These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.

In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses told the Israelites everything the Lord had commanded him to say to them.

“The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb: ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough.

Resume your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites and their neighbors in the Arabah, the hill country, the Judean foothills, the Negev and the sea coast—to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon as far as the Euphrates River.

See, I have set the land before you. Enter and take possession of the land the Lord swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their future descendants.’

The Lord your God has so multiplied you that today you are as numerous as the stars of the sky.

May Yahweh, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times more, and bless you as He promised you.

But how can I bear your troubles, burdens, and disputes by myself?

Appoint for yourselves wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will make them your leaders.

“So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and set them over you as leaders: officials for thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and officers for your tribes.

I commanded your judges at that time: Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge rightly between a man and his brother or a foreign resident.

At that time I commanded you about all the things you were to do.

“We then set out from Horeb and went across all the great and terrible wilderness you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,

I said to you: You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.

See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and take possession of it as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.

They took some of the fruit from the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us back a report: ‘The land the Lord our God is giving us is good.’

“But you were not willing to go up, rebelling against the command of the Lord your God.

You grumbled in your tents and said, ‘The Lord brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites so they would destroy us, because He hated us.

Where can we go? Our brothers have discouraged us, saying: The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, fortified to the heavens. We also saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’

“So I said to you: Don’t be terrified or afraid of them!

The Lord your God who goes before you will fight for you, just as you saw Him do for you in Egypt.

And you saw in the wilderness how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son all along the way you traveled until you reached this place.

But in spite of this you did not trust the Lord your God,

who went before you on the journey to seek out a place for you to camp. He went in the fire by night and in the cloud by day to guide you on the road you were to travel.

“When the Lord heard your words, He grew angry and swore an oath:

‘None of these men in this evil generation will see the good land I swore to give your fathers,

Your little children, whom you said would be plunder, your sons who don’t know good from evil, will enter there. I will give them the land, and they will take possession of it.

But you are to turn back and head for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.’

“You answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ Then each of you put on his weapons of war and thought it would be easy to go up into the hill country.

“But the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them: Don’t go up and fight, for I am not with you to keep you from being defeated by your enemies.’

When you returned, you wept before the Lord, but He didn’t listen to your requests or pay attention to you.

Command the people: You are about to travel through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so you must be very careful.

For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this immense wilderness. The Lord your God has been with you this past 40 years, and you have lacked nothing.’

“So we bypassed our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah road and from Elath and Ezion-geber. We traveled along the road to the Wilderness of Moab.

The Lord said to me, ‘Show no hostility toward Moab, and do not provoke them to battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, since I have given Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.’”

They were also regarded as Rephaim, like the Anakim, though the Moabites called them Emim.

‘Today you are going to cross the border of Moab at Ar.

When you get close to the Ammonites, don’t show any hostility to them or fight with them, for I will not give you any of the Ammonites’ land as a possession; I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.’”

‘Let us travel through your land; we will keep strictly to the highway. We will not turn to the right or the left.

just as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir did for us, and the Moabites who live in Ar, until we cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.’

But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us travel through his land, for the Lord your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to hand him over to you, as has now taken place.

The Lord our God handed him over to us, and we defeated him, his sons, and his whole army.

There was no city that was inaccessible to us, from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead. The Lord our God gave everything to us.

But you did not go near the Ammonites’ land, all along the bank of the Jabbok River, the cities of the hill country, or any place that the Lord our God had forbidden.

So the Lord our God also handed over Og king of Bashan and his whole army to us. We struck him until there was no survivor left.

All these were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a large number of rural villages.

“At that time we took possession of this land. I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites the area extending from Aroer by the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead along with its cities.

and I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites the area extending from Gilead to the Arnon Valley (the middle of the valley was the border) and up to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.

The Arabah and Jordan are also borders from Chinnereth as far as the Sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

“I commanded you at that time: The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All your fighting men will cross over in battle formation ahead of your brothers the Israelites.

But your wives, young children, and livestock—I know that you have a lot of livestock—will remain in the cities I have given you

until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as He has to you, and they also take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession that I have given you.

“I commanded Joshua at that time: Your own eyes have seen everything the Lord your God has done to these two kings. The Lord will do the same to all the kingdoms you are about to enter.

Don’t be afraid of them, for the Lord your God fights for you.

Lord God, You have begun to show Your greatness and power to Your servant, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can perform deeds and mighty acts like Yours?

Go to the top of Pisgah and look to the west, north, south, and east, and see it with your own eyes, for you will not cross this Jordan.

“Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live, enter, and take possession of the land Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, so that you may keep the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you.

Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed every one of you who followed Baal of Peor.

But you who have remained faithful to the Lord your God are all alive today.

Look, I have taught you statutes and ordinances as the Lord my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to possess.

Carefully follow them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’

For what great nation is there that has a god near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to Him?

“Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.

The day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people before Me, and I will let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth and may instruct their children.’

At that time the Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to follow in the land you are about to cross into and possess.

“For your own good, be extremely careful—because you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb—

not to act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of any figure: a male or female form,

or the form of any beast on the earth, any winged creature that flies in the sky,

any creature that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the waters under the earth.

When you look to the heavens and see the sun, moon, and stars—all the array of heaven—do not be led astray to bow down and worship them. The Lord your God has provided them for all people everywhere under heaven.

But the Lord selected you and brought you out of Egypt’s iron furnace to be a people for His inheritance, as you are today.

“The Lord was angry with me on your account. He swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

I won’t be crossing the Jordan because I am going to die in this land. But you are about to cross over and take possession of this good land.

Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that He made with you, and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of anything He has forbidden you.

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

“When you have children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, and if you act corruptly, make an idol in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, provoking Him to anger,

I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will quickly perish from the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not live long there, but you will certainly be destroyed.

The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be reduced to a few survivors among the nations where the Lord your God will drive you.

There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.

But from there, you will search for the Lord your God, and you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul.

When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, you will return to the Lord your God in later days and obey Him.

He will not leave you, destroy you, or forget the covenant with your fathers that He swore to them by oath, because the Lord your God is a compassionate God.

“Indeed, ask about the earlier days that preceded you, from the day God created man on the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other: Has anything like this great event ever happened, or has anything like it been heard of?

Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

You were shown these things so that you would know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides Him.

Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,

Keep His statutes and commands, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Someone could flee there who committed manslaughter, killing his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him. He could flee to one of these cities and stay alive:

Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau land, belonging to the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, belonging to the Gadites; or Golan in Bashan, belonging to the Manassites.

These are the decrees, statutes, and ordinances Moses proclaimed to them after they came out of Egypt,

They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings who were across the Jordan to the east,

The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

He did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with all of us who are alive here today.

At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to report the word of the Lord to you, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain. And He said:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

Do not make an idol for yourself in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.

You must not bow down to them or worship them, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ sin to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses His name.

Be careful to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you.