Bible in 90 Days

²⁰ So Moses said to them, “If you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the Lord for the war, ²¹ and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord, until he has driven out his enemies from before him ²² and the land is subdued before the Lord; then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. ²³ But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out. ²⁴ Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do what you have promised.” ²⁵ And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben said to Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. ²⁶ Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle, shall remain there in the cities of Gilead; ²⁷ but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before the Lord to battle, as my lord orders.”

²⁸ So Moses gave command concerning them to Elea′zar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel. ²⁹ And Moses said to them, “If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the Lord, will pass with you over the Jordan and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession; ³⁰ but if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.” ³¹ And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered, “As the Lord has said to your servants, so we will do. ³² We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”

³³ And Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manas′seh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land and its cities with their territories, the cities of the land throughout the country. ³⁴ And the sons of Gad built Dibon, At′aroth, Aro′er, ³⁵ At′roth-sho′phan, Jazer, Jog′behah, ³⁶ Beth-nim′rah and Beth-har′an, fortified cities, and folds for sheep. ³⁷ And the sons of Reuben built Heshbon, Elea′leh, Kiriatha′im, ³⁸ Nebo, and Ba′al-me′on (their names to be changed), and Sibmah; and they gave other names to the cities which they built. ³⁹ And the sons of Machir the son of Manas′seh went to Gilead and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. ⁴⁰ And Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manas′seh, and he settled in it. ⁴¹ And Ja′ir the son of Manas′seh went and took their villages, and called them Hav′voth-ja′ir.^{[a] 42} And Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.

The Stages of Israel’s Journey from Egypt

33 These are the stages of the people of Israel, when they went forth out of the land of Egypt by their hosts under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. ² Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord; and these are their stages according to their starting places. ³ They set out from Ram′eses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the passover the people of Israel went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians, ⁴ while the Egyptians were burying all their first-born, whom the Lord had struck down among them; upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments.

⁵ So the people of Israel set out from Ram′eses, and encamped at Succoth. ⁶ And they set out from Succoth, and encamped at Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness. ⁷ And they set out from Etham, and turned back to Pi-hahi′roth, which is east of Ba′al-ze′phon; and they encamped before Migdol. ⁸ And they set out from before Hahi′roth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and they went a three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham, and encamped at Marah. ⁹ And they set out from Marah, and came to Elim; at Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there. ¹⁰ And they set out from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea. ¹¹ And they set out from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin. ¹² And they set out from the wilderness of Sin, and encamped at Dophkah. ¹³ And they set out from Dophkah, and encamped at Alush. ¹⁴ And they set out from Alush, and encamped at Reph′idim, where there was no water for the people to drink. ¹⁵ And they set out from Reph′idim, and encamped in the wilderness of Sinai. ¹⁶ And they set out from the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped at Kib′roth-hatta′avah. ¹⁷ And they set out from Kib′roth-hatta′avah, and encamped at Haze′roth. ¹⁸ And they set out from Haze′roth, and encamped at Rithmah. ¹⁹ And they set out from Rithmah, and encamped at Rim′mon-per′ez. ²⁰ And they set out from Rim′mon-per′ez, and encamped at Libnah. ²¹ And they set out from Libnah, and encamped at Rissah. ²² And they set out from Rissah, and encamped at Kehela′thah. ²³ And they set out from Kehela′thah, and encamped at Mount Shepher. ²⁴ And they set out from Mount Shepher, and encamped at Hara′dah. ²⁵ And they set out from Hara′dah, and encamped at Makhe′loth. ²⁶ And they set out from Makhe′loth, and encamped at Tahath. ²⁷ And they set out from Tahath, and encamped at Terah. ²⁸ And they set out from Terah, and encamped at Mithkah. ²⁹ And they set out from Mithkah, and encamped at Hashmo′nah. ³⁰ And they set out from Hashmo′nah, and encamped at Mose′roth. ³¹ And they set out from Mose′roth, and encamped at Bene-ja′akan. ³² And they set out from Bene-ja′akan, and encamped at Hor-haggid′gad. ³³ And they set out from Hor-haggid′gad, and encamped at Jot′bathah. ³⁴ And they set out from Jot′bathah, and encamped at Abro′nah. ³⁵ And they set out from Abro′nah, and encamped at E′zion-ge′ber. ³⁶ And they set out from E′zion-ge′ber, and encamped in the wilderness of Zin (that is, Kadesh). ³⁷ And they set out from Kadesh, and encamped at Mount Hor, on the edge of the land of Edom.

