Bible in 90 Days

²⁰ So Moses told them, “You must do these things. You must go before the Lord into battle ²¹ and cross the Jordan River armed, until the Lord forces out the enemy. ²² After the Lord helps us take the land, you may return home. You will have done your duty to the Lord and Israel, and you may have this land as your own.

²³ “But if you don’t do these things, you will be sinning against the Lord; know for sure that you will be punished for your sin. ²⁴ Build cities for your children and pens for your animals, but then you must do what you promised.”

²⁵ The Gadites and Reubenites said to Moses, “We are your servants, and we will do what you, our master, command. ²⁶ Our children, wives, and all our cattle will stay in the cities of Gilead, ²⁷ but we, your servants, will prepare for battle. We will go over and fight for the Lord, as you, our master, have said.”

²⁸ So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua son of Nun, and to the leaders of the tribes of Israel. ²⁹ Moses said to them, “If the Gadites and Reubenites prepare for battle and cross the Jordan River with you, to go before the Lord and help you take the land, give them the land of Gilead for their own. ³⁰ But if they do not go over armed, they will not receive it; their land will be in Canaan with you.”

³¹ The Gadites and Reubenites answered, “We are your servants, and we will do as the Lord said. ³² We will cross over into Canaan and go before the Lord ready for battle. But our land will be east of the Jordan River.”

³³ So Moses gave that land to the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and East Manasseh. (Manasseh was Joseph’s son.) That land had been the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, as well as all the cities and the land around them.

³⁴ The Gadites rebuilt the cities of Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, ³⁵ Atroth Shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, ³⁶ Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran. These were strong, walled cities. And they built sheep pens.

³⁷ The Reubenites rebuilt Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, ³⁸ Nebo, Baal Meon, and Sibmah. They renamed Nebo and Baal Meon when they rebuilt them.

³⁹ The descendants of Makir son of Manasseh went and captured Gilead and forced out the Amorites who were there. ⁴⁰ So Moses gave Gilead to the family of Makir son of Manasseh, and they settled there. ⁴¹ Jair son of Manasseh went out and captured the small towns there, and he called them the Towns of Jair. ⁴² Nobah went and captured Kenath and the small towns around it; then he named it Nobah after himself.

Israel’s Journey from Egypt

33 These are the places the Israelites went as Moses and Aaron led them out of Egypt in divisions. ² At the Lord’s command Moses recorded the places they went, and these are the places they went.

³ On the fifteenth day of the first month, the day after the Passover, the Israelites left Rameses and marched out boldly in front of all the Egyptians. ⁴ The Egyptians were burying their firstborn sons, whom the Lord had killed; the Lord showed that the gods of Egypt were false.

⁵ The Israelites left Rameses and camped at Succoth.

⁶ They left Succoth and camped at Etham, at the edge of the desert.

⁷ They left Etham and went back to Pi Hahiroth, to the east of Baal Zephon, and camped near Migdol.

⁸ They left Pi Hahiroth and walked through the sea into the desert. After going three days through the Desert of Etham, they camped at Marah.

⁹ They left Marah and went to Elim; there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees where they camped.

¹⁰ They left Elim and camped near the Red Sea.

¹¹ They left the Red Sea and camped in the Desert of Sin.

¹² They left the Desert of Sin and camped at Dophkah.

¹³ They left Dophkah and camped at Alush.

¹⁴ They left Alush and camped at Rephidim, where the people had no water to drink.

¹⁵ They left Rephidim and camped in the Desert of Sinai.

¹⁶ They left the Desert of Sinai and camped at Kibroth Hattaavah.

¹⁷ They left Kibroth Hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.

¹⁸ They left Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah.

¹⁹ They left Rithmah and camped at Rimmon Perez.

²⁰ They left Rimmon Perez and camped at Libnah.

²¹ They left Libnah and camped at Rissah.

²² They left Rissah and camped at Kehelathah.

²³ They left Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher.

²⁴ They left Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah.

²⁵ They left Haradah and camped at Makheloth.

²⁶ They left Makheloth and camped at Tahath.

²⁷ They left Tahath and camped at Terah.

²⁸ They left Terah and camped at Mithcah.

²⁹ They left Mithcah and camped at Hashmonah.

³⁰ They left Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth.

³¹ They left Moseroth and camped at Bene Jaakan.

³² They left Bene Jaakan and camped at Hor Haggidgad.

³³ They left Hor Haggidgad and camped at Jotbathah.

³⁴ They left Jotbathah and camped at Abronah.

³⁵ They left Abronah and camped at Ezion Geber.

³⁶ They left Ezion Geber and camped at Kadesh in the Desert of Zin.

³⁷ They left Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the border of Edom. ³⁸ Aaron the priest obeyed the Lord and went up Mount Hor. There he died on the first day of the fifth month in the fortieth year after the Israelites left Egypt. ³⁹ Aaron was 123 years old when he died on Mount Hor.

⁴⁰ The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the southern area of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming.

⁴¹ The people left Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah.

