Deuteronomy 1:6-4:43

International Standard Version

⁶ “The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb. He said, ‘You have been at this mountain long enough. ⁷ Break camp,^[a] get going, and proceed to the hill country of the Amorites and all the nearby places in the Arabah desert, the highlands, the foothills, the Negev,^[b] the coastal plains, all of the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates. ⁸ Look! I’ve given you the land that lies ahead. Go in and possess the land that I, the Lord, promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as to their descendants.’”

Moses Reviews the Selected Officials

⁹ “I also told you at that time that I won’t be able to sustain you on my own. ¹⁰ The Lord your God greatly multiplied your numbers, and today you are like the stars in the sky. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase your numbers a thousand times more, and may he bless you, as he promised you. ¹² How can I bear the burden of you and your bickering all by myself? ¹³ Choose for yourselves wise and discerning men, known to your tribes, and appoint them as your leaders. ¹⁴ You answered by saying that this plan is a good thing. ¹⁵ So I chose leaders from your tribes, wise and respected men, and I appointed them over you—commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. ¹⁶ I charged your judges at that time, ‘When you hold a hearing between brothers, judge fairly between a man and his brother or between foreigners. ¹⁷ When you hold a hearing, don’t be partial^[c] in judgment toward the least important or toward the great. Never fear men, because judgment belongs to God. If the matter is difficult for you, bring it to me for a hearing.’ ¹⁸ I charged you at that time that you must do all of these things.”

Moses Reviews the Sending of the Scouts^(A)

¹⁹ “Then we set out from Horeb and walked through that vast and dreadful desert, where you observed the road to the Amorite hill country. Just as the Lord our God ordained for us, we finally arrived at Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ I told you at that time, ‘You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is about to give us. ²¹ Look! The Lord your God has given the land that lies^[d] before you. Go and possess it, just as the Lord God of your ancestors commanded you. Don’t be afraid or discouraged.’

²² “Then all of you approached me and said: ‘Let’s send out men in advance of us so they can survey the land and bring back a report to us on how we’ll go up to their cities.’ ²³ Because this suggestion^[e] seemed good to me, I chose twelve men from among you, one from each tribe. ²⁴ Then these men set out,^[f] went up to the hill county, reached the Eshcol Valley, and surveyed it. ²⁵ They hand-picked some of the fruit of the land, brought it down to us, and gave a report that said, ‘The land which the Lord is about to give us is good.’”

Israel Rebels

²⁶ “However, your ancestors didn’t go up. Instead, they rebelled against the command^[g] of the Lord your God. ²⁷ You murmured in your tents, ‘The Lord hates us. He brought us out of the land of Egypt in order to deliver us to^[h] the Amorites so he could destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go? Our brothers discouraged us when they said that the people are bigger and taller than we are. Their cities are tall and fortified to the sky, and we also saw the Anakim^[i] there.’

²⁹ “Then I told you, ‘Don’t be terrified or afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God is the One who will be going ahead of you. He’ll fight for you just as he did in Egypt before your eyes. ³¹ In the desert you saw that the Lord carried you like a man carries his son, on every road you traveled until you reached this place.’ ³² But despite this, you didn’t trust in the Lord your God, ³³ who walked ahead of you along the way to scout a place for you to pitch camp—by fire at night and cloud by day—to lead you on the way you should go.”

Entrance is Denied

³⁴ “When the Lord heard your complaints, he became angry and declared, ³⁵ ‘I swear that not one man of this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors, ³⁶ except Jephunneh’s son Caleb. He will see it and I will give to him and to his descendants the land on which he has walked because he wholeheartedly followed the Lord.’

³⁷ “The Lord was also furious with me because of you. He said: ‘You will not enter the land.^{[j] 38} However, Nun’s son Joshua, your assistant, will go there. Encourage him, for he will cause Israel to take possession of it. ³⁹ Your little ones—whom you said would be taken captive—and your children who do not yet^[k] know right from wrong will enter the land.^[l] I will give it to them and they themselves will possess it. ⁴⁰ But as for you, prepare to set out for the desert on the way to the Reed^[m] Sea.’

⁴¹ “You responded to me and said, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will now go up and fight according to what the Lord our God commanded.’ So each man put on his weapon for battle and recklessly started out for the hill country.”

The Amorites Defeat Israel

⁴² “Then the Lord told me: ‘Tell them not to go up and fight because I will not be in their midst, or else you will be defeated before your enemies.’

⁴³ “I spoke to you but you didn’t listen. Instead you rebelled against the command^[n] of the Lord and went up to the hill country. ⁴⁴ The Amorites who lived in the hill country came out to engage you in battle. They pursued you like bees do and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵ You returned and cried out in the Lord’s presence, but the Lord didn’t hear your voice or listen to you. ⁴⁶ You remained in Kadesh for many days. It was a long time, indeed.”

