw on the way to the chill country of the Amorites, just as Yahweh our God had commanded us; and we came to dKadesh-barnea. 20“And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which Yahweh our God is about to give us. 21‘See, Yahweh your God has given over the land before you; go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. aDo not fear or be dismayed.’
22“aThen all of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.’ 23“And the thing was good in my sight, and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe. 24“aThen they turned and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25“Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought word back to us and said, ‘It is a good land which Yahweh our God is about to give us.’
26“aYet you were not willing to go up, but brebelled against the 1command of Yahweh your God; 27and ayou grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because Yahweh hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. 28‘Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And moreover, we saw athe sons of the Anakim there.”’ 29“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread, nor fear them. 30‘Yahweh your God, who goes before you, will aHimself fight on your behalf, 1just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31and in the wilderness where you saw how aYahweh your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ 32“But 1,afor all this, you did not believe Yahweh your God, 33awho goes before you on your way, bto spy out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go.
34“Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and aswore an oath, saying, 35‘aNot one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, 36except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and ato him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed Yahweh fully.’ 37“aYahweh was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘bNot even you shall enter there. 38‘Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, ahe shall enter there; strengthen him, for bhe will cause Israel to inherit it. 39‘Moreover, ayour little ones who you said would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have bno knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. 40‘But as for you, aturn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the 1Red Sea.’
41“aThen you said to me, ‘We have sinned against Yahweh; we will indeed go up and fight, just as Yahweh our God commanded us.’ And every man of you girded on his weapons of war and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country. 42“aAnd Yahweh said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up and do not fight—for I am not among you—so that you are not 1defeated before your enemies.”’ 43“So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead ayou rebelled against the 1command of Yahweh and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country. 44“aAnd the Amorites who 1lived in that hill country came out to meet you and pursued you bas bees do and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. 45“Then you returned and wept before Yahweh; but aYahweh did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. 46“So you remained in aKadesh many days, according to the days that you remained there.
Wanderings in the Wilderness
2“aThen we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way to the 1Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me, and circled bMount Seir for many days. 2“And Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 3‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north, 4aand command the people, saying, “You are going to pass through the bterritory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and cthey will be afraid of you. So be very careful; 5do not 1provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a 2footstep abecause I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6“You shall buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also bargain with them for water with money so that you may drink. 7“For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; He has known your 1wanderings through this agreat wilderness. These bforty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.”’
8“So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the aArabah road, away from Elath and bfrom Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9“Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of 1their land as a possession because I have given aAr to bthe sons of Lot as a possession.’ 10(The aEmim lived there formerly, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim. 11Like the Anakim, they are also regarded as aRephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. 12aNow the Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, bjust as Israel would do to the land of 1their possession which Yahweh gave to them.) 13‘Now arise and cross over the 1brook Zered yourselves.’ So we crossed over the 2brook Zered. 14“Now the 1time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the 2brook Zered was athirty-eight years, until ball the generation of the men of war came to an end from within the camp, as cYahweh had sworn to them. 15“aMoreover the hand of Yahweh was against them, to bring them into confusion from within the camp until they all came to an end.
16“So it happened when aall the men of war had come to an end in death from among the people, 17that Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 18‘Today you are about to cross over aAr, the border of Moab. 19‘And you will come opposite the asons of Ammon. Do not harass them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession because I have given it to bthe sons of Lot as a possession.’ 20(It is also regarded as the land of the aRephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin, 21a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim, but Yahweh destroyed them before them. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place, 22just as He did for the sons of Esau, who alive in Seir, when He destroyed bthe Horites from before them; they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. 23And the aAvvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the 1,bCaphtorim who came from 2,cCaphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.) 24‘Arise, set out, and pass through the 1,avalley of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession and provoke him to battle. 25‘This day I will begin to put athe dread and fear of you 1upon the peoples 2everywhere under the heavens, who, when they hear the report of you, bwill tremble and be in anguish because of you.’
26“aSo I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, 27‘Let me pass through your land, I will 1go only on the highway; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left. 28‘You will sell me food for money so that I may eat, and give me water for money so that I may drink; aonly let me pass through on 1foot, 29just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in aAr did for me, until I cross over the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God is giving to us.’ 30“But aSihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass 1through his land, for bYahweh your God stiffened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to give him over into your hand, as he is today. 31“And Yahweh said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land 1over to you. Begin to possess, so that you may fully possess his land.’
32“Then Sihon 1with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz. 33“aBut Yahweh our God gave him 1over to us, and we bstruck him down with his sons and all his people. 34“So we captured all his cities at that time and 1,adevoted to destruction 2the men, women, and little ones of every city. We left no survivor remaining. 35“We took aonly the animals as our plunder and the spoil of the cities which we had captured. 36“From aAroer which is on the edge of the 1valley of Arnon and from the city which is in the 2valley, even to Gilead, there was not a town that was too high for us; Yahweh our God gave all 3over to us. 37“aOnly you did not go near to the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the 1river bJabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever Yahweh our God had commanded us.