⁴² They left Zalmonah and camped at Punon.

⁴³ They left Punon and camped at Oboth.

⁴⁴ They left Oboth and camped at Iye Abarim, on the border of Moab.

⁴⁵ They left Iye Abarim and camped at Dibon Gad.

⁴⁶ They left Dibon Gad and camped at Almon Diblathaim.

⁴⁷ They left Almon Diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, near Nebo.

⁴⁸ They left the mountains of Abarim and camped on the plains of Moab near the Jordan River across from Jericho. ⁴⁹ They camped along the Jordan on the plains of Moab, and their camp went from Beth Jeshimoth to Abel Acacia.

⁵⁰ On the plains of Moab by the Jordan River across from Jericho, the Lord spoke to Moses. He said, ⁵¹ “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you cross the Jordan River and go into Canaan, ⁵² force out all the people who live there. Destroy all of their carved statues and metal idols. Wreck all of their places of worship. ⁵³ Take over the land and settle there, because I have given this land to you to own. ⁵⁴ Throw lots to divide up the land by family groups, giving larger portions to larger family groups and smaller portions to smaller family groups. The land will be given as the lots decide; each tribe will get its own land.

⁵⁵ “‘But if you don’t force those people out of the land, they will bring you trouble. They will be like sharp hooks in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will bring trouble to the land where you live. ⁵⁶ Then I will punish you as I had planned to punish them.’”

The Borders of Canaan

34 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Give this command to the people of Israel: ‘You will soon enter Canaan and it will be yours. These shall be the borders: ³ On the south you will get part of the Desert of Zin near the border of Edom. On the east side your southern border will start at the south end of the Dead Sea, ⁴ cross south of Scorpion Pass, and go through the Desert of Zin and south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon. ⁵ From Azmon it will go to the brook of Egypt, and it will end at the Mediterranean Sea.

⁶ “‘Your western border will be the Mediterranean Sea.

⁷ “‘Your northern border will begin at the Mediterranean Sea and go to Mount Hor. ⁸ From Mount Hor it will go to Lebo Hamath, and on to Zedad. ⁹ Then the border will go to Ziphron, and it will end at Hazar Enan. This will be your northern border.

¹⁰ “‘Your eastern border will begin at Hazar Enan and go to Shepham. ¹¹ From Shepham the border will go east of Ain to Riblah and along the hills east of Lake Galilee. ¹² Then the border will go down along the Jordan River and end at the Dead Sea.

“‘These are the borders around your country.’”

¹³ So Moses gave this command to the Israelites: “This is the land you will receive. Throw lots to divide it among the nine and one-half tribes, because the Lord commanded that it should be theirs. ¹⁴ The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh have already received their land. ¹⁵ These two and one-half tribes received land east of the Jordan River, across from Jericho.”

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷ “These are the men who will divide the land: Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun. ¹⁸ Also take one leader from each tribe to help divide the land. ¹⁹ These are the names of the leaders: from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; ²⁰ from the tribe of Simeon, Shemuel son of Ammihud; ²¹ from the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad son of Kislon; ²² from the tribe of Dan, Bukki son of Jogli; ²³ from the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph, Hanniel son of Ephod; ²⁴ from the tribe of Ephraim son of Joseph, Kemuel son of Shiphtan; ²⁵ from the tribe of Zebulun, Elizaphan son of Parnach; ²⁶ from the tribe of Issachar, Paltiel son of Azzan; ²⁷ from the tribe of Asher, Ahihud son of Shelomi; ²⁸ from the tribe of Naphtali, Pedahel son of Ammihud.”

²⁹ The Lord commanded these men to divide the land of Canaan among the Israelites.

The Levites’ Towns

35 The Lord spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab across from Jericho by the Jordan River. He said, ² “Command the Israelites to give the Levites cities to live in from the land they receive. Also give the Levites the pastureland around these cities. ³ Then the Levites will have cities where they may live and pastureland for their cattle, flocks, and other animals. ⁴ The pastureland you give the Levites will extend fifteen hundred feet from the city wall. ⁵ Also measure three thousand feet in each direction outside the city wall—three thousand feet east of the city, three thousand feet south of the city, three thousand feet west of the city, and three thousand feet north of the city, with the city in the center. This will be pastureland for the Levites’ cities.

Cities of Safety

⁶ “Six of the cities you give the Levites will be cities of safety. A person who accidentally kills someone may run to one of those cities for safety. You must also give forty-two other cities to the Levites; ⁷ give the Levites a total of forty-eight cities and their pastures. ⁸ The larger tribes of Israel must give more cities, and the smaller tribes must give fewer cities. Each tribe must give some of its cities to the Levites, but the number of cities they give will depend on the size of their land.”

⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ “Tell the Israelites these things: ‘When you cross the Jordan River and go into Canaan, ¹¹ you must choose cities to be cities of safety, so that a person who accidentally kills someone may run to them for safety. ¹² There the person will be safe from the dead person’s relative who has the duty of punishing the killer. He will not die before he receives a fair trial in court. ¹³ The six cities you give will be cities of safety. ¹⁴ Give three cities east of the Jordan River and three cities in Canaan as cities of safety. ¹⁵ These six cities will be places of safety for citizens of Israel, as well as for foreigners and other people living with you. Any of these people who accidentally kills someone may run to one of these cities.

¹⁶ “‘Anyone who uses an iron weapon to kill someone is a murderer. He must be put to death. ¹⁷ Anyone who takes a rock and kills a person with it is a murderer. He must be put to death. ¹⁸ Anyone who picks up a piece of wood and kills someone with it is a murderer. He must be put to death. ¹⁹ A relative of the dead person must put the murderer to death; when they meet, the relative must kill the murderer. ²⁰ A person might shove someone or throw something at someone and cause death. ²¹ Or a person might hit someone with his hand and cause death. If it were done from hate, the person is a murderer and must be put to death. A relative of the dead person must kill the murderer when they meet.

²² “‘But a person might suddenly shove someone, and not from hatred. Or a person might accidentally throw something and hit someone. ²³ Or a person might drop a rock on someone he couldn’t see and kill that person. There was no plan to hurt anyone and no hatred for the one who was killed. ²⁴ If that happens, the community must judge between the relative of the dead person and the killer, according to these rules. ²⁵ They must protect the killer from the dead person’s relative, sending the killer back to the original city of safety, to stay there until the high priest dies (the high priest had the holy oil poured on him).

²⁶ “‘Such a person must never go outside the limits of the city of safety. ²⁷ If a relative of the dead person finds the killer outside the city, the relative may kill that person and not be guilty of murder. ²⁸ The killer must stay in the city of safety until the high priest dies. After the high priest dies, the killer may go home.

²⁹ “‘These laws are for you from now on, wherever you live.

³⁰ “‘If anyone kills a person, the murderer may be put to death only if there are witnesses. No one may be put to death with only one witness.

³¹ “‘Don’t take money to spare the life of a murderer who should be put to death. A murderer must be put to death.

³² “‘If someone has run to a city of safety, don’t take money to let the person go back home before the high priest dies.

³³ “‘Don’t let murder spoil your land. The only way to remove the sin of killing an innocent person is for the murderer to be put to death. ³⁴ I am the Lord, and I live among the Israelites. I live in that land with you, so do not spoil it with murder.’”

Land for Zelophehad’s Daughters

36 The leaders of Gilead’s family group went to talk to Moses and the leaders of the families of Israel. (Gilead was the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, the son of Joseph.) ² They said, “The Lord commanded you, our master, to give the land to the Israelites by throwing lots, and the Lord commanded you to give the land of Zelophehad, our brother, to his daughters. ³ But if his daughters marry men from other tribes of Israel, then that land will leave our family, and the people of the other tribes will get that land. So we will lose some of our land. ⁴ When the time of Jubilee comes for the Israelites, their land will go to the tribes of the people they marry; their land will be taken away from us, the land we received from our fathers.”

⁵ Then Moses gave the Israelites this command from the Lord: “These men from the tribe of Joseph are right. ⁶ This is the Lord’s command to Zelophehad’s daughters: You may marry anyone you wish, as long as the person is from your own tribe. ⁷ In this way the Israelites’ land will not pass from tribe to tribe, and each Israelite will keep the land in the tribe that belonged to his ancestors. ⁸ A woman who inherits her father’s land may marry, but she must marry someone from her own tribe. In this way every Israelite will keep the land that belonged to his ancestors. ⁹ The land must not pass from tribe to tribe, and each Israelite tribe will keep the land it received from its ancestors.”

¹⁰ Zelophehad’s daughters obeyed the Lord’s command to Moses.

¹¹ So Zelophehad’s daughters—Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah—married their cousins, their father’s relatives. ¹² Their husbands were from the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph, so their land stayed in their father’s family group and tribe.

¹³ These were the laws and commands that the Lord gave to the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan River, across from Jericho.

Moses Talks to the Israelites

1 This is the message Moses gave to all the people of Israel in the desert east of the Jordan River. They were in the desert area near Suph, between Paran and the towns of Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

² (The trip from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea on the Mount Seir road takes eleven days.) ³ Forty years after the Israelites had left Egypt, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses told the people of Israel everything the Lord had commanded him to tell them. ⁴ This was after the Lord had defeated Sihon and Og. Sihon was king of the Amorite people and lived in Heshbon. Og was king of Bashan and lived in Ashteroth and Edrei.

⁵ Now the Israelites were east of the Jordan River in the land of Moab, and there Moses began to explain what God had commanded. He said:

⁶ The Lord our God spoke to us at Mount Sinai and said, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Get ready, and go to the mountain country of the Amorites, and to all the places around there—the Jordan Valley, the mountains, the western hills, the southern area, the seacoast, the land of Canaan, and Lebanon. Go as far as the great river, the Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have given you this land, so go in and take it for yourselves. The Lord promised it to your ancestors—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants.”

