DEUTERONOMY
CHAPTER 1
1 These be the words which Moses spake to all Israel over Jordan, in the wilderness of the field, against the Red Sea, betwixt Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, where is full much gold,
2 by eleven days journey from Horeb by the way of the hill of Seir, till to Kadeshbarnea.
3 In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, in the first day of the month, Moses spake to the sons of Israel all things which the Lord commanded to him that he should say to them,
4 after that he had smitten, or killed, Sihon, the king of Amorites, that dwelled in Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, that dwelled in Ashtaroth, and in Edrei,
5 over Jordan, in the land of Moab. And Moses began to declare the law, and to say,
6 Our Lord God spake to us in Horeb, and said, It sufficeth to you that ye have dwelled in this hill;
7 turn ye again, and come ye to the hill of Amorites, and to other places that be next to it; and to the places of fields, and of hills, and to [the] lower places against the south, and beside the brink of the sea, to the land of Canaanites, and of Lebanon, till to the great flood Euphrates.
8 Lo, he saith, I have given to you that land; enter ye, and have it in possession, on which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he should give that land to them, and to their seed after them.
9 And I said to you in that time, I may not alone sustain you,
10 for your Lord God hath multiplied you, and ye be full many today, as the stars of heaven;
11 the Lord God of your fathers add to this number many thousands, and bless you, as he spake.
12 I may not alone sustain, or bear, your causes, and your burdens, and strives;
13 give ye of you men wise, and witting, whose conversation is proved in your lineages, that I set [or put] them princes to you.
14 Then ye answered to me, The thing is good which thou wilt do.
15 And I took of your lineages men wise, and noble; and I ordained them to be your princes, your tribunes, and centurions, and quinquagenaries, and deans, which shall teach you all things.
16 And I commanded to them, and said, Hear ye the people, and deem ye that that is just, whether he be a citizen, or a pilgrim.
17 No difference shall be in doom of persons; ye shall hear so a little man, that is, poor, as a great man, neither ye shall take heed to the person of any man, for it is the doom of God. That if anything seemeth hard to you, tell ye that to me, and I shall hear it.
18 And I commanded all things which ye ought to do.
19 Forsooth we went forth from Horeb, and passed by a fearedful desert, and greatest wilderness, which ye saw, by the way of the hill of Amorites, as our Lord God commanded to us. And when we had come into Kadeshbarnea,
20 I said to you, Ye be come to the hill of Amorites, which your Lord God shall give to you;
21 see thou, Israel, the land that the Lord God shall give to thee; go thou up, and wield it, as our Lord God spake to thy fathers; dread thou not, neither in thine heart be thou anything aghast.
22 And all ye nighed to me, and ye said, Send we men, that shall behold the land, and shall tell us by what way we owe to go up thither, and to which cities we owe to go.
23 And when the word pleased to me, I sent of you twelve men, of each lineage one.
24 And when they had gone forth, and had gone up into the hilly places, they came unto the valley of Cluster; and when they had beheld the land,
25 they took of the fruits thereof, to show the plenty of it, and they brought those fruits to us, and said, The land is good that our Lord God shall give to us.
26 And ye would not go up thither, but ye were unbelieveful to the word of our Lord God.
27 And ye grutched in your taber-nacles, and ye said, The Lord hateth us, and therefore he led us out of the land of Egypt, that he should betake us in the hand of Amorites, and do away us.
28 Whither shall we ascend [or go up]? the messengers made afeared our heart, and said, A greatest multitude is, and larger in stature than we; the cities be great, and walled till to heaven; we saw there the sons of Anakim, that is, giants.
29 And I said to you, Have ye no dread, nor be ye aghast;
30 the Lord God himself, which is your leader, shall fight for you, as he did in Egypt, while all men saw.
31 And ye saw in the wilderness, thy Lord God bare thee, as a man is wont to bear his little son, in all the way by which ye went, till ye came to this place.
32 And soothly neither so ye believed to your Lord God,
33 that went before you in the way, and measured the place in which ye ought to set your tents, and he showed in the night the way to you by fire, and in the day by a pillar of cloud.
34 And when the Lord had heard the voice of your words, he was wroth, and swore, and said,
35 None of the men of this worst generation shall see the good land, which I promised under an oath to your fathers,
36 except Caleb, the son of Jephun-neh; forsooth he shall see it, and I shall give to him the land upon which he hath trodden, and to his sons, for he pursued [or followed] the Lord.
37 Neither the Lord’s indignation against the people is to be marvelled, since the Lord was wroth also to me for you, and said, Neither thou shalt enter thither,
38 but Joshua, the son of Nun, thy servant, he shall enter into that land for thee; excite, and strengthen thou him, and he shall part the land by lot to Israel.
39 Your little children, of which ye said, that they should be led prisoners, and the sons that know not today the diversity of good and of evil, they shall enter thither; and I shall give to them the land, and they shall wield it.
40 Soothly turn ye again, and go ye into the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea.
41 And ye answered to me, We have sinned to the Lord; we shall go up, and we shall fight, as our Lord God commanded. And when ye were arrayed with arms, and went into the hill,
42 the Lord said to me, Say thou to them, Do not ye go up, neither fight ye, for I am not with you, lest ye fall before your enemies.
43 I spake this to you, and ye heard me not; but ye were adversaries to the commandment of the Lord, and swelling with pride, went up into the hill.
44 Therefore Amorites went out, that dwelled in the hills, and he came against you, and pursued you, as bees be wont to pursue, and he killed you down from Seir unto Hormah.
45 And when ye turned again, and wept before the Lord, he heard not you, neither would assent to your voice;
46 therefore ye sat in Kadesh by much time.