Deuteronomy 1-2

New Life Version

Israel Told to Go to Canaan

1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan, in the desert, in the Arabah beside Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. ² It takes eleven days to travel from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. ³ On the first day of the eleventh month in the fortieth year, Moses spoke to the children of Israel. He told them all the Lord said they must do. ⁴ This was after he had won the war against Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei. ⁵ On the other side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses talked to the people about this Law. He said, ⁶ “The Lord our God spoke to us at Mount Sinai, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Get ready to travel now. Go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the valley, in the Negev and by the sea, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the big river, the river Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have set the land in front of you. Go in and take for your own the land which the Lord promised to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their children after them.’

Leaders of Family Groups

⁹ “At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to take care of you alone. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has made you become many people. Now you are as many as the stars of heaven. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you 1,000 times as many as you are. May He bring good to you just as He has promised you! ¹² How can I alone carry the weight of your troubles? ¹³ Choose wise, understanding and able men from your family groups. And I will make them leaders over you.’ ¹⁴ You answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have spoken is good for us to do.’ ¹⁵ So I took the leaders of your family groups, wise and able men. I made them leaders over you, leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and rulers of your family groups.

¹⁶ “Then I said to your judges at that time, ‘Listen to the problems between your brothers. And be right in what you decide between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him. ¹⁷ Do not show favor as you judge. Listen to the small and the great alike. Do not be afraid of any man, because you are judging for God. Bring to me any problem that is too hard for you, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸ I told you at that time all the things you should do.

Men Are Sent to Spy Out the Land

¹⁹ “Then we left Mount Sinai. We went through the big desert you saw which fills people with fear, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had told us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God will give us. ²¹ See, the Lord your God has set the land in front of you. Go and take it for your own, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or troubled.’ ²² Then all of you came to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, to spy out the land for us. They will return and tell us which way we should go and which cities we will come to.’ ²³ What you said pleased me. I took twelve of your men, one man for each family group. ²⁴ They went up into the hill country, came to the valley of Eshcol, and saw what was there. ²⁵ They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us. And they told us that it is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us.

²⁶ “Yet you would not go up. You went against what the Lord your God told you to do. ²⁷ You complained in your tents, saying, ‘Because the Lord hates us He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us to the Amorites to destroy us. ²⁸ Where would we be going? Our brothers have made our hearts weak with fear, saying, ‘The people are bigger and taller than we. The cities are large, with walls as high as the heavens. And we have even seen the sons of the Anakim there.’” ²⁹ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God Who goes before you will Himself fight for you. He did this for you in Egypt in front of your eyes, ³¹ and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way you have walked until you came to this place.’ ³² But even so, you did not trust the Lord your God, ³³ Who goes before you on your way. He finds a place for you to set up your tents. He uses fire to show you the way to go during the night. During the day He uses a cloud to lead you.

Israel’s Punishment

³⁴ “The Lord heard your words and was angry. He swore, ³⁵ ‘Not one of these men of these sinful people will see the good land I promised to give your fathers, ³⁶ except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He will see it. I will give the land on which he has walked to him and his children because he has always followed the Lord.’ ³⁷ The Lord was angry with me because of you. He said, ‘Not even you will go in there. ³⁸ Joshua the son of Nun, who stands in front of you, will go in there. Tell him to be strong, for he will bring Israel into their new land. ³⁹ And your little ones whom you said would be taken by strange hands, and your children who do not yet know the difference between good and bad, will go in there. I will give the land to them. It will be theirs. ⁴⁰ But as for you, turn around and go into the desert by way of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹ “Then you said to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God told us.’ So every man of you put on his sword and thought it an easy thing to go up into the hill country. ⁴² The Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up or fight. For I am not among you. You would be destroyed by those who hate you.”’ ⁴³ So I spoke to you but you would not listen. You went against what the Lord told you. In your pride you went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴ Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you. They came at you like bees, and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵ And you returned and cried before the Lord but the Lord did not listen to you. ⁴⁶ So you stayed in Kadesh. Many days you stayed there.

Years in the Desert

2 “Then we turned and went into the desert by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord said to me. We went around Mount Seir for many days. ² And the Lord said to me, ³ ‘You have traveled around this mountain long enough. Now turn north. ⁴ Tell the people, “You will pass through the land of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so be very careful. ⁵ Do not make them angry. For I will not give you any of their land, not even enough for a foot to step on. I have given Mount Seir to Esau for his own. ⁶ You will pay them with money for the food you eat. And you will pay them with money for the water you drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has brought good to you in all you have done. He knows about your traveling through this big desert. The Lord your God has been with you these forty years. You have not been without a thing.”’

⁸ “So we moved on from our brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road, away from Elath and Ezion-geber. We turned and went by the way of the desert of Moab. ⁹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not bring trouble to Moab or fight them in war. For I will not give you any of their land for your own. I have given Ar to the children of Lot for their own.’ ¹⁰ (The Emim had lived there before. These people were many and powerful, and as tall as the Anakim. ¹¹ They are known as Rephaim also, like the Anakim. But the Moabites call them Emim. ¹² The Horites once lived in Seir also. But the sons of Esau took their place. They destroyed them and took the land for themselves, as Israel did to the land which the Lord gave them for their own.) ¹³ ‘Now get up and go over the river Zered.’ So we went over the river Zered. ¹⁴ It was thirty-eight years from the time we left Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the river Zered. By that time all the men of war among us had died, as the Lord had said they would. ¹⁵ The hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them within their tents until they were all dead.

¹⁶ “When all the men of war had died from among the people, ¹⁷ the Lord said to me, ¹⁸ ‘Today you will cross over Ar and into Moab. ¹⁹ But when you come near the land of the sons of Ammon, do not bring them trouble or make them angry. For I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon for your own. Because I have given it to the sons of Lot for their own.’ ²⁰ (It is known as the land of the Rephaim also. For Rephaim once lived in it. But the Amorites call them Zamzummin, ²¹ a people as great, as many and as tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them, and the sons of Ammon took their place and lived in their land. ²² It was as He did for the sons of Esau, who live in Seir. He destroyed the Horites, and the sons of Esau took their place and live in their land even to this day. ²³ And the Caphtorim who came from Caphtor destroyed the Avvim who lived in towns as far as Gaza. Then they lived in their place.) ²⁴ ‘Now rise up and go on your way. Pass through the valley of Arnon. See, I have given you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take it for your own, and fight with him in battle. ²⁵ This day I will begin to put much fear of you upon the nations everywhere under the heavens. When they hear about you, they will shake with fear and be filled with trouble because of you.’

Battle with King Sihon

²⁶ “So I sent men carrying news from the desert of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace. They said, ²⁷ ‘Let me pass through your land. I will travel only on the road. I will not turn to the right or to the left. ²⁸ You will sell me food for money so I may eat, and give me water for money so I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot ²⁹ as the sons of Esau did for us in Seir and the Moabites in Ar. Do this until I cross over the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.’ ³⁰ But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing to let us pass through his land. For the Lord your God made his spirit and heart hard, so He might give him into your hand, as he is today. ³¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land to you. Begin to take it for your own, so you may live in it.’

³² “Then Sihon and all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz. ³³ The Lord our God gave him to us. We won the fight against him, his sons and all his people. ³⁴ So we took all his cities at that time, and destroyed every man, woman and child in them. We left no one alive. ³⁵ We took only the animals for our own, and the things that were left behind in the cities. ³⁶ There was no city too strong for us, from Aroer by the valley of Arnon, and from the city which is in the valley, as far as Gilead. The Lord our God gave all to us. ³⁷ Only you did not go near the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country. You did not go where the Lord our God told us not to go.