Moses Appoints Leaders

⁹ At that time I said, “I am not able to take care of you by myself. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has made you grow in number so that there are as many of you as there are stars in the sky. ¹¹ I pray that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, will give you a thousand times more people and do all the wonderful things he promised. ¹² But I cannot take care of your problems, your troubles, and your arguments by myself. ¹³ So choose some men from each tribe—wise men who have understanding and experience—and I will make them leaders over you.”

¹⁴ And you said, “That’s a good thing to do.”

¹⁵ So I took the wise and experienced leaders of your tribes, and I made them your leaders. I appointed commanders over a thousand people, over a hundred people, over fifty people, and over ten people and made them officers over your tribes. ¹⁶ Then I told your leaders, “Listen to the arguments between your people. Judge fairly between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner. ¹⁷ When you judge, be fair to everyone; don’t act as if one person is more important than another, and don’t be afraid of anyone, because your decision comes from God. Bring the hard cases to me, and I will judge them.” ¹⁸ At that time I told you everything you must do.

Spies Enter the Land

¹⁹ Then, as the Lord our God commanded us, we left Mount Sinai and went toward the mountain country of the Amorite people. We went through that large and terrible desert you saw, and then we came to Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰ I said to you, “You have now come to the mountain country of the Amorites, to the land the Lord our God will give us. ²¹ Look, here it is! Go up and take it. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you to do this, so don’t be afraid and don’t worry.”

²² Then all of you came to me and said, “Let’s send men before us to spy out the land. They can come back and tell us about the way we should go and the cities we will find.”

²³ I thought that was a good idea, so I chose twelve of your men, one for each tribe. ²⁴ They left and went up to the mountains, and when they came to the Valley of Eshcol they explored it. ²⁵ They took some of the fruit from that land and brought it down to us, saying, “It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.”

Israel Refuses to Enter

²⁶ But you refused to go. You would not obey the command of the Lord your God, ²⁷ but grumbled in your tents, saying, “The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to give us to the Amorites, who will destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go now? The spies we sent have made us afraid, because they said, ‘The people there are stronger and taller than we are. The cities are big, with walls up to the sky. And we saw the Anakites there!’”

²⁹ Then I said to you, “Don’t be frightened; don’t be afraid of those people. ³⁰ The Lord your God will go ahead of you and fight for you as he did in Egypt; you saw him do it. ³¹ And in the desert you saw how the Lord your God carried you, like one carries a child. And he has brought you safely all the way to this place.”

³² But you still did not trust the Lord your God, even though ³³ he had always gone before you to find places for you to camp. In a fire at night and in a cloud during the day, he showed you which way to go.

³⁴ When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and made an oath, saying, ³⁵ “I promised a good land to your ancestors, but none of you evil people will see it. ³⁶ Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will see it. I will give him and his descendants the land he walked on, because he followed the Lord completely.”

³⁷ Because of you, the Lord was also angry with me and said, “You won’t enter the land either, ³⁸ but your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to take the land for their own.

³⁹ “Your little children that you said would be captured, who do not know right from wrong at this time, will go into the land. I will give the land to them, and they will take it for their own. ⁴⁰ But you must turn around and follow the desert road toward the Red Sea.”

⁴¹ Then you said to me, “We have sinned against the Lord, but now we will go up and fight, as the Lord our God commanded us.” Then all of you put on weapons, thinking it would be easy to go into the mountains.

⁴² But the Lord said to me, “Tell the people, ‘You must not go up there and fight. I will not be with you, and your enemies will defeat you.’”

⁴³ So I told you, but you would not listen. You would not obey the Lord’s command. You were proud, so you went on up into the mountains, ⁴⁴ and the Amorites who lived in those mountains came out and fought you. They chased you like bees and defeated you from Edom to Hormah. ⁴⁵ So you came back and cried before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to you; he refused to pay attention to you. ⁴⁶ So you stayed in Kadesh a long time.

Israel Wanders in the Desert

2 Then we turned around, and we traveled on the desert road toward the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me to do. We traveled through the mountains of Edom for many days.

² Then the Lord said to me, ³ “You have traveled through these mountains long enough. Turn north ⁴ and give the people this command: ‘You will soon go through the land that belongs to your relatives, the descendants of Esau who live in Edom. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. ⁵ Do not go to war against them. I will not give you any of their land—not even a foot of it, because I have given the mountains of Edom to Esau as his own. ⁶ You must pay them in silver for any food you eat or water you drink.’”

⁷ The Lord your God has blessed everything you have done; he has protected you while you traveled through this great desert. The Lord your God has been with you for the past forty years, and you have had everything you needed.

⁸ So we passed by our relatives, the descendants of Esau who lived in Edom. We turned off the Jordan Valley road that comes from the towns of Elath and Ezion Geber and traveled along the desert road to Moab.

