These are the words that Moses spoke to the assembly of Israel east of the Jordan River, in the Arabah desert, opposite Suph between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.

On the first day of the eleventh month, in the fortieth year, Moses spoke to the Israelis about everything that the LORD had commanded him concerning them.

This took place after he defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon and Og, king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth at Edrei.

East of the Jordan River, in the land of Moab, Moses began to expound this Law:

"The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb. He said, "You have been at this mountain long enough.

Break camp, get going, and proceed to the hill country of the Amorites and all the nearby places in the Arabah desert, the highlands, the foothills, the Negev, the coastal plains, all of the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates.

Look! I've given you the land that lies ahead. Go in and possess the land that I, the LORD, promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as to their descendants.'"

"I also told you at that time that I won't be able to sustain you on my own.

The LORD your God greatly multiplied your numbers, and today you are like the stars in the sky.

I charged your judges at that time, "When you hold a hearing between brothers, judge fairly between a man and his brother or between foreigners.

When you hold a hearing, don't be partial in judgment toward the least important or toward the great. Never fear men, because judgment belongs to God. If the matter is difficult for you, bring it to me for a hearing.'

"Then all of you approached me and said: "Let's send out men in advance of us so they can survey the land and bring back a report to us on how we'll go up to their cities.'

Because this suggestion seemed good to me, I chose twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.

You murmured in your tents, "The LORD hates us. He brought us out of the land of Egypt in order to deliver us to the Amorites so he could destroy us.

Where can we go? Our brothers discouraged us when they said that the people are bigger and taller than we are. Their cities are tall and fortified to the sky, and we also saw the Anakim there.'

The LORD your God is the One who will be going ahead of you. He'll fight for you just as he did in Egypt before your eyes.

In the desert you saw that the LORD carried you like a man carries his son, on every road you traveled until you reached this place.'

But despite this, you didn't trust in the LORD your God,

who walked ahead of you along the way to scout a place for you to pitch camp by fire at night and cloud by day to lead you on the way you should go."

"When the LORD heard your complaints, he became angry and declared,

"I swear that not one man of this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors,

except Jephunneh's son Caleb. He will see it and I will give to him and to his descendants the land on which he has walked because he wholeheartedly followed the LORD.'

But as for you, prepare to set out for the desert on the way to the Reed Sea.'

"You responded to me and said, "We have sinned against the LORD. We will now go up and fight according to what the LORD our God commanded.' So each man put on his weapon for battle and recklessly started out for the hill country."

"Then the LORD told me: "Tell them not to go up and fight because I will not be in their midst, or else you will be defeated before your enemies.'

The Amorites who lived in the hill country came out to engage you in battle. They pursued you like bees do and crushed you from Seir to Hormah.

You returned and cried out in the LORD's presence, but the LORD didn't hear your voice or listen to you.

You remained in Kadesh for many days. It was a long time, indeed."

"We turned and set out for the desert on the road to the Reed Sea, just as the LORD had directed me. We traveled around Mount Seir for many days.

Don't fight them, because I won't give you any part of their land, not even the size of a footprint. I have given Mount Seir to Esau as their property.

So we bypassed our relatives, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir. We turned through the Arabah desert from Elath, and from Ezion-geber we traveled the desert road to Moab."

"Then the LORD told me, "Don't harass Moab or provoke them to war, because I won't give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their property.

The Horites used to live in Seir before the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, exterminated them, and settled there instead, just as Israel will do in the land of its possession, which the LORD gave them.)

Now from the time we left Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Wadi Zered was 38 years. All of that generation, the soldiers in the camp, were destroyed just as the LORD swore they would be.

When you come to the Ammonites, don't harass or provoke them to war, for I won't give any part of Ammonite land to you, since I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their property.

This is what he did for the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them. So they dispossessed them and settled there in their place, where they live to this day.

It was the same for the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza. The Caphtorites, who came from Crete, destroyed them and settled there in their place.)

Starting today I will begin to instill fear and terror of you on the part of every nation under heaven who hears reports about you. They'll tremble in anguish before you.'"

"Let me pass through your territory. I'll stay on the main road. I won't turn to the right or left.

Sell me food for cash, so I can eat and give me water for cash, so I can drink. Just let me pass through on foot,

as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir did for me, as did the Moabites who live in Ar. I'll pass through, until I will have crossed the Jordan into the land that the LORD our God is about to give us.'

But King Sihon of Heshbon did not allow us to pass through, because the LORD your God had hardened his spirit and made him arrogant, in order to deliver him into your control today.

From Aroer on the edge of Arnon Valley and from the town all the way to Gilead, there was no city that was too strong for us the LORD our God delivered them all to us.

You did not encroach onto Ammonite land, the banks of the Wadi Jabbok, the towns in the hill country, and all the other places that were forbidden by the LORD our God."

Then the LORD told me, "Don't fear him, because I've delivered him, his army, and his territory into your control. Do to him just as you have done to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.'

Then we captured all his cities at that time. There was not a city left that we didn't capture from them 60 cities in all from the region of Argob, which is part of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

We utterly destroyed them, just as we did King Sihon of Heshbon, attacking them in every city the men, women, and children.

We took control of all the cities of the plain, all of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

Only King Og of Bashan remained from the remnants of the Rephaim. In fact, his bed was made of iron. It's in Rabbah of the Ammonites, isn't it? It was nine cubits long and four cubits wide."