Israel Passes through Edomite Territory

2 “We turned and set out for the desert on the road to the Reed^[o] Sea, just as the Lord had directed me. We traveled around Mount Seir for many days. ² Then the Lord told me, ³ ‘You’ve walked around this mountain long enough. Turn northward ⁴ and command this people, “You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau who live around Seir. They will be afraid of you so be very careful. ⁵ Don’t fight them, because I won’t give you any part of their land, not even the size of a footprint.^[p] I have given Mount Seir to Esau as their property. ⁶ You may buy food to eat and water to drink from them, paying^[q] with cash.”’ ⁷ Indeed, the Lord your God blessed all the works of your hands. He knows about your travels through this vast desert. The Lord your God was with you these past 40 years, so that you didn’t lack anything. ⁸ So we bypassed our relatives, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir. We turned through the Arabah desert from Elath, and from Ezion-geber we traveled the desert road to Moab.”

Israel Passes through Moabite Territory

⁹ “Then the Lord told me, ‘Don’t harass Moab or provoke them to war, because I won’t give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their property. ¹⁰ (The Emites, a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakim,^[r] lived there before. ¹¹ Like the Anakim,^[s] they were thought of as Rephaim,^[t] but the Moabites called them Emites. ¹² The Horites used to live in Seir before the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, exterminated them, and settled there instead, just as Israel will do in the land of its possession, which the Lord gave them.) ¹³ Now get going and cross the Wadi^[u] Zered.’ And so we crossed the Wadi^[v] Zered. ¹⁴ Now from the time we left Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Wadi^[w] Zered was 38 years. All of that generation, the soldiers in the camp, were destroyed just as the Lord swore they would be. ¹⁵ Indeed, the hand of the Lord was against them to root them out from the camp until they were utterly destroyed.”

Israel Passes through Ammonite Territory

¹⁶ “And so all the soldiers among the people died. ¹⁷ Then the Lord spoke to me, ¹⁸ ‘Today, you are about to cross the border of Moab at Ar. ¹⁹ When you come to the Ammonites, don’t harass or provoke them to war, for I won’t give any part of Ammonite land to you, since I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their property.

²⁰ “‘(Indeed, it was considered Rephaim^[x] territory, since the Rephaim^[y] used to lived there. The Ammonites called them Zamzummites, ²¹ a great people, numerous, and tall as the Anakim.^[z] But the Lord destroyed the Rephaim,^[aa] so that the Ammonites dispossessed them and settled there instead. ²² This is what he did for the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them. So they dispossessed them and settled there in their place, where they live^[ab] to this day. ²³ It was the same for the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza. The Caphtorites, who came from Crete,^[ac] destroyed them and settled there in their place.) ²⁴ Get ready and set out for the Wadi^[ad] Arnon. Look! I’ve given into your control Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, along with his land. Prepare to take possession by provoking him to war. ²⁵ Starting today I will begin to instill fear and terror of you on the part of every nation under heaven who hears reports about you. They’ll tremble in anguish before you.’”

Israel Defeats Sihon, King of Heshbon

²⁶ “I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with this message of peace: ²⁷ ‘Let me pass through your territory. I’ll stay on the main road. I won’t turn to the right or left. ²⁸ Sell me food for cash,^[ae] so I can eat and give me water for cash,^[af] so I can drink. Just let me pass through on foot, ²⁹ as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir did for me, as did the Moabites who live in Ar. I’ll pass through,^[ag] until I will have crossed the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is about to give us.’ ³⁰ But King Sihon of Heshbon did not allow us to pass through, because the Lord your God had hardened his spirit and made him arrogant,^[ah] in order to deliver him into your control today.

³¹ “Then the Lord told me, ‘See, I’ve begun to deliver Sihon and his territory over to you. Prepare to take possession of his land.’

³² “Sihon came out to meet us, including his entire army, at the battle of Jahaz. ³³ The Lord our God delivered him to us, so we attacked him, his son, and his whole army. ³⁴ We captured all his towns at that time. We utterly destroyed every town—the men, the women, and the children—leaving no survivors. ³⁵ We only appropriated the livestock for our use, along with plunder from the cities that we captured. ³⁶ From Aroer on the edge of Arnon Valley and from the town all the way to Gilead, there was no city that was too strong for us—the Lord our God delivered them all to us. ³⁷ You did not encroach onto Ammonite land, the banks of the Wadi^[ai] Jabbok, the towns in the hill country, and all the other places that were forbidden^[aj] by the Lord our God.”

