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DEUTERONOMY
DEUTERONOMY: CHAPTER
1-2
Israel's History
after the Exodus
1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all
Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph,
between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab.
2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb
by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.
3 In the fortieth year, on the first day
of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according
to all that the LORD had commanded him to
give 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 Ashtaroth and Edrei.
5 Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses
undertook to expound this law, saying,
6 "The LORD our
God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, 'You have stayed long enough at this
mountain.
7 'Turn and set 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 Negev and by the seacoast,
the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river,
the river Euphrates.
8 'See, I have placed the land before you; go
in and possess the land which the LORD swore
to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them
and their descendants after them.'
9 "I spoke to you at that time, saying,
'I am not able to bear the burden of you alone.
10 'The LORD your God
has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven
in number.
11 'May the LORD, the
God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are
and bless you, just as He has promised you!
12 'How can I alone bear the load and burden
of you and your strife?
13 'Choose wise and discerning and experienced
men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.'
14 "You answered me and said, 'The thing which
you have said to do is good.'
15 "So I took the heads of your tribes, wise
and experienced men, and appointed them heads over you, leaders of thousands
and of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and officers for your tribes.
16 "Then I charged your judges at that
time, saying, 'Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen,
and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countryman, or the
alien who is with him.
17 'You shall not show partiality in judgment;
you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man,
for the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, you shall
bring to me, and I will hear it.'
18 "I commanded you at that time all the things
that you should do.
19 "Then 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, just as the LORD
our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.
20 "I said to you, 'You have come to the hill
country of the Amorites which the LORD our God
is about to give us.
21 'See, the LORD your
God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as the LORD,
the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.'
22 "Then all of you approached me and
said, 'Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land
for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up
and the cities which we shall enter.'
23 "The thing pleased me and I took twelve of
your men, one man for each tribe.
24 "They turned and went up into the hill country,
and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out.
25 "Then they took some of the fruit of
the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought
us back a report and said, 'It is a good land which the LORD
our God is about to give us.'
26 "Yet you were not willing to go up,
but rebelled against the command of the LORD
your God;
27 and you grumbled in your tents and said, 'Because
the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the
land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy
us.
28 'Where can we go up? Our brethren have made
our hearts melt, saying, "The people are bigger and taller than we;
the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the
sons of the Anakim there." '
29 "Then I said to you, 'Do not be shocked, nor
fear them.
30 'The LORD your God
who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did
for you in Egypt before your eyes,
31 and in the wilderness where you saw how the
LORD your God carried you, just as a man carries
his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this
place.'
32 "But for all this, you did not trust the LORD
your God,
33 who goes before you on your way, to
seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day,
to show you the way in which you should go.
34 "Then the LORD
heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying,
35 'Not one of these men, this evil generation,
shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers,
36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall
see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he
has set foot, because he has followed the LORD
fully.'
37 "The LORD was angry
with me also on your account, saying, 'Not even you shall enter there.
38 'Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before
you, he shall enter there; encourage him, for he will cause Israel to
inherit it.
39 'Moreover, your little ones who you said would
become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good
or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall
possess it.
40 'But as for you, turn around and set out for
the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.'
41 "Then you said to me, 'We have sinned
against the LORD; we will indeed go up and fight,
just as the LORD our God commanded us.' And every
man of you girded on his weapons of war, and regarded it as easy to
go up into the hill country.
42 "And the LORD said
to me, 'Say to them, "Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you;
otherwise you will be defeated before your enemies." '
43 "So I spoke to you, but you would not listen.
Instead you rebelled against the command of the LORD,
and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country.
44 "The Amorites who lived in that hill country
came out against you and chased you as bees do, and crushed you from
Seir to Hormah.
45 "Then you returned and wept before the LORD;
but the LORD did not listen to your voice nor
give ear to you.
46 "So you remained in Kadesh many days, the
days that you spent there.
DEUTERONOMY: CHAPTER
2
Wanderings
in the Wilderness
1 "Then we turned and set out for the wilderness
by the way to the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke
to me, and circled Mount Seir for many days.
2 "And the LORD spoke
to me, saying,
3 'You have circled this mountain long enough.
Now turn north,
4 and command the people, saying, "You will pass
through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in
Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful;
5 do not provoke them, for I will not give you
any of their land, even as little as a footstep because I have
given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.
6 "You shall buy food from them with money so
that you may eat, and you shall also purchase water from them with money
so that you may drink.
7 "For the LORD your God
has blessed you in all that you have done; He has known your wanderings
through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD
your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing." '
8 "So we passed beyond our brothers the
sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road, away from
Elath and from Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the
way of the wilderness of Moab.
9 "Then the LORD said
to me, 'Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not
give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar
to the sons of Lot as a possession.'
10 (The Emim lived there formerly, a people as
great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim.
11 Like the Anakim, they are also regarded as
Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.
12 The Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the
sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and
settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession
which the LORD gave to them.)
13 'Now arise and cross over the brook Zered
yourselves.' So we crossed over the brook Zered.
14 "Now the time that it took for us to come
from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight
years, until all the generation of the men of war perished from within
the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.
15 "Moreover the hand of the LORD
was against them, to destroy them from within the camp until they all
perished.
16 "So it came about when all the men
of war had finally perished from among the people,
17 that the LORD spoke
to me, saying,
18 'Today you shall cross over Ar, the border
of Moab.
19 'When you come opposite the sons of Ammon,
do not harass them nor provoke 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 as a possession.'
20 (It is also regarded as the land of the Rephaim,
for Rephaim formerly lived in it, but the Ammonites call them
Zamzummin,
21 a people as great, numerous, and tall as the
Anakim, but the LORD destroyed them before them.
And they dispossessed them and settled in their place,
22 just as He did for the sons of Esau, who live
in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them; they dispossessed
them and settled in their place even to this day.
23 And the Avvim, who lived in villages as far
as Gaza, the Caphtorim who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and lived
in their place.)
24 'Arise, set out, and pass through the valley
of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and
his land into your hand; 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 everywhere under the heavens, who, when
they hear the report of you, will tremble and be in anguish because
of you.'
26 "So I sent messengers from the wilderness
of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,
27 'Let me pass through your land, I will travel
only on the highway; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left.
28 'You will sell me food for money so that I
may eat, and give me water for money so that I may drink, only let me
pass through on foot,
29 just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir
and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross over the Jordan
into the land which the LORD our God is giving
to us.'
30 "But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing
for us to pass through his land; for the LORD
your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order
to deliver him into your hand, as he is today.
31 "The LORD said to me,
'See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land over to you. Begin
to occupy, that you may possess his land.'
32 "Then Sihon with all his people came
out to meet us in battle at Jahaz.
33 "The LORD our God delivered
him over to us, and we defeated him with his sons and all his people.
34 "So we captured all his cities at that time
and utterly destroyed the men, women and children of every city. We
left no survivor.
35 "We took only the animals as our booty and
the spoil of the cities which we had captured.
36 "From Aroer which is on the edge of the valley
of Arnon and from the city which is in the valley, even to Gilead,
there was no city that was too high for us; the LORD
our God delivered all over to us.
37 "Only you did not go near to the land of the
sons of Ammon, all along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill
country, and wherever the LORD our God had commanded
us. |
