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The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
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The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
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May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!
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Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.”
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Spies Sent Out
Then, as the Lord our God commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites through all that vast and dreadful wilderness that you have seen, and so we reached Kadesh Barnea.
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Then I said to you, “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.
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See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
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The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe.
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Taking with them some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, “It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.”
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Rebellion Against the Lord
But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.
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The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes,
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and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”
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In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God,
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except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.”
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Then you replied, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, as the Lord our God commanded us.” So every one of you put on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.
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And so you stayed in Kadesh many days—all the time you spent there.
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Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own.
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The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.
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Defeat of Sihon King of Heshbon
“Set out now and cross the Arnon Gorge. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his country. Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle.
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as the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, did for us—until we cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.”
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But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the Lord your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as he has now done.
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The Lord said to me, “See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his country over to you. Now begin to conquer and possess his land.”
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When Sihon and all his army came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz,
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the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army.
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At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them—men, women and children. We left no survivors.
