Kumbukumbu la Torati 1

The words Moses spoke across the Jordan

¹These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness across the Jordan: in the Arabah facing Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Di-zahab.^{a 2}It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by the Mount Seir road. ³On the first day of the eleventh month, in the fortieth year, Moses spoke to the Israelites and told them everything that the LORD had commanded him to give them. ⁴This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, whose city was Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, whose cities were Ashtaroth and Edrei.^{b 5}Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses set about explaining this law. He said, ⁶“The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb and said, ‘Your time at this mountain has been long enough. ⁷Turn and move on. Go into the hill country of the Amorites and to all the regions near it: the Arabah, the hill country, the foothills, the Negev and the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. ⁸Look, I have placed the land in front of you. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their descendants after them.’ ⁹Back then I told you, ‘Carrying all of you on my own is more than I can do. ¹⁰The LORD your God has increased your numbers, and look at you today: as many as the stars in the sky. ¹¹May the LORD, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousandfold beyond what you are now, and bless you as he promised! ¹²How am I to carry on my own all your troubles, the load you put on me, and your quarrels? ¹³From your tribes, pick men who are wise, discerning and well known, and I will put them at your head.’ ¹⁴You answered me, ‘Your plan is a good one; let it be done.’ ¹⁵So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and set them over you as leaders: commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and officials for each of your tribes. ¹⁶At that time I gave your judges this charge: ‘Hear the disputes among your fellow Israelites, and judge fairly in every case, whether it is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a outsider living among you. ¹⁷In giving judgment, do not take anyone’s side because of who they are. Give the humble and the powerful the same hearing. Fear no one, since the judgment is God’s. If a case is too difficult for you, bring it to me and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸At that time I gave you instructions about everything you were to do. ¹⁹We left Horeb and made our way through that whole vast and fearsome wilderness you have seen, along the road to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God had commanded us, and we came to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰I told you, ‘Now you are at the hill country of the Amorites, the land the LORD our God is giving us. ²¹Look, the LORD your God has placed the land before you. Go up and take possession of it, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid or lose heart.’ ²²Then you all came to me and said, ‘Let us send men on ahead to explore the land for us. They can come back and tell us which way to go up and what towns we will meet.’ ²³I agreed with the plan, and I chose twelve of your men, one from each tribe. ²⁴They set out and went up into the hill country, came to the Valley of Eshcol, and explored it. ²⁵They took some of the land’s fruit with them and brought it down to us. And they gave us their report: ‘The land that the LORD our God is giving us is good.’ ²⁶But you refused to go up, and set yourselves against the command of the LORD your God. ²⁷You complained in your tents and said, ‘The LORD hates us. That is why he brought us out of Egypt: to hand us over to the Amorites to wipe us out. ²⁸Where are we going up to? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, “The people are bigger and taller than we are, the cities are large, with walls up to the sky, and we even saw the descendants of the Anakim there.”’ ²⁹Then I said to you, ‘Do not tremble; do not be afraid of them. ³⁰The LORD your God, who goes ahead of you, is the one who will fight for you, as you saw him do for you in Egypt, ³¹and in the wilderness. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you the whole way you traveled, as a father carries his son, until you arrived here.’ ³²Yet for all this you did not trust the LORD your God,^{c 33}who went ahead of you on the way to look for places for you to camp, in fire by night to show you which way to go, and in the cloud by day. ³⁴When the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and swore an oath: ³⁵‘Of these men, this evil generation, not a single one will see the good land that I swore I would give your ancestors, ³⁶except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he walked on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.’ ³⁷Because of you the LORD was angry with me too, and said, ‘You will not go in there either. ³⁸Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, is the one who will go in. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to take the land as their inheritance. ³⁹And your little ones, whom you said would be carried off as plunder, and your children, who today cannot yet tell good from evil, they are the ones who will go in. I will give the land to them, and they will take possession of it.^{d 40}But as for you, turn around and set out into the wilderness along the road to the Red Sea.’ ⁴¹Then you replied to me, ‘We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God commanded us.’ So each of you strapped on his weapons, thinking it would be easy to go up into the hill country.^{e 42}But the LORD said to me, ‘Tell them, “Do not go up, and do not fight. I am not among you, and if you go, your enemies will strike you down.”’ ⁴³I warned you, but you paid no attention. You set yourselves against the command of the LORD and in your pride went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴The Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees. They cut you down in Seir, all the way to Hormah. ⁴⁵Then you came back and wept before the LORD, but the LORD would not listen to your cry or pay any attention to you. ⁴⁶So you stayed at Kadesh for a long time, all the time that you stayed there.^f