Study Desk

These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel ^(a)across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the ^(b)Arabah opposite ^[a]Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab.

It is eleven days' journey from ^(c)Horeb by the way of Mount ^(d)Seir to ^(e)Kadesh-barnea.

In the ^(f)fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, ^(g)according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them,

after he had ^[b](h)defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ⁽ⁱ⁾Og the king of Bashan, who lived in ^(j)Ashtaroth ^[c]and Edrei.

Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying,

"The Lord our God ^(k)spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have ^[d]stayed long enough at this mountain.

Turn and set your journey, and go to ^(l)the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in ^(m)the ^[e]Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

See, I have placed the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord ⁽ⁿ⁾swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their ^[f]descendants after them.'

"I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘^(o)I am not able to bear the burden of you alone.

The Lord your God has ^(p)multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number.

May the Lord , the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, ^(q)just as He has ^[g]promised you!

How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife?

^[h](r)Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.'

You answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.'

So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and ^[i]appointed them heads over you, leaders of thousands and ^[j]of hundreds, ^[k]of fifties and ^[l]of tens, and officers for your tribes.

"Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your ^[m]fellow countrymen, and ^(s)judge righteously between a man and his ^[n]fellow countryman, or the alien who is with him.

^(t)You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall ^(u)not fear ^[o]man, for the judgment is God's. ^(v)The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.'

^(w)I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

"Then we set out from ^(x)Horeb, and went through all that ^(y)great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the ^(z)hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us; and we came to ^(aa)Kadesh-barnea.

I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which the Lord our God is about to give us.

See, the Lord your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as the Lord , the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. ^(ab)Do not fear or be dismayed.'

"^(ac)Then all of you approached me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.'

The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe.

^(ad)They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out.

Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought us back a report and said, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is about to give us.'

"^(ae)Yet you were not willing to go up, but ^(af)rebelled against the ^[p]command of the Lord your God;

and ^(ag)you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.

Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, "The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw ^(ah)the sons of the Anakim there."'

Then I said to you, ‘Do not be shocked, nor fear them.

The Lord your God who goes before you will ^(ai)Himself fight on your behalf, ^[q]just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

and in the wilderness where you saw how ^(aj)the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.'

But ^[r](ak)for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God,

^(al)who goes before you on your way, ^(am)to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go.

"Then the Lord heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and ^(an)took an oath, saying,

‘^(ao)Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers,

except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and ^(ap)to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the Lord fully.'

^(aq)The Lord was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘^(ar)Not even you shall enter there.

Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, ^(as)he shall enter there; encourage him, for ^(at)he will cause Israel to inherit it.

Moreover, ^(au)your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have ^(av)no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it.

But as for you, ^(aw)turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the ^[s]Red Sea.'

"^(ax)Then you said to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord ; we will indeed go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.' And every man of you girded on his weapons of war, and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country.

^(ay)And the Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, "Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; otherwise you will be ^[t]defeated before your enemies."'

So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead ^(az)you rebelled against the ^[u]command of the Lord , and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country.

^(ba)The Amorites who ^[v]lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you ^(bb)as bees do, and crushed you from Seir to Hormah.

Then you returned and wept before the Lord ; but the ^(bc) Lord did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.

So you remained in ^(bd)Kadesh many days, ^[w]the days that you spent there.

"^(a)Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way to the ^[a]Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and circled ^(b)Mount Seir for many days.

And the Lord spoke to me, saying,

‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north,

^(c)and command the people, saying, "You will pass through the ^(d)territory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and ^(e)they will be afraid of you. So be very careful;

do not ^[b]provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a ^[c]footstep ^(f)because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

You shall buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also purchase water from them with money so that you may drink.

For the Lord your God has blessed you in all ^[d]that you have done; He has known your ^[e]wanderings through this ^(g)great wilderness. These ^(h)forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing."'

"So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the ⁽ⁱ⁾Arabah road, away from Elath and ^(j)from Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of ^[f]their land as a possession, because I have given ^(k)Ar to ^(l)the sons of Lot as a possession.'

(The ^(m)Emim lived there formerly, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim.

Like the Anakim, they are also regarded as ⁽ⁿ⁾Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.

^(o)The Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, ^(p)just as Israel did to the land of ^[g]their possession which the Lord gave to them.)

‘Now arise and cross over the ^[h]brook Zered yourselves.' So we crossed over the ^[i]brook Zered.

Now the ^[j]time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the ^[k]brook Zered was ^(q)thirty-eight years, until ^(r)all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, as ^(s)the Lord had sworn to them.

^(t)Moreover the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from within the camp until they all perished.

"So it came about when ^(u)all the men of war had finally perished from among the people,

that the Lord spoke to me, saying,

‘Today you shall cross over ^(v)Ar, the border of Moab.

When you come opposite the ^(w)sons of Ammon, do not harass them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to ^(x)the sons of Lot as a possession.'

(It is also regarded as the land of the ^(y)Rephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin,

a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim, but the Lord destroyed them before them. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place,

just as He did for the sons of Esau, who ^(z)live in Seir, when He destroyed ^(aa)the Horites from before them; they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day.

And the ^(ab)Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the ^[l](ac)Caphtorim who came from ^[m](ad)Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.)

‘Arise, set out, and pass through the ^[n](ae)valley of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession and contend with him in battle.

This day I will begin to put ^(af)the dread and fear of you ^[o]upon the peoples ^[p]everywhere under the heavens, who, when they hear the report of you, ^(ag)will tremble and be in anguish because of you.'

"^(ah)So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,

‘Let me pass through your land, I will ^[q]travel only on the highway; 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, ^(ai)only let me pass through on ^[r]foot,

just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in ^(aj)Ar did for me, until I cross over the Jordan into the land which the Lord our God is giving to us.'

But ^(ak)Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass ^[s]through his land; for the ^(al) Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to deliver him into your hand, as he is today.

The Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land ^[t]over to you. Begin to ^[u]occupy, that you may possess his land.'

"Then Sihon ^[v]with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz.

^(am)The Lord our God delivered him ^[w]over to us, and we ^[x](an)defeated him with his sons and all his people.

So we captured all his cities at that time and ^[y](ao)utterly destroyed ^[z]the men, women and children of every city. We left no survivor.

We took ^(ap)only the animals as our booty and the spoil of the cities which we had captured.

From ^(aq)Aroer which is on the edge of the ^[aa]valley of Arnon and from the city which is in the ^[ab]valley, even to Gilead, there was no city that was too high for us; the Lord our God delivered all ^[ac]over to us.

^(ar)Only you did not go near to the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the ^[ad]river ^(as)Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever the Lord our God had commanded us.