Deuteronomy 1

Revised Geneva Translation

1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel, on this side of Jordan, in the wilderness, on the plain, next to the Red Sea, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

² There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea, by way of Mount Seir.

³ And it happened that on the first day of the eleventh month, in the fortieth year, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in Commandment to them,

⁴ after he had killed Sihon, the king of the Amorites (who dwelt in Heshbon), and Og, king of Bashan (who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei).

⁵ On this side of Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this Law, saying,

⁶ “The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, ‘You have dwelt long enough on this mountain.

⁷ ‘Turn and depart, and go to the mountain of the Amorites, and to all places on the plain that are near it—on the mountain or in the valley, southward and to the seaside, to the land of the Canaanites, and to Lebanon—all the way to the great river, the river Perah.

⁸ ‘Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess that land which the LORD swore to your fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and to their seed after them.’

⁹ “And I spoke to you at the same time, saying, ‘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 number.

¹¹ ‘The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you, as He has promised you.

¹² ‘How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your strife?

¹³ ‘Bring men of wisdom and of understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.

¹⁴ ‘Then you answered me and said, “The thing that you have commanded to do is good.”

¹⁵ “So I took the chief of your tribes, wise and known men, and made them rulers over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifty, and captains over ten, and officers among your tribes.

¹⁶ “And I charged your Judges at that same time, saying, ‘Hear the controversies between your brothers and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.

¹⁷ ‘You shall have no respect of person in judgment, but shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not fear the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. And the case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’

¹⁸ “Also I commanded you at the same time all the things which you should do.”

¹⁹ “Then we departed from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness (as you have seen) by way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God Commanded us. And we came to Kadesh Barnea.

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

²¹ ‘Behold, the LORD your God has laid the land before you. Go up, possess it, as the LORD the God of your fathers has said to you. Do not fear or be discouraged.’

²² “Then everyone came to me, and said, ‘We will send men before us, to search out the land, and to bring us word again, what way we must go, and to what cities we shall come.’

²³ “So the saying pleased me well and I took twelve men from you, one from every tribe,

²⁴ “who departed and went up into the mountain, and came to the river Eshcol, and searched out the land.

²⁵ “And they took the fruit of the land in their hand and brought it to us, and brought us word again, and said, ‘It is a good land which the LORD our God gives us.’

²⁶ “Notwithstanding, you would not go up, but were disobedient to the Commandment of the LORD your God,

²⁷ “and murmured in your tents, and said, ‘Because the LORD hated us, therefore He has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, and to destroy us.

²⁸ ‘Where shall we go up? Our brothers have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we, the cities great and walled up to heaven. And, moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.”’

²⁹ “But I said to you, ‘Do not dread or be afraid of them.

³⁰ ‘The LORD your God —Who goes before you —He shall fight for you, according to all that 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, all the way in which you have gone until you came to this place.’

³² “Yet for all this you did not believe the LORD your God,

³³ “Who went in the way before you, to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, in fire by night (so that you might see what way to go) and in a cloud by day.”

³⁴ “Then the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying,

³⁵ ‘Surely, not one of these men of this froward generation shall see that good land which I swore to give to your fathers,

³⁶ ‘except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him I will give the land that he has walked upon, and to his children, because he has constantly followed the LORD.’

³⁷ “Also the LORD was angry with me because of you, saying, ‘You also shall not go in there,

³⁸ ‘But Joshua, the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him. For he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

³⁹ ‘Moreover, your children (whom you said would be a prey) and your sons (who, in those days, had no knowledge between good and evil), they shall go in there. And to them I will give it. And they shall possess it.

⁴⁰ ‘But as for you, turn back and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹ “Then you answered and said to Me, ‘We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God has Commanded us.’ And you armed every man for war and were ready to go up into the mountain.

⁴² “But the LORD said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up and fight, for I am not among you, lest you fall before your enemies.’

⁴³ “And when I told you, you would not hear, but rebelled against the Commandment of the LORD, and were presumptuous, and went up into the mountain.

⁴⁴ “Then the Amorites, who dwelt in that mountain, came out against you and chased you (as bees used to do) and destroyed you from Seir to Hormah.

⁴⁵ “And when you came back, you wept before the LORD. But the LORD would not hear your voice, nor incline His Ears to you.

⁴⁶ “So you stayed in Kadesh a long time, for all the time that you were there.”