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

"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.'

They hand-picked some of the fruit of the land, brought it down to us, and gave a report that said, "The land which the LORD is about to give us is good.'"

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 was also furious with me because of you. He said: "You will not enter the land.

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."

"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!

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:

When you heard the voice from the darkness while the mountain was blazing, all the leaders and elders of your tribes came to me and said:

"The LORD heard what you said. He told me: "I've heard what this people said. Everything they said was good.

expelling all your enemies before you, as the LORD said."

The Anakim are strong and tall, and you know them. You've heard it said, "Who can stand up against the Anakim?'

When the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea and told you, "Go possess the land that I gave you,' instead you disobeyed what the LORD your God said. You didn't trust him or listen to his voice.

I fell down in the LORD's presence for 40 days and nights, because the LORD said he was ready to destroy you.

So I prayed to the LORD and said, "Oh LORD my God, don't destroy your people and your inheritance whom you redeemed by your power. You brought them out from Egypt in a powerful way.

Only he must not amass horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt to obtain more horses. For the LORD said you must never return that way again.

Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to Israel. They said, "Be quiet and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of the LORD your God.

Finally, the LORD will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you'd never see again. There you'll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."

So he said: "Let me hide my face from them. I will observe what their end will be, because they are a perverted generation, children within whom there is no loyalty.

"I said, "I will scatter them, erasing their memory from the human race,

He said: "The LORD came from Sinai. Rising from Seir upon us, he shone forth from Mount Paran, accompanied by a myriad of his holy ones, with flaming fire from his right hand for them.

About Levi he said: "Let your Thummim and Urim be with the man to whom you showed gracious love, whom you tested at Massah and with whom you struggled at the waters of Meribah,

About Benjamin he said: "The beloved of the LORD will live confidently, the Most High protecting him all day long, and resting in his bosom."

About Joseph he said: "May the blessing of the LORD be on his land: dew from the choicest of the heavens, and from the depths beneath;

About Zebulun he said: "Zebulun, rejoice as you go out and Issachar, in being inside your tents.

About Gad he said: "Blessed be the one who enlarges Gad! Like a roaring lion, he crouches, tearing arm and scalp.

About Dan he said: "Dan is a lion's cub, leaping forth from Bashan."

About Naphtali he said: "Naphtali, full of favor and the LORD's blessing, take possession of the west and south."

About Asher he said: "May Asher be blessed, along with his descendants, may his brothers be pleased with him, may he dip his feet in oil,

The God of old is a dwelling place, with everlasting arms underneath. He drove out your enemies before you and said: "Destroy them!'

Then the LORD told him: "This is the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by an oath when I said, "I'll give it to your descendants.' I'll let you see it with your eyes, but you won't cross over there."

So Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, just as the LORD had said.