The Land of Ar

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, “Don’t bother the people of Moab. Don’t go to war against them, because I will not give you any of their land as your own; I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their own.” ¹⁰ (The Emites, who lived in Ar before, were strong people, and there were many of them. They were very tall, like the Anakites. ¹¹ The Emites were thought to be Rephaites, like the Anakites, but the Moabite people called them Emites. ¹² The Horites also lived in Edom before, but the descendants of Esau forced them out and destroyed them, taking their place as Israel did in the land the Lord gave them as their own.)

¹³ And the Lord said to me, “Now get up and cross the Zered Valley.” So we crossed the valley. ¹⁴ It had been thirty-eight years from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, all the fighting men from that time had died, as the Lord had promised would happen. ¹⁵ The Lord continued to work against them to remove them from the camp until they were all dead.

¹⁶ When the last of those fighting men had died, ¹⁷ the Lord said to me, ¹⁸ “Today you will pass by Ar, on the border of Moab. ¹⁹ When you come near the people of Ammon, don’t bother them or go to war against them, because I will not give you any of their land as your own. I have given it to the descendants of Lot for their own.”

²⁰ (That land was also thought to be a land of the Rephaites, because those people used to live there, but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. ²¹ They were strong people, and there were many of them; they were very tall, like the Anakites. The Lord destroyed the Zamzummites, and the Ammonites forced them out of the land and took their place. ²² The Lord did the same thing for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Edom, when he destroyed the Horites. The Edomites forced them out of the land and took their place, and they live there to this day. ²³ The Cretan people came from Crete and destroyed the Avvites, who lived in towns all the way to Gaza; the Cretans destroyed them and took their place.)

Fighting the Amorites

²⁴ The Lord said, “Get up and cross the Arnon Ravine. See, I am giving you the power to defeat Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and I am giving you his land. So fight against him and begin taking his land. ²⁵ Today I will begin to make all the people in the world afraid of you. When they hear reports about you, they will shake with fear, and they will be terrified of you.”

²⁶ I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon. They offered him peace, saying, ²⁷ “If you let us pass through your country, we will stay on the road and not turn right or left. ²⁸ We will pay you in silver for any food we eat or water we drink. We only want to walk through your country. ²⁹ The descendants of Esau in Edom let us go through their land, and so did the Moabites in Ar. We want to cross the Jordan River into the land the Lord our God has given us.” ³⁰ But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass, because the Lord your God had made him stubborn. The Lord wanted you to defeat Sihon, and now this has happened.

³¹ The Lord said to me, “See, I have begun to give Sihon and his country to you. Begin taking the land as your own.”

³² Then Sihon and all his army came out and fought us at Jahaz, ³³ but the Lord our God gave Sihon to us. We defeated him, his sons, and all his army. ³⁴ We captured all his cities at that time and completely destroyed them, as well as the men, women, and children. We left no one alive. ³⁵ But we kept the cattle and valuable things from the cities for ourselves. ³⁶ We defeated Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Ravine, and we defeated the town in the ravine, and even as far as Gilead. No town was too strong for us; the Lord our God gave us all of them. ³⁷ But you did not go near the land of the Ammonites, on the shores of the Jabbok River, or the towns in the mountains, as the Lord our God had commanded.

The Battle at Bashan

3 When we turned and went up the road toward Bashan, Og king of Bashan and all his army came out to fight us at Edrei. ² The Lord said to me, “Don’t be afraid of Og, because I will hand him, his whole army, and his land over to you. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon.”

³ So the Lord our God gave us Og king of Bashan and all his army; we defeated them and left no one alive. ⁴ Then we captured all of Og’s cities, all sixty of them, and took the whole area of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan. ⁵ All these were strong cities, with high walls and gates with bars. And there were also many small towns with no walls. ⁶ We completely destroyed them, just like the cities of Sihon king of Heshbon. We killed all the men, women, and children, ⁷ but we kept all the cattle and valuable things from the cities for ourselves.

⁸ So at that time we took the land east of the Jordan River, from the Arnon Ravine to Mount Hermon, from these two Amorite kings. ⁹ (Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonian people, but the Amorites call it Senir.) ¹⁰ We captured all the cities on the high plain and all of Gilead, and we took all of Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns in Og’s kingdom of Bashan. ¹¹ (Only Og king of Bashan was left of the few Rephaites. His bed was made of iron, and it was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide! It is still in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.)

The Land Is Divided

¹² At that time we took this land to be our own. I gave the people of Reuben and Gad the land from Aroer by the Arnon Ravine, as well as half of the mountain country of Gilead and the cities in it. ¹³ To the people of East Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og. (The area of Argob in Bashan was called the land of the Rephaites. ¹⁴ Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole area of Argob, all the way to the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. So that land was named for Jair, and even today Bashan is called the Towns of Jair.) ¹⁵ I gave Gilead to Makir. ¹⁶ I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the land that begins at Gilead and goes from the Arnon Ravine (the middle of the Arnon is the border) to the Jabbok River, which is the Ammonite border. ¹⁷ The border on the west was the Jordan River in the Jordan Valley, and it goes from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea west of Mount Pisgah.