³⁸ And Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor at the command of the Lord, and died there, in the fortieth year after the people of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month. ³⁹ And Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.

⁴⁰ And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negeb in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the people of Israel.

⁴¹ And they set out from Mount Hor, and encamped at Zalmo′nah. ⁴² And they set out from Zalmo′nah, and encamped at Punon. ⁴³ And they set out from Punon, and encamped at Oboth. ⁴⁴ And they set out from Oboth, and encamped at I′ye-ab′arim, in the territory of Moab. ⁴⁵ And they set out from I′yim, and encamped at Dibon-gad. ⁴⁶ And they set out from Dibon-gad, and encamped at Al′mon-diblatha′im. ⁴⁷ And they set out from Al′mon-diblatha′im, and encamped in the mountains of Ab′arim, before Nebo. ⁴⁸ And they set out from the mountains of Ab′arim, and encamped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho; ⁴⁹ they encamped by the Jordan from Beth-jes′himoth as far as Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab.

Directions for the Conquest of Canaan

⁵⁰ And the Lord said to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, ⁵¹ “Say to the people of Israel, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ⁵² then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places; ⁵³ and you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it. ⁵⁴ You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance; wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers you shall inherit. ⁵⁵ But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. ⁵⁶ And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.”

The Boundaries of the Land

34 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Command the people of Israel, and say to them, When you enter the land of Canaan (this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan in its full extent), ³ your south side shall be from the wilderness of Zin along the side of Edom, and your southern boundary shall be from the end of the Salt Sea on the east; ⁴ and your boundary shall turn south of the ascent of Akrab′bim, and cross to Zin, and its end shall be south of Ka′desh-bar′nea; then it shall go on to Ha′zar-ad′dar, and pass along to Azmon; ⁵ and the boundary shall turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and its termination shall be at the sea.

⁶ “For the western boundary, you shall have the Great Sea and its^[b] coast; this shall be your western boundary.

⁷ “This shall be your northern boundary: from the Great Sea you shall mark out your line to Mount Hor; ⁸ from Mount Hor you shall mark it out to the entrance of Hamath, and the end of the boundary shall be at Zedad; ⁹ then the boundary shall extend to Ziphron, and its end shall be at Hazar-enan; this shall be your northern boundary.

¹⁰ “You shall mark out your eastern boundary from Hazar-enan to Shepham; ¹¹ and the boundary shall go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of A′in; and the boundary shall go down, and reach to the shoulder of the sea of Chin′nereth on the east; ¹² and the boundary shall go down to the Jordan, and its end shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land with its boundaries all round.”

¹³ Moses commanded the people of Israel, saying, “This is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half-tribe; ¹⁴ for the tribe of the sons of Reuben by fathers’ houses and the tribe of the sons of Gad by their fathers’ houses have received their inheritance, and also the half-tribe of Manas′seh; ¹⁵ the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.”

Tribal Leaders

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷ “These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance: Elea′zar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun. ¹⁸ You shall take one leader of every tribe, to divide the land for inheritance. ¹⁹ These are the names of the men: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephun′neh. ²⁰ Of the tribe of the sons of Simeon, Shemu′el the son of Ammi′hud. ²¹ Of the tribe of Benjamin, Eli′dad the son of Chislon. ²² Of the tribe of the sons of Dan a leader, Bukki the son of Jogli. ²³ Of the sons of Joseph: of the tribe of the sons of Manas′seh a leader, Han′niel the son of Ephod. ²⁴ And of the tribe of the sons of E′phraim a leader, Kemu′el the son of Shiphtan. ²⁵ Of the tribe of the sons of Zeb′ulun a leader, Eli-za′phan the son of Parnach. ²⁶ Of the tribe of the sons of Is′sachar a leader, Pal′tiel the son of Azzan. ²⁷ And of the tribe of the sons of Asher a leader, Ahi′hud the son of Shelo′mi. ²⁸ Of the tribe of the sons of Naph′tali a leader, Pedah′el the son of Ammi′hud. ²⁹ These are the men whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance for the people of Israel in the land of Canaan.”

Cities for the Levites

35 The Lord said to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, ² “Command the people of Israel, that they give to the Levites, from the inheritance of their possession, cities to dwell in; and you shall give to the Levites pasture lands round about the cities. ³ The cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their pasture lands shall be for their cattle and for their livestock and for all their beasts. ⁴ The pasture lands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits all round. ⁵ And you shall measure, outside the city, for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle; this shall belong to them as pasture land for their cities. ⁶ The cities which you give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, where you shall permit the manslayer to flee, and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities. ⁷ All the cities which you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight, with their pasture lands. ⁸ And as for the cities which you shall give from the possession of the people of Israel, from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few; each, in proportion to the inheritance which it inherits, shall give of its cities to the Levites.”