The Arabah and the Jordan River are also a boundary from Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Salt Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah on the east."

However, your women, children, and livestock and I know you have many may reside in your towns that I gave you

until the LORD grants rest to your fellow Israelis like you. When they take possession of the territory that the LORD your God is about to give them on the other side of the Jordan River, then each of you may return to the territory that I've allotted for you.'

"LORD God, you've begun to show your greatness and your strong power to your servant. For what god in heaven or on earth can equal your works and mighty deeds?

Let me cross over that I may see the good land on the other side of the Jordan River the good hill country as well as Lebanon.'

Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift your eyes toward the west, north, south, and east. Look with your own eyes, since you won't be able to cross this Jordan River.

We then encamped in the valley opposite Beth-peor."

"Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and the ordinances that I'm teaching you to observe so you may live and go in to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is about to give you.

You saw with your own eyes what he did in Baal Peor. The LORD your God exterminated from among you every man who followed Baal of Peor.

See! I taught you the statutes and the ordinances, just as the LORD God commanded. Therefore, observe them when you enter the land you are about to possess.

Observe them carefully, because this will show your wisdom and discernment in the eyes of people who'll listen to all these decrees. Then they'll say: "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.'

For what great nation has a god so near like the LORD our God whenever we call on him?

Only guard yourselves carefully so you won't forget the things that you saw and let them slip from your mind for the rest of your life. Tell them to your children and to your grandchildren.

The day you stood in the presence of the LORD your God in Horeb, the LORD told me, "Gather the people before me so they may hear my words, learn to revere me the whole time that they live in the land, and teach them to their children.'"

"When you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain a mountain that was blazing with fire at its core while the sky was covered with thick, dark clouds

He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to observe the Ten Commandments that he wrote on two stone tablets.

The LORD commanded me at that time to teach you to observe the statutes and ordinances in the land after you cross over to take possession of it.

"Therefore, for your own sake, be very careful, since you did not see any form on the day that the LORD your God spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire.

Be careful! Otherwise, you will be destroyed when you make carved images for yourself all sorts of images in the form of man, woman,

any animal on earth, any winged bird that flies in the sky,

any creeping thing on the ground, or any fish in the sea.

"But the LORD was angry with me because of you. So he swore that I'll never cross the Jordan River to enter the good land that the LORD your God is about to give you as an inheritance.

I'm going to die in this land and I won't cross the Jordan River, but you're about to cross over to possess that good land.

Be careful! Otherwise, you will forget the covenant of the LORD your God, who established that covenant with you. Don't make carved images of any likeness in violation of everything that you were commanded by the LORD your God.

"After you've borne children and grandchildren, have been there for a long time in the land, have become so corrupted that you make images of any form, and have done evil in the eyes of the LORD your God, you will provoke him to anger.

Heaven and earth will testify against what has occurred today: you'll surely and swiftly be destroyed from the land that you are about to possess by crossing the Jordan River. You won't live long in it, because you'll certainly be exterminated.

Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among the nations, and you'll be fewer in number in the nations where the LORD your God will drive you.

In your distress, when all these things happen to you in days to come and you return to the LORD your God, then you will hear his voice.

For God is compassionate. The LORD your God won't fail you. He won't destroy you or forget the covenant that he confirmed with your ancestors."

"Indeed, ask from one end of the heavens to the other about days of old, before your time, when God created mankind on the earth. Did we ever have anything as great as this, or ever hear of anything like it?

Or has any god ever taken for himself one nation out from another nation with testings, signs, wonders, wars, awesome power, and magnificent, terrifying deeds as the LORD your God did in Egypt before your eyes?

"You have been shown this in order to know that "the LORD is God' and there is no one like him.

You have been made to hear his voice from heaven so you may be instructed. And he showed you his great fire here on earth, and you heard his voice from the middle of that fire.

in order to drive out nations that are stronger and more powerful than you, to bring you into this land, and to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today.

"May you acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in the heavens above and over the earth below there is no other God.

May you observe his statutes and keep his commands that I'm giving you today, so that life may go well for you and for your descendants after you. That way, you'll live a long life in the land that the LORD your God is about to give you permanently."

Then Moses designated three cities on the east side of the Jordan,

where a person who accidentally killed someone could flee, if he killed his neighbor without having enmity toward him in the past. He may flee to one of these cities and live:

Bezer in the desert plain for the descendants of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead for the descendants of Gad, and Golan in Bashan for the descendants of Manasseh.

This is the Law that Moses reviewed in the presence of the Israelis.

These are the instructions, decrees, and ordinances that Moses declared to the Israelis when they came out of Egypt.

He did this east of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and whom Moses and the Israelis defeated after leaving Egypt.

from Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon as far as Mount Sirion, which is also called Hermon,

When the LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb,

The LORD spoke to you face to face on the mountain from the fire.

""You are not to craft for yourselves an idol resembling what is in the skies above, or on earth beneath, or in the water sources under the earth.

You are not to bow down to them in worship or serve them, because I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the guilt of parents on children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

""You are not to misuse the name of the LORD your God, because the LORD will not leave unpunished the one who misuses his name.

You are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, but the LORD your God brought you out from there with great power and a show of force. Therefore, the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

""Honor your father and your mother, just as the LORD your God commanded you, so that you will live long and things will go well for you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

"The LORD declared these commands in a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from out of the fire and dark clouds, and nothing more was added. He inscribed them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.