¹⁸ At that time I gave you this command: “The Lord your God has given you this land as your own. Now your fighting men must take their weapons, and you must lead the other Israelites across the river. ¹⁹ Your wives, your young children, and your cattle may stay here. I know you have many cattle, and they may stay here in the cities I have given you, ²⁰ until the Lord also gives your Israelite relatives a place to rest. They will receive the land the Lord your God has given them on the other side of the Jordan River. After that, you may each return to the land I have given you.”

²¹ Then I gave this command to Joshua: “You have seen for yourself all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. The Lord will do the same thing to all the kingdoms where you are going. ²² Don’t be afraid of them, because the Lord your God will fight for you.”

Moses Cannot Enter the Land

²³ Then I begged the Lord: ²⁴ “Lord God, you have begun to show me, your servant, how great you are. You have great strength, and no other god in heaven or on earth can do the powerful things you do. There is no other god like you. ²⁵ Please let me cross the Jordan River so that I may see the good land by the Jordan. I want to see the beautiful mountains and Lebanon.”

²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. The Lord said to me, “That’s enough. Don’t talk to me anymore about it. ²⁷ Climb to the top of Mount Pisgah and look west, north, south, and east. You can look at the land, but you will not cross the Jordan River. ²⁸ Appoint Joshua and help him be brave and strong. He will lead the people across the river and give them the land that they are to inherit, but you can only look at it.” ²⁹ So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Moses Tells Israel to Obey

4 Now, Israel, listen to the laws and commands I will teach you. Obey them so that you will live and so that you will go over and take the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving to you. ² Don’t add to these commands, and don’t leave anything out, but obey the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

³ You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did at Baal Peor, how the Lord your God destroyed everyone among you who followed Baal in Peor. ⁴ But all of you who continued following the Lord your God are still alive today.

⁵ Look, I have taught you the laws and rules the Lord my God commanded me. Now you can obey the laws in the land you are entering, in the land you will take. ⁶ Obey these laws carefully, in order to show the other nations that you have wisdom and understanding. When they hear about these laws, they will say, “This great nation of Israel is wise and understanding.” ⁷ No other nation is as great as we are. Their gods do not come near them, but the Lord our God comes near when we pray to him. ⁸ And no other nation has such good teachings and commands as those I am giving to you today.

⁹ But be careful! Watch out and don’t forget the things you have seen. Don’t forget them as long as you live, but teach them to your children and grandchildren. ¹⁰ Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Mount Sinai. He said to me, “Bring the people together so I can tell them what I have to say. Then they will respect me as long as they live in the land, and they will teach these things to their children.” ¹¹ When you came and stood at the bottom of the mountain, it blazed with fire that reached to the sky, and black clouds made it very dark. ¹² The Lord spoke to you from the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you did not see him; there was only a voice. ¹³ The Lord told you about his Agreement, the Ten Commandments. He told you to obey them, and he wrote them on two stone tablets. ¹⁴ Then the Lord commanded me to teach you the laws and rules that you must obey in the land you will take when you cross the Jordan River.

Laws About Idols

¹⁵ Since the Lord spoke to you from the fire at Mount Sinai, but you did not see him, watch yourselves carefully! ¹⁶ Don’t sin by making idols of any kind, and don’t make statues—of men or women, ¹⁷ of animals on earth or birds that fly in the air, ¹⁸ of anything that crawls on the ground, or of fish in the water below. ¹⁹ When you look up at the sky, you see the sun, moon, and stars, and everything in the sky. But don’t bow down and worship them, because the Lord your God has made these things for all people everywhere. ²⁰ But the Lord brought you out of Egypt, which tested you like a furnace for melting iron, and he made you his very own people, as you are now.

²¹ The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan River to go into the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your own. ²² I will die here in this land and not cross the Jordan, but you will soon go across and take that good land. ²³ Be careful. Don’t forget the Agreement of the Lord your God that he made with you, and don’t make any idols for yourselves, as the Lord your God has commanded you not to do. ²⁴ The Lord your God is a jealous God, like a fire that burns things up.

²⁵ Even after you have lived in the land a long time and have had children and grandchildren, don’t do evil things. Don’t make any kind of idol, and don’t do what the Lord your God says is evil, because that will make him angry. ²⁶ If you do, I ask heaven and earth to speak against you this day that you will quickly be removed from this land that you are crossing the Jordan River to take. You will not live there long after that, but you will be completely destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord will scatter you among the other nations. Only a few of you will be left alive, and those few will be in other nations where the Lord will send you. ²⁸ There you will worship gods made by people, gods made of wood and stone, that cannot see, hear, eat, or smell. ²⁹ But even there you can look for the Lord your God, and you will find him if you look for him with your whole being. ³⁰ It will be hard when all these things happen to you. But after that you will come back to the Lord your God and obey him, ³¹ because the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you. He will not forget the Agreement with your ancestors, which he swore to them.

