1 These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the Arabah facing Suph, between Paran on one side and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab on the other.
2 From Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by the Mount Seir road is an eleven days' journey.
3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel all that the LORD had commanded him to tell them,
4 after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.
5 On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses set about expounding this law. He said:
6 "The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb and said, 'You have remained at this mountain long enough.
7 Turn and break camp. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the places near it: the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negev, and the coast of the sea, the land of the Canaanites, and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates.
8 See, I have put the land in front of you. Go in and possess the land the LORD swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants after them.'
9 "At that same time I told you, 'I cannot carry you alone.
10 The LORD your God has increased your numbers, and now you are as many as the stars in the sky.
11 May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times more than you are now, and bless you just as he told you!
12 How can I carry on my own the load of you, your burdens, and your quarrels?
13 From each of your tribes pick out men who are wise, discerning, and well known, and I will set them over you as leaders.'
14 You replied to me, 'What you have proposed is a good thing to do.'
15 So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and well-known men, and placed them over you as leaders: captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, captains of tens, and officials throughout your tribes.
16 At that time I gave your judges this charge: 'Listen to the disputes between your countrymen, and judge fairly between a man and his countryman or the sojourner living with him.
17 Do not be partial when you judge; give the same hearing to the lowly and the great. Do not fear any man, because judgment belongs to God. Any case too difficult for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.'
18 At that time I commanded you everything you were to do.
19 "Then we left Horeb and traveled through all that vast and fearful wilderness you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God had commanded us, and we reached Kadesh-barnea.
20 I said to you, 'You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving to us.
21 Look, the LORD your God has placed the land in front of you. Go up and take it over, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.'
22 But all of you came to me and said, 'Let us send men ahead of us to scout out the land for us and report back to us about the route we should take and the cities we will come to.'
23 The idea pleased me, so I chose twelve of your men, one from each tribe.
24 They set off, went up into the hill country, came to the Valley of Eshcol, and scouted it.
25 They took some of the land's fruit with them and brought it down to us. Their report was, 'The land the LORD our God is giving us is good.'
26 "But you refused to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God.
27 You grumbled in your tents and said, 'The LORD hates us. That is why he brought us out of Egypt: to hand us over to the Amorites to wipe us out.
28 Where can we go up? Our brothers have made us lose heart by saying, "The people there are bigger and taller than we are, the cities are large, with walls up to the sky, and we even saw the descendants of the Anakim there."'
29 I told you, 'Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them.
30 The LORD your God, who goes ahead of you, will fight for you himself, just as you saw him do for you in Egypt
31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all along the road you traveled until you arrived at this place.'
32 Even so, in this matter you did not trust the LORD your God,
33 who went ahead of you on the road to find you places to camp, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you the way you should go.
34 "When the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and took an oath:
35 'Not one man of this wicked generation will see the good land I swore to give to your fathers,
36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his sons the land he walked on, because he followed the LORD fully.'
37 Because of you the LORD was angry with me too, and said, 'You also will not enter it.
38 Joshua son of Nun, who attends you, will enter it. Strengthen him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it.
39 And your little ones, who you said would become plunder, and your children, who do not yet know good from evil, will enter it. I will give it to them, and they will possess it.
40 But you, turn around and head into the wilderness toward the Red Sea.'
41 "Then you replied, 'We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.' Each of you put on his weapons, thinking it a simple matter to go up into the hill country.
42 But the LORD told me, 'Tell them: Do not go up and do not fight, because I am not among you, or you will be beaten by your enemies.'
43 I told you this, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the LORD's command and in your arrogance went up into the hill country.
44 The Amorites living in that hill country came out to meet you; they chased you as bees do and crushed you in Seir, all the way to Hormah.
45 You came back and wept before the LORD, but the LORD paid no attention to your cries and would not listen to you.
46 And so you stayed in Kadesh many days, for as long as you stayed there.