The Previous Command to Enter Canaan
1 Thesearethe words which Moses spoke to all Israelon this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
2 Itiseleven days’journeyfrom Horeb by way of Mount Seirto Kadesh Barnea.
3 Now it came to passin the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the firstdayof the month,thatMoses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that theLordhad given him as commandments to them,
4 after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtarothin Edrei.
5 On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying,
6 “TheLordour God spoke to usin Horeb, saying: ‘You have dwelt longenough at this mountain.
7 Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboringplacesin the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates.
8 See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which theLordswore to your fathers—toAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and their descendants after them.’
Tribal Leaders Appointed
9 “AndI spoke to you at that time, saying: ‘I alone am not able to bear you.
10 TheLordyour God has multiplied you,and here youaretoday, as the stars of heaven in multitude.
11 May theLordGod of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless youas He has promised you!
12 How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints?
13 Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.’
14 And you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have toldusto doisgood.’
15 So I tookthe heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.
16 “Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hearthecasesbetween your brethren, andjudge righteously between a man and hisbrother or the stranger who is with him.
17 You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, forthe judgmentisGod’s. The case that is too hard for you,bring to me, and I will hear it.’
18 And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.
Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land
19 “So we departed from Horeb,and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as theLordour God had commanded us. Thenwe came to Kadesh Barnea.
20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which theLordour God is giving us.
21 Look, theLordyour God has set the land before you; go upandpossessit,as theLordGod of your fathers has spoken to you;do not fear or be discouraged.’
22 “And every one of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.’
23 “The plan pleased me well; soI took twelve of your men, one man fromeachtribe.
24 And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.
25 They also tooksomeof the fruit of the land in their hands and broughtitdown to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘Itisagood land which theLordour God is giving us.’
26 “Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of theLordyour God;
27 and youcomplained in your tents, and said, ‘Because theLordhates 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 discouraged our hearts, saying,“The peoplearegreater and taller than we; the citiesaregreat and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of theAnakim there.” ’
29 “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified,or afraid of them.
30 TheLordyour God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
31 and in the wilderness where you saw how theLordyour God carried you, as aman carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’
32 Yet, for all that,you did not believe theLordyour God,
33 who went in the way before youto search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.
The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion
34 “And theLordheard the sound of your words, and was angry,and took an oath, saying,
35 ‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers,
36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, becausehe wholly followed theLord.’
37 TheLordwas also angry with me for your sakes, saying, ‘Even you shall not go in there.
38 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 little ones and your children, whoyou say will be victims, who todayhave no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.
40 Butasforyou, turn 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 theLord; we will go up and fight, just as theLordour God commanded us.’ And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain.
42 “And theLordsaid to me, ‘Tell them,“Do not go up nor fight, for Iamnot among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.”
43 So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, butrebelled against the command of theLord, andpresumptuously went up into the mountain.
44 And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased youas bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah.
45 Then you returned and wept before theLord, but theLordwould not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.
46 “So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spentthere.