Cities of Refuge

⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ “Say to the people of Israel, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there. ¹² The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment. ¹³ And the cities which you give shall be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴ You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that any one who kills any person without intent may flee there.

Concerning Murder and Blood Revenge

¹⁶ “But if he struck him down with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death. ¹⁷ And if he struck him down with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if he struck him down with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death. ²⁰ And if he stabbed him from hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died, ²¹ or in enmity struck him down with his hand, so that he died, then he who struck the blow shall be put to death; he is a murderer; the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death, when he meets him.

²² “But if he stabbed him suddenly without enmity, or hurled anything on him without lying in wait, ²³ or used a stone, by which a man may die, and without seeing him cast it upon him, so that he died, though he was not his enemy, and did not seek his harm; ²⁴ then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood, in accordance with these ordinances; ²⁵ and the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, to which he had fled, and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. ²⁶ But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the bounds of his city of refuge to which he fled, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the bounds of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood slays the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood. ²⁸ For the man must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; but after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.

²⁹ “And these things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. ³⁰ If any one kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses; but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. ³¹ Moreover you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death; but he shall be put to death. ³² And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. ³³ You shall not thus pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it. ³⁴ You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.”

Marriage of Female Heirs

36 The heads of the fathers’ houses of the families of the sons of Gilead the son of Machir, son of Manas′seh, of the fathers’ houses of the sons of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the heads of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel; ² they said, “The Lord commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the people of Israel; and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelo′phehad our brother to his daughters. ³ But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the people of Israel then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; so it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance. ⁴ And when the jubilee of the people of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

⁵ And Moses commanded the people of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying, “The tribe of the sons of Joseph is right. ⁶ This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelo′phehad, ‘Let them marry whom they think best; only, they shall marry within the family of the tribe of their father. ⁷ The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another; for every one of the people of Israel shall cleave to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. ⁸ And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Israel shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, so that every one of the people of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers. ⁹ So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another; for each of the tribes of the people of Israel shall cleave to its own inheritance.’”

¹⁰ The daughters of Zelo′phehad did as the Lord commanded Moses; ¹¹ for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelo′phehad, were married to sons of their father’s brothers. ¹² They were married into the families of the sons of Manas′seh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.

¹³ These are the commandments and the ordinances which the Lord commanded by Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

Events at Horeb Recalled

1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Haze′roth, and Di′zahab. ² It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Se′ir to Ka′desh-bar′nea. ³ And in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them, ⁴ after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ash′taroth and in Ed′re-i. ⁵ Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, ⁶ “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain; ⁷ turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland, and in the Negeb, and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphra′tes. ⁸ Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.’

Appointment of Tribal Leaders

⁹ “At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able alone to bear you; ¹⁰ the Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you! ¹² How can I bear alone the weight and burden of you and your strife? ¹³ Choose wise, understanding, and experienced men, according to your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ ¹⁴ And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ ¹⁵ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. ¹⁶ And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien that is with him. ¹⁷ You shall not be partial in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s; and the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸ And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land

¹⁹ “And we set out from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Ka′desh-bar′nea. ²⁰ And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God gives us. ²¹ Behold, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you; do not fear or be dismayed.’ ²² Then all of you came near me, and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ ²³ The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men of you, one man for each tribe; ²⁴ and they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. ²⁵ And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God gives us.’

²⁶ “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; ²⁷ and you murmured in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Whither are we going up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ ²⁹ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God bore you, as a man bears his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ ³² Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God, ³³ who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day.

The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion

³⁴ “And the Lord heard your words, and was angered, and he swore, ³⁵ ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers, ³⁶ except Caleb the son of Jephun′neh; he shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land upon which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ ³⁷ The Lord was angry with me also on your account, and said, ‘You also shall not go in there; ³⁸ Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter; encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹ Moreover your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall go in there, and to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. ⁴⁰ But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹ “Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every man of you girded on his weapons of war, and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. ⁴² And the Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for I am not in the midst of you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ ⁴³ So I spoke to you, and you would not hearken; but you rebelled against the command of the Lord, and were presumptuous and went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴ Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Se′ir as far as Hormah. ⁴⁵ And you returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord did not hearken to your voice or give ear to you. ⁴⁶ So you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.

