Deuteronomy 1

₁Moses talked to all the Israelites. They were in the desert on the eastern side of the Jordan River in the Jordan Valley, opposite the town of Suph. The town of Paran was next to the town of Suph and the towns of Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab were on the other side. The words that Moses said are written in this book. ₂It took people 11 days to walk from Mount Horeb to the mountains of Seir and Kadesh-Barnea.

₃Moses told the Israelites everything that the Lord told him to say to them. It was the 40th year after they had come out of Egypt, on the first day of the 11th month. ₄It was after Moses had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites and King Og of Bashan. Sihon lived in the town of Heshbon and Og lived in the town of Ashtaroth. ₅When they were on the other side of the Jordan River in the land of Moab, Moses started explaining to the Israelites what the Lord wanted.

₆Moses said to the Israelites: ‘At Mount Horeb the Lord our God told us: “You have stayed at this mountain long enough. ₇You must go now. Go further to the hill_country of the Amorites and the other lands near the Jordan Valley, the mountains and the lowlands of the Negev, the places near the sea, the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon Mountains. You must go to the big Euphrates River. ₈I am giving you the land. Go and take it. The Lord promised your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He would give the land to you and your descendants.” ’

₉Moses said to the Israelites: ‘I told you long ago that I can not be the only leader for all the people. ₁₀The Lord your God has made you a very big nation, and you are now as many as the stars in the sky. ₁₁I pray that the Lord, the God of your forefathers, will make you even more, 1 000 times more, and that He will bless you as He has promised. ₁₂But I alone can not help you with all your problems and judge when you argue with each other. ₁₃You must choose a few wise men, who understand you and know what God wants, from each tribe, men who will know what to do. I will tell them to be your leaders.

₁₄At that time you told me: “This is a good plan. We will do what you say.”

₁₅The leaders of your tribes were wise men who knew what to do and I told them to be your leaders. Some of them were leaders of 1 000 people, some were leaders of 100 people, some were leaders of 50 people and some were leaders of 10 people. Some of them were managers of the men in the tribes.’

₁₆Moses said: ‘At that time I told your judges: “You must listen carefully to what everyone says and you must judge in the right way when someone accuses another Israelite or when an Israelite and a stranger accuse each other. ₁₇You may not be against some people and help other people. You must listen to important people and also to people who are not important. You must not be afraid of anyone, because God says how you must judge. And if something is too difficult for you, then you can come and tell me, and then I will listen to what the people say.” ₁₈Then I told you everything that you had to do.’

₁₉Moses said: ‘We went from Mount Horeb through that big desert. You know how afraid we were there. We went to the hill_country of the Amorites and we came to the town of Kadesh-Barnea. ₂₀Then I told you: “You have now come to the hill_country of the Amorites, the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. ₂₁The Lord your God gives this land to you. Go and take it. It is your land. The Lord, the God of your forefathers, has told you not to be afraid.”

₂₂But then you came to me and said: “No, let us first send some men to go through the land to see which way we must go and to tell us what those towns are like.”

₂₃I thought it was good and I chose 12 men, one man from each tribe. ₂₄The men went to the hill_country and then to the Grape Valley and they looked at the land. ₂₅They brought some of the fruit from the land with them when they came back and they said: “The land that the Lord our God is giving us is very good.”

₂₆But you did not want to go into the land. You were rebellious_against the Lord your God. ₂₇You stayed in your tents and complained. You said: “God hates us, and that is why He brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us to the Amorites so that they can kill us. ₂₈We can not go into the land. The men who have seen the land have discouraged us. They told us that there are people who are bigger and stronger than we are and the walls around their towns and cities are as high as the heaven. They also saw Anakite people there.”

₂₉I told you: “No, you must not be afraid of those people. Do not fear them. ₃₀The Lord your God is going before you, He will help you and He will fight the war for you. You have seen how He has done that in the land of Egypt ₃₁and in the desert. Can you remember how the Lord your God carried you? He carried you like a man carries his son. The Lord has done this all the way until you came here.”

₃₂This is what I told you, but you did not believe that the Lord would help and lead you, ₃₃even if He had led you all the way and looked for a place to put up your tents every time. He showed you where you must go and where the road was. At night He showed you where to go with a fire and in the day He showed you with a cloud.

₃₄But when the Lord heard what you said, He became angry and He said: ₃₅“Not one of those men will see the good land that I promised to give their forefathers. Not one of this bad generation will see it. This is sure, as sure as I live. ₃₆Only Caleb, son of Jephunneh, will see the land. I will give the land where he went to him and his children, because he did not stop believing in Me.”

₃₇The Lord also became angry with me because of you and He told me: “You will not go into the land. ₃₈Joshua, son of Nun, the man who works for you will go into the land. You must make him strong and teach him to do the work that he has to do, because he will lead the Israelites into the land and take it to belong to them.

₃₉Your children will also go into the land. You said the Amorites will catch your children and take them away, but those children of yours will go into the land. They are children who are too young to know what the difference_is_between good and bad. I will give them the land and they will take it for themselves. ₄₀But you, you must go to the desert and to the Red Sea.”

₄₁Then you said: “We have sinned_against the Lord. We will go to war and we will do what the Lord tells us to do.” And then you took all your weapons. You thought you could easily go into the hill_country. ₄₂But the Lord said to me: “You must tell them: Do not go to war because I will not be with you and you will lose to your enemies.”

₄₃I told you what the Lord said, but you did not listen. You were rebellious_against the Lord. You were proud and you went into the hill_country. ₄₄Then the Amorites, who lived in the hill_country, came and attacked you. They followed_and_chased you like a swarm of bees, from the land of Seir to the town of Hormah. ₄₅You came back and cried and complained to the Lord, but He did not listen to you. ₄₆Then you stayed in the town of Kadesh for a very long time.’