The Lord Is Great

³² Nothing like this has ever happened before! Look at the past, long before you were even born. Go all the way back to when God made humans on the earth, and look from one end of heaven to the other. Nothing like this has ever been heard of! ³³ No other people have ever heard God speak from a fire and have still lived. But you have. ³⁴ No other god has ever taken for himself one nation out of another. But the Lord your God did this for you in Egypt, right before your own eyes. He did it with tests, signs, miracles, war, and great sights, by his great power and strength.

³⁵ He showed you things so you would know that the Lord is God, and there is no other God besides him. ³⁶ He spoke to you from heaven to teach you. He showed you his great fire on earth, and you heard him speak from the fire. ³⁷ Because the Lord loved your ancestors, he chose you, their descendants, and he brought you out of Egypt himself by his great strength. ³⁸ He forced nations out of their land ahead of you, nations that were bigger and stronger than you were. The Lord did this so he could bring you into their land and give it to you as your own, and this land is yours today.

³⁹ Know and believe today that the Lord is God. He is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other god! ⁴⁰ Obey his laws and commands that I am giving you today so that things will go well for you and your children. Then you will live a long time in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you forever.

Cities of Safety

⁴¹ Moses chose three cities east of the Jordan River, ⁴² where a person who accidentally killed someone could go. If the person was not killed because of hatred, the murderer’s life could be saved by running to one of these cities. ⁴³ These were the cities: Bezer in the desert high plain was for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead was for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan was for the Manassites.

The Laws Moses Gave

⁴⁴ These are the teachings Moses gave to the people of Israel. ⁴⁵ They are the rules, commands, and laws he gave them when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁶ They were in the valley near Beth Peor, east of the Jordan River, in the land of Sihon. Sihon king of the Amorites ruled in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ The Israelites took his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River. ⁴⁸ This land went from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Ravine, to Mount Hermon. ⁴⁹ It included all the Jordan Valley east of the Jordan River, and it went as far as the Dead Sea below Mount Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments

5 Moses called all the people of Israel together and said: Listen, Israel, to the commands and laws I am giving you today. Learn them and obey them carefully. ² The Lord our God made an Agreement with us at Mount Sinai. ³ He did not make this Agreement with our ancestors, but he made it with us, with all of us who are alive here today. ⁴ The Lord spoke to you face to face from the fire on the mountain. ⁵ (At that time I stood between you and the Lord in order to tell you what the Lord said; you were afraid of the fire, so you would not go up on the mountain.) The Lord said:

⁶ “I am the Lord your God; I brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves.

⁷ “You must not have any other gods except me.

⁸ “You must not make for yourselves any idols or anything to worship that looks like something in the sky above or on the earth below or in the water below the land. ⁹ You must not worship or serve any idol, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. If people sin against me and hate me, I will punish their children, even their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. ¹⁰ But I will be very kind for a thousand lifetimes to those who love me and obey my commands.

¹¹ “You must not use the name of the Lord your God thoughtlessly, because the Lord will punish anyone who uses his name in this way.

¹² “Keep the Sabbath as a holy day, as the Lord your God has commanded you. ¹³ You may work and get everything done during six days each week, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work: not you, your son or daughter, your male or female slaves, your ox, your donkey, or any of your animals, or the foreigners living in your cities. That way your servants may rest as you do. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by his great power and strength. So the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.

¹⁶ “Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you. Then you will live a long time, and things will go well for you in the land that the Lord your God is going to give you.

¹⁷ “You must not murder anyone.

¹⁸ “You must not be guilty of adultery.

¹⁹ “You must not steal.

²⁰ “You must not tell lies about your neighbor.

²¹ “You must not want to take your neighbor’s wife. You must not want to take your neighbor’s house or land, his male or female slaves, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

²² The Lord spoke these commands to all of you on the mountain in a loud voice out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness; he did not say anything else. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets, and he gave them to me.

²³ When you heard the voice from the darkness, as the mountain was blazing with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me. ²⁴ And you said, “The Lord our God has shown us his glory and majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks to him. ²⁵ But now, we will die! This great fire will burn us up, and we will die if we hear the Lord our God speak anymore. ²⁶ No human being has ever heard the living God speaking from a fire and still lived, but we have. ²⁷ Moses, you go near and listen to everything the Lord our God says. Then you tell us what the Lord our God tells you, and we will listen and obey.”

²⁸ The Lord heard what you said to me, and he said to me, “I have heard what the people said to you. Everything they said was good. ²⁹ I wish their hearts would always respect me and that they would always obey my commands so that things would go well for them and their children forever!

³⁰ “Go and tell the people to return to their tents, ³¹ but you stay here with me so that I may give you all the commands, rules, and laws that you must teach the people to obey in the land I am giving them as their own.”

³² So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you, and follow the commands exactly. ³³ Live the way the Lord your God has commanded you so that you may live and have what is good and have a long life in the land you will take.