Israel Defeats the King of Bashan

3 “We set out and went up along the road to Bashan. Then King Og of Bashan came out to meet us—he and his whole army—for a battle at Edrei. ² Then the Lord told me, ‘Don’t fear him, because I’ve delivered him, his army, and his territory into your control. Do to him just as you have done to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.’

³ “So the Lord our God also delivered into our control King Og of Bashan, along with his whole army. We attacked him until there were no survivors.^{[ak] 4} Then we captured all his cities at that time. There was not a city left that we didn’t capture from them—60 cities in all from the region of Argob, which is part of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵ All of these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars. Furthermore, there were very many unwalled regions. ⁶ We utterly destroyed them, just as we did King Sihon of Heshbon, attacking them in every city—the men, women, and children. ⁷ But we kept for ourselves all of the livestock and plunder from the towns.

⁸ “So at that time, we took control from the two Amorite kings the territory east of the Jordan from Wadi^[al] Arnon to Mount Hermon. ⁹ (The Sidonians called Hermon Sirion, but the Amorites called it Senir.) ¹⁰ We took control of^[am] all the cities of the plain, all of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹ Only King Og of Bashan remained from the remnants of the Rephaim.^[an] In fact, his bed was made of iron. It’s in Rabbah of the Ammonites, isn’t it? It was nine cubits^[ao] long and four cubits^[ap] wide.”

Moses Allots Land East of the Jordan^(B)

¹² “Of the land that we captured at that time, I’ve given its towns to the descendants of Reuben and the descendants of Gad from Aroer near the Wadi^[aq] Arnon to half of the hill country of Gilead. ¹³ The remainder of Gilead and Bashan of the kingdom of Og, I’ve given to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (The whole region of Argob—that is, all of Bashan—is called the land of the Rephaim.) ¹⁴ Manasseh’s son Jair captured all the Argob region as far as the territory of the descendants of Geshur and the descendants of Maacath. Bashan was named after him; that’s why it is called Havvoth-jair to this day. ¹⁵ Furthermore, I’ve given Gilead to Machir. ¹⁶ And I’ve given Gilead to the descendants of Reuben and the descendants of Gad as far as the Arnon Valley, designating the middle of the valley as its boundary, including up to the Jabbok River as a boundary with the Ammonites. ¹⁷ The Arabah and the Jordan River are also a boundary from Chinnereth^[ar] to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Salt Sea),^[as] below the slopes of Pisgah on the east.”

Moses Instructs the Men of War

¹⁸ “Then I commanded you at that time, ‘The Lord your God gave you this land as a possession. Those equipped for battle—every man a warrior—will cross before your fellow Israelis. ¹⁹ However, your women, children, and livestock—and I know you have many—may reside in your towns that I gave you ²⁰ until the Lord grants rest to your fellow Israelis like you. When they take possession of the territory that the Lord your God is about to give them on the other side of the Jordan River, then each of you may return to the territory that I’ve allotted for you.’

²¹ “I also charged Joshua at that time, ‘You witnessed everything that the Lord your God did to the two kings. Indeed, the Lord will do this to all the kingdoms which you are about to enter. ²² You are not to fear them, because the Lord your God will fight for you.’”

Moses Pleads with God

²³ “I pleaded with the Lord at that time, ²⁴ ‘Lord God, you’ve begun to show your greatness and your strong power to your servant. For what god in heaven or on earth can equal your works and mighty deeds? ²⁵ Let me cross over that I may see the good land on the other side of the Jordan River—the good hill country—as well as Lebanon.’

²⁶ “However, the Lord was furious with me because of you. He did not listen to me. Instead, the Lord said, ‘You are not to speak to me about this matter again! ²⁷ Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift your eyes toward the west, north, south, and east. Look with your own eyes, since you won’t be able to cross this Jordan River. ²⁸ Therefore charge Joshua to be doubly strong, because he will lead this people^[at] and cause them to inherit the land that you’ll see.’ ²⁹ We then encamped in the valley opposite Beth-peor.”

Moses Presents the Privileges of the Covenant

4 “Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and the ordinances that I’m teaching you to observe so you may live and go in to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is about to give you. ² Do not add or subtract a thing to what I’m commanding you. Observe the commands of the Lord your God.^{[au] 3} You saw with your own eyes what he did in Baal Peor. The Lord your God exterminated from among you every man who followed Baal of Peor. ⁴ But all of you who are clinging to the Lord your God are alive today. ⁵ See! I taught you the statutes and the ordinances, just as the Lord God commanded. Therefore, observe them^[av] when you enter the land you are about to possess. ⁶ Observe them carefully, because this will show your wisdom and discernment in the eyes of people who’ll listen to all these decrees. Then they’ll say: ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.’ ⁷ For what great nation has a god so near like the Lord our God whenever we call on him? ⁸ And what great nation has all the decrees and righteous ordinances like all this teaching that I’m giving you today? ⁹ Only guard yourselves carefully so you won’t forget the things that you saw and let them slip from your mind for the rest of your life. Tell them to your children and to your grandchildren. ¹⁰ The day you stood in the presence of the Lord your God in Horeb, the Lord told me, ‘Gather the people before me so they may hear my words, learn to revere me the whole time that they live in the land, and teach them^[aw] to their children.’”

