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.

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

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.'"

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

May the LORD, the God of your ancestors, increase your numbers a thousand times more, and may he bless you, as he promised you.

How can I bear the burden of you and your bickering all by myself?

Choose for yourselves wise and discerning men, known to your tribes, and appoint them as your leaders.

So I chose leaders from your tribes, wise and respected men, and I appointed them over you commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

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 we set out from Horeb and walked through that vast and dreadful desert, where you observed the road to the Amorite hill country. Just as the LORD our God ordained for us, we finally arrived at Kadesh-barnea.

I told you at that time, "You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is about to give us.

Look! The LORD your God has given the land that lies before you. Go and possess it, just as the LORD God of your ancestors commanded you. Don't be afraid or discouraged.'

"However, your ancestors didn't go up. Instead, they rebelled against the command of the LORD your God.

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.'

"Then I told you, "Don't be terrified or afraid of them.

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.

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

"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,

However, Nun's son Joshua, your assistant, will go there. Encourage him, for he will cause Israel to take possession of it.

Your little ones whom you said would be taken captive and your children who do not yet know right from wrong will enter the land. I will give it to them and they themselves will possess it.

"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.'

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

and command this people, "You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau who live around Seir. They will be afraid of you so be very careful.

Indeed, the LORD your God blessed all the works of your hands. He knows about your travels through this vast desert. The LORD your God was with you these past 40 years, so that you didn't lack anything.

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.

Like the Anakim, they were thought of as Rephaim, but the Moabites called them Emites.

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.

Indeed, the hand of the LORD was against them to root them out from the camp until they were utterly destroyed."

"Today, you are about to cross the border of Moab at Ar.

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.

Get ready and set out for the Wadi Arnon. Look! I've given into your control Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, along with his land. Prepare to take possession by provoking him to war.

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

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.

The LORD our God delivered him to us, so we attacked him, his son, and his whole army.

We only appropriated the livestock for our use, along with plunder from the cities that we captured.

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.'

"So the LORD our God also delivered into our control King Og of Bashan, along with his whole army. We attacked him until there were no survivors.

All of these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars. Furthermore, there were very many unwalled regions.

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."

"Then I commanded you at that time, "The Lord your God gave you this land as a possession. Those equipped for battle every man a warrior will cross before your fellow Israelis.

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.'

"I also charged Joshua at that time, "You witnessed everything that the LORD your God did to the two kings. Indeed, the LORD will do this to all the kingdoms which you are about to enter.

You are not to fear them, because the LORD your God will fight 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?

"However, the LORD was furious with me because of you. He did not listen to me. Instead, the LORD said, "You are not to speak to me about this matter again!

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.

"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.

Do not add or subtract a thing to what I'm commanding you. Observe the commands of the LORD your God.

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.

But all of you who are clinging to the LORD your God are alive today.

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.'"

the LORD your God spoke from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you saw no form; there was only a voice.

"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.

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

Do not gaze toward the heavens and observe the sun, the moon, the stars the entire array of the sky with the intent to worship and serve what the LORD your God gave every nation.

For the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace out of Egypt to be the people of his inheritance, as you are today.

"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.

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.

Indeed, the LORD your God is a consuming fire. He is a jealous 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.

If from there you will seek the LORD your God, then you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and soul.

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?

Moreover, he loved your ancestors, chose their descendants after them, and brought you out of Egypt, accompanied by his presence and great power,

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 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."

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:

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

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

it was not with our ancestors that the LORD made this covenant, but with us we who are here today all of us who are now living.

I stood at that time as mediator between the LORD and you to declare his message to you, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. He said:

""I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of slavery.

You are to have no other gods as a substitute for me.

""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.

""Observe the Sabbath day, maintaining its holiness, just as the LORD your God commanded.

Six days you are to labor and do all your work,

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You are not to do any work neither you, your son, nor your daughter, your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys, nor any of your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you, so that your male and female servants may rest as you do.

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.