And so I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and [then] I appointed them as leaders over you [as] commanders of [groups of] thousands and commanders of [groups of] hundreds and commanders of [groups of] fifties and commanders of [groups of] tens [as] officials for your tribes.

So [now] arise and cross over the wadi of Zered yourselves; and [so] we crossed the wadi of Zered.

'You [are] about to cross over the boundary of Moab {today} at Ar.

Arise, set out and cross [over] the wadi of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession of [it], and engage with him in battle.

Yahweh said to me, 'Look! I have begun to give {over to you} Sihon and his land; begin {to take possession of his land}.'

And so Yahweh our God gave him over {to us}, and we struck him down, and his sons and all of his people.

"And I charged you [all] at that time [when I] said, "Yahweh has given you--to [all of] you--this land to possess. All the {warriors} shall cross over, ready to fight, before your brothers, the {Israelites}.

And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, 'Your eyes see all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings; so Yahweh will do to all [of] the kingdoms where you are about to cross over to.

Let me cross over, please, and let me see the good land {that is beyond the Jordan}, this good hill country and Lebanon.'

Now instruct Joshua and support him and encourage him because he himself will cross [over] before this people and enable them to inherit the land that you will see.'

"Yes, ask, please, about former days that {preceded you} from the day that God created humankind on the earth; [ask even] from [one] end of the heaven up to the [other] end of heaven {whether anything ever happened} like this great thing or {whether anything like it was ever heard}.

Has a people [ever] heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, [just] as you heard [it], and lived?

Or has a god [ever] attempted to go to take for himself a nation from the midst of a nation, [using] trials and signs and wonders and war, with an outstretched arm and with great and awesome deeds, like all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

"Now this [is] the commandment, the rules and the regulations, that Yahweh your God charged to teach [to] you [for you] {to observe} in the land that you [are] about to cross [over] into to take possession of it,

and Yahweh your God will give them {over to you} and you defeat them, you must {utterly destroy them}; you shall not make a covenant with them, and you shall not show mercy [to them].

and what he did to the army of Egypt and to their horses and to their chariots, [and] how he made the water of the {Red Sea} flow over them, {when they pursued after them}, and so Yahweh has destroyed them, {as is the case today},

so that [they] may multiply your days and the days of your children on the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors to give [it] to them {as long as heaven endures over the earth}.

"Take care for yourself so that you do not offer your burnt offerings at [just] any place that you happen to see,

{but only} at the place that Yahweh will choose among one of your tribes; there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all [the things] that I [am] commanding you.

And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood on the altar of Yahweh your God, and the blood of your sacrifices you shall pour out on the altar of Yahweh your God, but the meat you may eat.

When Yahweh your God has blessed you, [just] as he {promised} to you, then you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow [from them], and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to Yahweh your God [from among] [your] flock and herd at the place that Yahweh will choose, to let his name dwell there.

You are not allowed to offer the Passover sacrifice in one of your {towns} that Yahweh your God is giving to you,

but only at the place that Yahweh your God will choose, to let his name dwell there; you shall offer the Passover sacrifice {in the evening at sunset}, [at the] designated time of your going out from Egypt.

"When you have come to that land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you and you have taken possession of it and you have settled in it, and you say, 'I will set over me a king like all the nations that [are] around me,'

indeed, you may set a king over you whom Yahweh your God will choose, from the midst of your countrymen you must set a king over you; you are not allowed to appoint over you a man, a foreigner, who [is] not your countryman.

[so as] not to exalt his heart above his countrymen and not to turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left, so that {he may reign long over his kingdom}, he and his children in the midst of Israel."

"When you approach a city to fight against it, {you must offer it peace}.

And all of the elders of that city nearest to the slain person shall wash their hands over the heifer [with] the broken neck in the wadi.

For Yahweh your God [is] walking about in the midst of your camp to deliver you and {to hand your enemies over to you before you}, and so let your camp be holy, so that he shall not see in it {anything indecent}, and he shall turn away {from going with you}.

"And you shall not hand over a slave to his master who has escaped [and fled] to you from his master.

And your heavens that [are] over your heads shall be [like] bronze, and the earth that [is] under you [shall be like] iron.

Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set up over you to a nation that you or your ancestors have not known, and there you will serve other gods [of] wood and stone.

The alien that [is] in your midst shall ascend over you, higher [and] higher, but you shall go down lower [and] lower.

"And all of these curses shall come over you, and they shall pursue you, and they shall overtake you {until you are destroyed}, because {you did not listen} to the voice of Yahweh your God, {by observing} his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

The most refined and the very sensitive man among you {shall be mean with his brother} and {against his beloved wife} and against the rest of his children that he has left over,

{by refraining from giving} to [even] one of them any of the meat of his children that he eats, because [there is] not anything [that is] left over for him {during the siege and distress} that your enemy inflicts upon you.

{And then} as Yahweh delighted over you {to make you prosperous} to make you numerous, so Yahweh shall delight over you to exterminate you and to destroy you, and [so] you shall be plucked from the land that you [are] going there to take possession of it.

But with {whoever is standing here} with us {today} {before} Yahweh our God, and with {whoever is not standing here} with us {today}.

And Yahweh your God will make you prosperous {in all your undertakings}, and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground {abundantly}, for Yahweh {will again rejoice} over you, [just] as he rejoiced over your ancestors.

As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreads out its wings, takes them, carries them on its pinions,

I thought, "I will wipe them out; {I will make people forget they ever existed}."

Yes, from afar you may view the land, but there you shall not enter there, [that is], into the land that I [am] giving to the {Israelites}."