Moses Warns against Idolatry

¹¹ “When you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain—a mountain that was blazing with fire at its core^[ax] while the sky was covered with thick, dark clouds— ¹² the Lord your God spoke from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you saw no form; there was only a voice. ¹³ He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to observe—the Ten Commandments that he wrote on two stone tablets. ¹⁴ The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you to observe the statutes and ordinances in the land after you cross over to take possession of it.

¹⁵ “Therefore, for your own sake, be very careful, since you did not see any form on the day that the Lord your God spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire. ¹⁶ Be careful!^[ay] Otherwise, you will be destroyed when you make carved images for yourself—all sorts of images in the form of man, woman, ¹⁷ any animal on earth, any winged bird that flies in the sky, ¹⁸ any creeping thing on the ground, or any fish in the sea.^{[az] 19} Do not gaze toward the heavens and observe the sun, the moon, the stars—the entire array of the sky—with the intent^[ba] to worship and serve what the Lord your God gave every nation.^{[bb] 20} For the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace—out of Egypt—to be the people of his inheritance, as you are today.

²¹ “But the Lord was angry with me because of you. So he swore that I’ll never cross the Jordan River to enter the good land that the Lord your God is about to give you as an inheritance. ²² I’m going to die in this land and I won’t cross the Jordan River, but you’re about to cross over to possess that good land. ²³ Be careful! Otherwise, you will forget the covenant of the Lord your God, who established that covenant with you. Don’t make carved images of any likeness in violation of everything that you were commanded by the Lord your God. ²⁴ Indeed, the Lord your God is a consuming^[bc] fire. He is a jealous God.”

Warnings against Angering God

²⁵ “After you’ve borne children and grandchildren, have been there for a long time in the land, have become so corrupted that you make images of any form, and have done evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, you will provoke him to anger. ²⁶ Heaven and earth will testify against what has occurred^[bd] today: you’ll surely and swiftly be destroyed from the land that you are about to possess by crossing the Jordan River. You won’t live long in it, because you’ll certainly be exterminated. ²⁷ Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among the nations, and you’ll be fewer in number in the nations where the Lord your God will drive you. ²⁸ There you’ll serve gods made by human hands, serving^[be] trees and stones that cannot see, hear, eat, nor smell. ²⁹ If from there you will seek the Lord your God, then you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and soul. ³⁰ In your distress, when all these things happen to you in days to come and you return to the Lord your God, then you will hear his voice. ³¹ For God is compassionate. The Lord your God won’t fail you. He won’t destroy you or forget the covenant that he confirmed with your ancestors.”

Who is Like the Lord?

³² “Indeed, ask from one end of the heavens to the other about days of old, before your time, when God created mankind on the earth. Did we ever have anything as great as this, or ever hear of anything like it? ³³ Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of a fire just as you did,^[bf] and survived it? ³⁴ Or has any god ever taken for himself one nation out from another nation with testings, signs, wonders, wars, awesome power,^[bg] and magnificent, terrifying deeds^[bh] as the Lord your God did in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁵ “You have been shown this in order to know that ‘the Lord is God’ and there is no one like him. ³⁶ You have been made to hear his voice from heaven so you may be instructed.^[bi] And he showed you his great fire here on earth, and you heard his voice from the middle of that fire. ³⁷ Moreover, he loved your ancestors, chose their descendants after them, and brought you out of Egypt, accompanied by his presence and great power, ³⁸ in order to drive out nations that are stronger and more powerful than you, to bring you into this land,^[bj] and to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today.

³⁹ “May you acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in the heavens above and over the earth below—there is no other God.^{[bk] 40} May you observe his statutes and keep his commands that I’m giving you today, so that life may go well for you and for your descendants after you. That way, you’ll live a long life in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you permanently.”^[bl]

Cities of Refuge

⁴¹ Then Moses designated three cities on the east side of the Jordan, ⁴² where a person who accidentally killed someone could flee, if he killed his neighbor without having enmity toward him in the past. He may flee to one of these cities and live: ⁴³ Bezer in the desert plain for the descendants of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead for the descendants of Gad, and Golan in Bashan for the descendants of Manasseh.