Study Desk

that the LORD spoke to me, saying,

'Let me pass through your land; I will travel only on the road. I will not turn aside to the right or to the left.

'You will sell me food for money so that I may eat, and give me water for money so that I may drink, only let me pass through on foot,

just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross over the Jordan into the land that the LORD our God is giving us.'

"And the LORD said to me, 'See, I have begun to turn Sihon and his land over to you. Begin taking possession, so that you may possess his land.'

"But the LORD said to me, 'Do not fear him, for I have handed him and all his people and his land over to you; and you shall do to him just as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.'

'Please let me cross over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country, and Lebanon.'

"But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me; instead, the LORD said to me, 'Enough! Do not speak to Me any more about this matter.

"See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you are to do these things in the land where you are entering to take possession of it.

"Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, 'Assemble the people to Me, that I may have them hear My words so that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.'

"The LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, so that you would perform them in the land where you are going over to take possession of it.

"Now the LORD was angry with me on your account, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

'You shall have no other gods besides Me.

'You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, even on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

"These words the LORD spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, from the cloud, and from the thick darkness, with a great voice, and He added nothing more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

"And when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders.

"Now the LORD heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me, 'I have heard the sound of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken.

'If only they had such a heart in them, to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it would go well with them and with their sons forever!

'But as for you, stand here by Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, so that they may follow them in the land which I am giving them to possess.'