The Desert Years

2 “Then we turned, and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the Lord told me; and for many days we went about Mount Se′ir. ² Then the Lord said to me, ³ ‘You have been going about this mountain country long enough; turn northward. ⁴ And command the people, You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren the sons of Esau, who live in Se′ir; and they will be afraid of you. So take good heed; ⁵ do not contend with them; for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Se′ir to Esau as a possession. ⁶ You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands; he knows your going through this great wilderness; these forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.’ ⁸ So we went on, away from our brethren the sons of Esau who live in Se′ir, away from the Arabah road from Elath and E′zion-ge′ber.

“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹ And the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot for a possession.’ ¹⁰ (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; ¹¹ like the Anakim they are also known as Reph′aim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ¹² The Horites also lived in Se′ir formerly, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them, and destroyed them from before them, and settled in their stead; as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.) ¹³ ‘Now rise up, and go over the brook Zered.’ So we went over the brook Zered. ¹⁴ And the time from our leaving Ka′desh-bar′nea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.

¹⁶ “So when all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, ¹⁷ the Lord said to me, ¹⁸ ‘This day you are to pass over the boundary of Moab at Ar; ¹⁹ and when you approach the frontier of the sons of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with 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 the sons of Lot for a possession.’ ²⁰ (That also is known as a land of Reph′aim; Reph′aim formerly lived there, but the Ammonites call them Zamzum′mim, ²¹ a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before them; and they dispossessed them, and settled in their stead; ²² as he did for the sons of Esau, who live in Se′ir, when he destroyed the Horites before them, and they dispossessed them, and settled in their stead even to this day. ²³ As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caph′torim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their stead.) ²⁴ ‘Rise up, take your journey, and go over the valley of the Arnon; behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle. ²⁵ This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

Defeat of King Sihon

²⁶ “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Ked′emoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, ²⁷ ‘Let me pass through your land; I will go only by the road, I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. ²⁸ You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on foot, ²⁹ as the sons of Esau who live in Se′ir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land which the Lord our God gives to us.’ ³⁰ But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as at this day. ³¹ And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you; begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ ³² Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. ³³ And the Lord our God gave him over to us; and we defeated him and his sons and all his people. ³⁴ And we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed every city, men, women, and children; we left none remaining; ³⁵ only the cattle we took as spoil for ourselves, with the booty of the cities which we captured. ³⁶ From Aro′er, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city too high for us; the Lord our God gave all into our hands. ³⁷ Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever the Lord our God forbade us.

Defeat of King Og

3 “Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Ed′re-i. ² But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him; for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.’ ³ So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people; and we smote him until no survivor was left to him. ⁴ And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city which we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵ All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. ⁶ And we utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, destroying every city, men, women, and children. ⁷ But all the cattle and the spoil of the cities we took as our booty. ⁸ So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁹ (the Sido′nians call Hermon Si′rion, while the Amorites call it Senir), ¹⁰ all the cities of the tableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Sal′ecah and Ed′re-i, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹ (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Reph′aim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.^[c])

¹² “When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory beginning at Aro′er, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities; ¹³ the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, that is, all the region of Argob, I gave to the half-tribe of Manas′seh. (The whole of that Bashan is called the land of Reph′aim. ¹⁴ Ja′ir the Manas′site took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of the Gesh′urites and the Ma-ac′athites, and called the villages after his own name, Hav′voth-ja′ir, as it is to this day.) ¹⁵ To Machir I gave Gilead, ¹⁶ and to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a boundary, as far over as the river Jabbok, the boundary of the Ammonites; ¹⁷ the Arabah also, with the Jordan as the boundary, from Chin′nereth as far as the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

¹⁸ “And I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess; all your men of valor shall pass over armed before your brethren the people of Israel. ¹⁹ But your wives, your little ones, and your cattle (I know that you have many cattle) shall remain in the cities which I have given you, ²⁰ until the Lord gives rest to your brethren, as to you, and they also occupy the land which the Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan; then you shall return every man to his possession which I have given you.’ ²¹ And I commanded Joshua at that time, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are going over. ²² You shall not fear them; for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.’

Moses Views Canaan from Pisgah

²³ “And I besought the Lord at that time, saying, ²⁴ ‘O Lord God, thou hast only begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as thine? ²⁵ Let me go over, I pray, and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that goodly hill country, and Lebanon.’ ²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not hearken to me; and the Lord said to me, ‘Let it suffice you; speak no more to me of this matter. ²⁷ Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and behold it with your eyes; for you shall not go over this Jordan. ²⁸ But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him; for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land which you shall see.’ ²⁹ So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-pe′or.

