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

"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.'

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.'

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.'

"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.'

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

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."

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

"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.

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."

Now get going and cross the Wadi Zered.' And so we crossed the Wadi Zered.

"And so all the soldiers among the people died.

a great people, numerous, and tall as the Anakim. But the LORD destroyed the Rephaim, so that the Ammonites dispossessed them and settled there instead.

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.

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,

"Then the LORD told me, "See, I've begun to deliver Sihon and his territory over to you. Prepare to take possession of his land.'

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

"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.

"So at that time, we took control from the two Amorite kings the territory east of the Jordan from Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon.

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."

Manasseh's son Jair captured all the Argob region as far as the territory of the descendants of Geshur and the descendants of Maacath. Bashan was named after him; that's why it is called Havvoth-jair to this day.

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."

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.'

Therefore charge Joshua to be doubly strong, because he will lead this people and cause them to inherit the land that you'll see.'

"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.'"

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.

"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.

"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.

There you'll serve gods made by human hands, serving trees and stones that cannot see, hear, eat, nor smell.

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.

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."

So they took possession of his land, as well as the land of King Og of Bashan. Both Amorite kings lived east of the Jordan

and all the Arabah east of the Jordan as far as the Dead Sea below the slopes of Pisgah.

Moses called all of Israel together and told them: "Listen, Israel! Today I'm going to announce God's laws and regulations so that you will learn them and take care to obey them.

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.

""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.

""You are not to desire your neighbor's wife nor crave your neighbor's house, his fields, his male and female servants, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that pertains to your neighbor.'"

As for you, go near and listen to everything that the LORD our God will say to you, then repeat it to us, and we'll listen and obey.'

You are to walk in every pathway that the LORD your God commanded you, so that life may go well for you, and so that you will prolong your days in the land that you will possess.'"

so that you, your children, and your grandchildren may fear the LORD your God. Keep all his decrees and commandments that I'm giving you every day of your life, so you may live a long time.

Listen, Israel! Be careful to obey, so that life may go well for you and that you may increase greatly. Just as the LORD God of your ancestors told you, you'll have a land flowing with milk and honey.

Do what is good and right in the LORD's sight so it may go well with you. Then you'll enter and possess the good land that the LORD your God promised to your ancestors,

Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God for our own good, so that he may keep us alive as we are today.

So when the LORD your God delivers them to you and you have defeated them, then utterly destroy them. You are not to make any covenant with them nor be gracious to them.

because they will turn your children from me to serve other gods so that the LORD's anger blazes against you and swiftly destroys you by fire.

"You may say to yourselves, "These nations are more numerous than we are. How can we dispossess them?'

Your eyes saw the great trials, the signs and wonders, and the awesome power with which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the people whom you fear.

He slowly will dislodge these nations before you, but he won't destroy them quickly, so the wild animals won't multiply around you.

Burn the images of their gods in the fire. Desire neither the silver nor the gold that adorns them, nor take them for yourselves, so you won't be ensnared by them, because the gold and silver is detestable to the LORD your God.

Be convinced in your heart that as a father disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

It's a land filled with wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates. It's a land filled with olive oil and honey

a land without scarcity. You'll eat food in it and lack nothing. It's a land where its rocks are iron and you can dig copper from its mountains."

and fed you in the desert with manna that neither you nor your ancestors had known, to humble and test you so that things go well with you later.

You may say to yourselves, "I have become wealthy by my own strength and by my own ability.'

Just like the nations whom the LORD destroyed before you, so will you be destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God."

After the LORD has expelled them before you, you are not to say to yourselves, "The LORD caused me to enter and possess this land because of my righteousness.'

At Horeb you continually rebelled against the LORD, so that he was angry enough to destroy you.

"So I turned and went down from the mountain while the mountain was on fire. The two Tablets of the Covenant were in both of my hands.

Then I saw how you had really sinned against the LORD your God! You had made for yourselves a calf, a cast idol. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD your God had commanded.

So I grabbed the two tablets and then threw them out of my hands, breaking them before your eyes.

I fell down in the LORD's presence, just as I had the first 40 days and nights. I did not eat food or drink water because of your sin. You had sinned by committing this evil in the sight of the LORD, thereby provoking him to anger.

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.

Otherwise, the people of the land from which you brought us will say, "The LORD wasn't able to bring them out of the land that he had promised them. So he brought them out to kill them in the desert because he hated them."

So I made a chest out of acacia wood and chiseled two tablets of stones just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, to stand in the LORD's presence, to serve, and to bless his name until this day.

So the LORD told me, "Get up and proceed to lead the people, so they may enter and take possession of the land that I promised to give their ancestors by an oath.'"

You see, heaven even the highest heavens belongs to the LORD, along with the earth and all that is in it,

yet the LORD committed himself to love your ancestors and did so! He chose you their descendants after them from all the nations, as it is today.

what he did to the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots, when he caused the waters of the Reed Sea to engulf them as they pursued you; how the LORD destroyed them, even to this day;

and what he did to Eliab's sons Dathan and Abiram, descendants of Reuben, when the ground opened up and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing belonging to them in the full sight of Israel.

Your very own eyes saw all the great things that the LORD did."

"Keep all the commands that I'm giving you today, so you can be strong enough to enter and possess the land that you are crossing over to inherit

and so you'll live long in the land that the LORD your God promised by an oath to give your ancestors and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

The wrath of God will burn against you so that he will restrain the heavens and it won't rain. The ground won't yield its produce and you'll be swiftly destroyed from the good land that the LORD is about to give you.

so that you and your children may live long on the land that the LORD promised to give your ancestors as long as the sky remains above the earth."

Every place upon which the soles of your feet tread will be yours as boundaries from the desert to Lebanon and from the River (that is, from the Euphrates) to the Mediterranean Sea.

"You must not act as we have been doing here today, where everyone acts as they see fit,

Be careful not to offer burnt offerings at any location you happen to see

When the LORD your God enlarges your territory just as he told you and you say "I want to eat meat' since you desire to eat it, you may do so as much as you please.

You must not eat it, so that life will go well for you and for your children after you. Then you'll do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

"When the LORD your God eliminates the nations that you are about to dispossess so you can live in their land,

that takes place, and then he may tell you, "Let's follow other gods (whom you have not known) and let's serve them.' Even though the sign or portent comes to pass,

"Your own blood brother, your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your friend who is like your soul mate may entice you quietly. He may tell you, "Let's go and serve other gods,' (whom neither you nor your ancestors have known

that worthless men have come from among you to entice those who live in the towns. They may say, "Let's go and serve other gods that you haven't known.'

You must thoroughly investigate and inquire if it is true that this detestable thing exists among you. If it is so,

Moreover, you must never take any item from those condemned things, so the LORD may yet relent from his burning anger and extend compassion, have mercy, and cause you to increase in number as he promised by an oath to your ancestors