The Command to Love God

6 These are the commands, rules, and laws that the Lord your God told me to teach you to obey in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take. ² You, your children, and your grandchildren must respect the Lord your God as long as you live. Obey all his rules and commands I give you so that you will live a long time. ³ Listen, Israel, and carefully obey these laws. Then all will go well for you, and you will become a great nation in a fertile land, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

⁴ Listen, people of Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. ⁶ Always remember these commands I give you today. ⁷ Teach them to your children, and talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign. Tie them on your forehead to remind you, ⁹ and write them on your doors and gates.

¹⁰ The Lord your God will bring you into the land he promised to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he will give it to you. The land has large, growing cities you did not build, ¹¹ houses full of good things you did not buy, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. You will eat as much as you want. ¹² But be careful! Do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves.

¹³ Respect the Lord your God. You must worship him and make your promises only in his name. ¹⁴ Do not worship other gods as the people around you do, ¹⁵ because the Lord your God is a jealous God. He is present with you, and if you worship other gods, he will become angry with you and destroy you from the earth. ¹⁶ Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah. ¹⁷ Be sure to obey the commands of the Lord your God and the rules and laws he has given you. ¹⁸ Do what the Lord says is good and right so that things will go well for you. Then you may go in and take the good land the Lord promised to your ancestors. ¹⁹ He will force all your enemies out as you go in, as the Lord has said.

²⁰ In the future when your children ask you, “What is the meaning of the laws, commands, and rules the Lord our God gave us?” ²¹ tell them, “We were slaves to the king of Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt by his great power. ²² The Lord showed us great and terrible signs and miracles, which he did to Egypt, the king, and his whole family. ²³ The Lord brought us out of Egypt to lead us here and to give us the land he promised our ancestors. ²⁴ The Lord ordered us to obey all these commands and to respect the Lord our God so that we will always do well and stay alive, as we are today. ²⁵ The right thing for us to do is this: Obey all these rules in the presence of the Lord our God, as he has commanded.”

You Are God’s People

7 The Lord your God will bring you into the land that you are entering and that you will have as your own. As you go in, he will force out these nations: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—seven nations that are stronger than you. ² The Lord your God will hand these nations over to you, and when you defeat them, you must destroy them completely. Do not make a peace treaty with them or show them any mercy. ³ Do not marry any of them, or let your daughters marry their sons, or let your sons marry their daughters. ⁴ If you do, those people will turn your children away from me, to begin serving other gods. Then the Lord will be very angry with you, and he will quickly destroy you. ⁵ This is what you must do to those people: Tear down their altars, smash their holy stone pillars, cut down their Asherah idols, and burn their idols in the fire. ⁶ You are holy people who belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own.

⁷ The Lord did not care for you and choose you because there were many of you—you are the smallest nation of all. ⁸ But the Lord chose you because he loved you, and he kept his promise to your ancestors. So he brought you out of Egypt by his great power and freed you from the land of slavery, from the power of the king of Egypt. ⁹ So know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God. He will keep his agreement of love for a thousand lifetimes for people who love him and obey his commands. ¹⁰ But he will pay back those people who hate him. He will destroy them, and he will not be slow to pay back those who hate him. ¹¹ So be careful to obey the commands, rules, and laws I give you today.

¹² If you pay attention to these laws and obey them carefully, the Lord your God will keep his agreement and show his love to you, as he promised your ancestors. ¹³ He will love and bless you. He will make the number of your people grow; he will bless you with children. He will bless your fields with good crops and will give you grain, new wine, and oil. He will bless your herds with calves and your flocks with lambs in the land he promised your ancestors he would give you. ¹⁴ You will be blessed more than any other people. Every husband and wife will have children, and all your cattle will have calves. ¹⁵ The Lord will take away all disease from you; you will not have the terrible diseases that were in Egypt, but he will give them to all the people who hate you. ¹⁶ You must destroy all the people the Lord your God hands over to you. Do not feel sorry for them, and do not worship their gods, or they will trap you.

¹⁷ You might say to yourselves, “Because these nations are stronger than we are, we can’t force them out.” ¹⁸ But don’t be afraid of them. Remember what the Lord your God did to all of Egypt and its king. ¹⁹ You saw for yourselves the troubles, signs, and miracles he did, how the Lord’s great power and strength brought you out of Egypt. The Lord your God will do the same thing to all the nations you now fear. ²⁰ The Lord your God will also send terror among them so that even those who are alive and hiding from you will die. ²¹ Don’t be afraid of them, because the Lord your God is with you; he is a great God and people are afraid of him. ²² When the Lord your God forces those nations out of the land, he will do it little by little ahead of you. You won’t be able to destroy them all at once; otherwise, the wild animals will grow too many in number. ²³ But the Lord your God will hand those nations over to you, confusing them until they are destroyed. ²⁴ The Lord will help you defeat their kings, and the world will forget who they were. No one will be able to stop you; you will destroy them all. ²⁵ Burn up their idols in the fire. Do not wish for the silver and gold they have, and don’t take it for yourselves, or you will be trapped by it. The Lord your God hates it. ²⁶ Do not bring one of those hateful things into your house, or you will be completely destroyed along with it. Hate and reject those things; they must be completely destroyed.