1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan in the backcountry, in the plain near Suf, between Paran, Tofel, Lavan, Ḥatzerot, and Di-Zahav, 2 eleven days’ journey from Horeb, via Mount Se’ir Road which goes to Kadesh Barne’a. 3 And it was in the 40
5 On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this Instruction, saying, 6 “Yehovah our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. 7 Turn around and pull up, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all the places around there in the plain, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the Negev, and by the shore of the sea, the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon, as far as the major river, the Euphrates River. 8 Look, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which Yehovah swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’
9 “And I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to handle you all by myself. 10 Yehovah your God has multiplied you, and look, today you are as numerous as the stars of the sky. 11 May Yehovah, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as He has promised you! 12 How can I, by myself, handle your load, and your burden, and your disputes? 13 Provide for yourselves wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men for your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.’ 14 And you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have told us to do is good.’ 15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens, and officers for your tribes.
16 “And I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or a foreigner. 17 Don’t regard faces in judgment; as the small so the great—hear them both. Don't be afraid of a man's face, because the judgment is of God. The case that is too hard for you bring to me, and I will hear it.” 18 I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.
19 Then we traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible backcountry which you saw, by the road to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yehovah our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barne’a. 20 And I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Yehovah our God is giving us. 21 Look, Yehovah your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as Yehovah the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Don’t be afraid or nervous.”
22 And you came near to me, everyone of you, and said, “Let’s send men ahead of us, that they may explore the land for us, and bring back to us word about the way which we should go up and the cities that we will come to.”
23 And the thing pleased me well. And I took twelve of your men, one man for every tribe. 24 They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to Cluster Stream, and spied it out. 25 They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, “It is a good land which Yehovah our God gives to us.”
26 Yet you wouldn’t go up, but rebelled against the commandment of Yehovah your God. 27 You murmured in your tents, and said, “Because Yehovah hated 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 are we going up to? Our brothers have made our heart melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to the sky. Also we have seen the sons of the Anakim there!’”
29 Then I said to you, “Don’t be terrified. Don’t be afraid of them. 30 Yehovah your God who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Egypt in front of your eyes, 31 and in the backcountry, where you have seen how that Yehovah your God carried you, as a man carries his son, on the whole way that you went, until you came to this place.”
32 Yet in this thing you didn’t believe Yehovah your God, 33 who went ahead of you on the way, to seek out a place for you to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day. 34 Yehovah heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying, 35 “Surely not one of these men of this evil generation will see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers, 36 except Caleb the son of Yefunneh. He will see it. I will give the land that he walked on to him, and to his children, because he has wholly followed Yehovah.”
37 Also Yehovah was angry with me for your sakes, saying, “You also will not go in there. 38 Joshua the son of Nun who stands before you will go in there. Encourage him, because he will cause Israel to inherit it. 39 And your little ones, whom you said would be captured or killed, and your children, who today don’t know anything, will go in there. I will give it to them, and they will possess it. 40 But as for you, turn, and take your journey into the backcountry by the road to the Red Sea.”
41 Then you answered and said to me, “We have sinned against Yehovah, we will go up and fight, according to all that Yehovah our God commanded us.” Every man of you put on his weapons of war, and dared to go up into the hill country.
42 And Yehovah said to me, “Tell them, ‘Don’t go up and don’t fight, because I am not among you; otherwise you will be struck down in front of your enemies.’”
43 So I spoke to you, and you didn’t listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of Yehovah, and were defiant, and went up into the hill country. 44 And the Amorites, who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you, as bees do, and beat you down in Se’ir to Hormah.* 45 And you returned and cried in front of Yehovah; but Yehovah didn’t listen to your voice, nor turn His ear to you. 46 So you stayed in Kadesh many days, as the days that you stayed there before.