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you. ² You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. ³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Ba′al-pe′or; for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Ba′al of Pe′or; ⁴ but you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive this day. ⁵ Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. ⁶ Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? ⁸ And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?

⁹ “Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children— ¹⁰ how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ ¹¹ And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. ¹³ And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the ten commandments;^[d] and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. ¹⁴ And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land which you are going over to possess.

¹⁵ “Therefore take good heed to yourselves. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. ¹⁹ And beware lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and worship them and serve them, things which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own possession, as at this day. ²¹ Furthermore the Lord was angry with me on your account, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance. ²² For I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over and take possession of that good land. ²³ Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a graven image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you beget children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a graven image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess; you will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of men’s hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ²⁹ But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice, ³¹ for the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers which he swore to them.

³² “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. ³³ Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? ³⁴ Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. ³⁶ Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you; and on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because he loved your fathers and chose their descendants after them, and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, ³⁸ driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day; ³⁹ know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ⁴⁰ Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God gives you for ever.”

Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan

⁴¹ Then Moses set apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan, ⁴² that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might save his life: ⁴³ Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manas′sites.

Transition to the Second Address

⁴⁴ This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel; ⁴⁵ these are the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶ beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-pe′or, in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ And they took possession of his land and the land of Og the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who lived to the east beyond the Jordan; ⁴⁸ from Aro′er, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, as far as Mount Si′rion^[e] (that is, Hermon), ⁴⁹ together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments

5 And Moses summoned all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your hearing this day, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. ² The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. ³ Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive this day. ⁴ The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, ⁵ while I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said:

⁶ “‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

⁷ “‘You shall have no other gods before^[f] me.

⁸ “‘You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; ⁹ you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ¹⁰ but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

¹¹ “‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

¹² “‘Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

¹⁶ “‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

¹⁷ “‘You shall not kill.

¹⁸ “‘Neither shall you commit adultery.

¹⁹ “‘Neither shall you steal.

²⁰ “‘Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.

²¹ “‘Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’

Moses the Mediator of God’s Will

²² “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them to me. ²³ And when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; ²⁴ and you said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire; we have this day seen God speak with man and man still live. ²⁵ Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die. ²⁶ For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire, as we have, and has still lived? ²⁷ Go near, and hear all that the Lord our God will say; and speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you; and we will hear and do it.’

²⁸ “And the Lord heard your words, when you spoke to me; and the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they have rightly said all that they have spoken. ²⁹ Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their children for ever! ³⁰ Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹ But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandment and the statutes and the ordinances which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess.’ ³² You shall be careful to do therefore as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³³ You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land which you shall possess.

The Great Commandment

6 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it; ² that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. ³ Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them; that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord;^{[g] 5} and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. ⁶ And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; ⁷ and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Caution against Disobedience

¹⁰ “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, with great and goodly cities, which you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out, which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, ¹² then take heed lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹³ You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his name. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you; ¹⁵ for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

¹⁶ “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. ¹⁷ You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. ¹⁸ And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers ¹⁹ by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

²⁰ “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; ²² and the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes; ²³ and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land which he swore to give to our fathers. ²⁴ And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day. ²⁵ And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’

A Chosen People

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Gir′gashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Per′izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb′usites, seven nations greater and mightier than yourselves, ² and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them; then you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, and show no mercy to them. ³ You shall not make marriages with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons. ⁴ For they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. ⁵ But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Ashe′rim, and burn their graven images with fire.

⁶ “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. ⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples; ⁸ but it is because the Lord loves you, and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ¹⁰ and requites to their face those who hate him, by destroying them; he will not be slack with him who hates him, he will requite him to his face. ¹¹ You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you this day.

Blessings for Obedience

¹² “And because you hearken to these ordinances, and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love which he swore to your fathers to keep; ¹³ he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict upon you, but he will lay them upon all who hate you. ¹⁶ And you shall destroy all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you, your eye shall not pity them; neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’ ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, ¹⁹ the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out; so will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ Moreover the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be in dread of them; for the Lord your God is in the midst of you, a great and terrible God. ²² The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you may not make an end of them at once,^[h] lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will give them over to you, and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven; not a man shall be able to stand against you, until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ The graven images of their gods you shall burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house, and become accursed like it; you shall utterly detest and abhor it; for it is an accursed thing.