Deuteronomy 1:1-28 ▼

1 THESE are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the low desert plain opposite the Red Sea, between Paran and Tophel and Lebanon and Hazeroth and Dizahab.

2 (There are eleven days' journey from Horeb to mount Seir to Rakim-gia.)

3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment concerning them;

4 After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Mathnin, who dwelt in Astaroth and in Erdei,

5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab; Moses began to explain this law, saying,

6 The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, You have dwelt long enough in this mountain;

7 Turn and set out on your journey, and go to the mountain of the Amorites, and to all the places round about it, in the low desert plain, in the mountain, in the lowland and in the south and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

8 Behold, I have given you the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.

9 And I said to you at that time, I am not able to bear you myself alone;

10 The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven in multitude.

11 (May the LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times as many more as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!)

12 How can I myself bear alone your encumbrance and your burden and your strife?

13 Choose for yourselves wise men, who have understanding and are renowned among your tribes, and I will make them chiefs over you.

14 And you answered and said to me, The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.

15 So I took the chiefs of your tribes, wise men and renowned, and made them chieftains over you, commanders over thousands and captains over hundreds and officers over fifty and officers over ten and scribes for your tribes.

16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.

17 You shall not be partial to persons in judgment; but you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's; and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it to me, and I will hear it.

18 And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

19 And when we journeyed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came as far as Rakim-gia.

20 And I said to you, You have come to the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God has given us.

21 Behold, the LORD your God has given the land before you; go up and possess it, as the LORD God of your fathers has said to you; fear not, neither be terrified.

22 Then all of you came near to me and said, Let us send men before us, and they shall spy out the land for us, and bring us word again and show us the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.

23 And the saying pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man of each tribe;

24 And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came as far as the valley of Segola, and spied out the land.

25 And they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and they brought us word again and said to us, It is a good land which the LORD our God does give to us.

26 But in spite of this, you would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God;

27 And you murmured in your tents and said, It is because the LORD hated us that he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

28 Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our heart, tying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of giants there.