Study Desk

Look! He has placed the land in front of you. Go and occupy it as the Lord , the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Don't be afraid! Don't be discouraged!'

They picked some of its fruit and brought it back to us. And they reported, ‘The land the Lord our God has given us is indeed a good land.'

"But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and refused to go in.

The Lord your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt.

And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.'

"But even after all he did, you refused to trust the Lord your God,

"Then you confessed, ‘We have sinned against the Lord ! We will go into the land and fight for it, as the Lord our God has commanded us.' So your men strapped on their weapons, thinking it would be easy to attack the hill country.

For the Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing."'

The descendants of Esau who live in Seir allowed us to go through their country, and so did the Moabites, who live in Ar. Let us pass through until we cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.'

"But King Sihon of Heshbon refused to allow us to pass through, because the Lord your God made Sihon stubborn and defiant so he could help you defeat him, as he has now done.

But the Lord our God handed him over to us, and we crushed him, his sons, and all his people.

"The Lord our God also helped us conquer Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Gorge, and the town in the gorge, and the whole area as far as Gilead. No town had walls too strong for us.

However, we avoided the land of the Ammonites all along the Jabbok River and the towns in the hill country—all the places the Lord our God had commanded us to leave alone.

"So the Lord our God handed King Og and all his people over to us, and we killed them all. Not a single person survived.

"At that time I gave this command to the tribes that would live east of the Jordan: ‘Although the Lord your God has given you this land as your property, all your fighting men must cross the Jordan ahead of your Israelite relatives, armed and ready to assist them.

When the Lord has given security to the rest of the Israelites, as he has to you, and when they occupy the land the Lord your God is giving them across the Jordan River, then you may all return here to the land I have given you.'

"At that time I gave Joshua this charge: ‘You have seen for yourself everything the Lord your God has done to these two kings. He will do the same to all the kingdoms on the west side of the Jordan.

Do not be afraid of the nations there, for the Lord your God will fight for you.'

‘O Sovereign Lord , you have only begun to show your greatness and the strength of your hand to me, your servant. Is there any god in heaven or on earth who can perform such great and mighty deeds as you do?

"And now, Israel, listen carefully to these decrees and regulations that I am about to teach you. Obey them so that you may live, so you may enter and occupy the land that the Lord , the God of your ancestors, is giving you.