This is what Moses said to the assembly of Israel in the Transjordanian wastelands, the arid country opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di Zahab

Now it is ordinarily an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by way of Mount Seir.

This took place after the defeat of King Sihon of the Amorites, whose capital was in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, whose capital was in Ashtaroth, specifically in Edrei.

So it was in the Transjordan, in Moab, that Moses began to deliver these words:

The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb and said, "You have stayed in the area of this mountain long enough.

I furthermore admonished your judges at that time that they should pay attention to issues among your fellow citizens and judge fairly, whether between one citizen and another or a citizen and a resident foreigner.

They must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly and the great alike. Nor should they be intimidated by human beings, for judgment belongs to God. If the matter being adjudicated is too difficult for them, they should bring it before me for a hearing.

Then we left Horeb and passed through all that immense, forbidding wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as the Lord our God had commanded us to do, finally arriving at Kadesh Barnea.

Look, he has placed the land in front of you! Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!"

I thought this was a good idea, so I sent twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.

The Lord your God is about to go ahead of you; he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt

and in the desert, where you saw him carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place."

However, through all this you did not have confidence in the Lord your God,

the one who was constantly going before you to find places for you to set up camp. He appeared by fire at night and cloud by day, to show you the way you ought to go.

When the Lord heard you, he became angry and made this vow:

The exception is Caleb son of Jephunneh; he will see it and I will give him and his descendants the territory on which he has walked, because he has wholeheartedly followed me."

As for me, the Lord was also angry with me on your account. He said, "You also will not be able to go there.

Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it.

Then you responded to me and admitted, "We have sinned against the Lord. We will now go up and fight as the Lord our God has told us to do." So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country.

Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.

Do not be hostile toward them, because I am not giving you any of their land, not even a footprint, for I have given Mount Seir as an inheritance for Esau.

Previously the Horites lived in Seir but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land it came to possess, the land the Lord gave them.)

But when you come close to the Ammonites, do not harass or provoke them because I am not giving you any of the Ammonites' land as your possession; I have already given it to Lot's descendants as their possession.

They are a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed the Rephaites in advance of the Ammonites, so they dispossessed them and settled down in their place.

This is exactly what he did for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir when he destroyed the Horites before them so that they could dispossess them and settle in their area to this very day.

As for the Avvites who lived in settlements as far west as Gaza, Caphtorites who came from Crete destroyed them and settled down in their place.)

Get up, make your way across Wadi Arnon. Look! I have already delivered over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Go ahead! Take it! Engage him in war!

This very day I will begin to fill all the people of the earth with dread and to terrify them when they hear about you. They will shiver and shake in anticipation of your approach."

Then I sent messengers from the Kedemoth Desert to King Sihon of Heshbon with an offer of peace:

Sell me food for cash so that I can eat and sell me water to drink. Just allow me to go through on foot,

just as the descendants of Esau who live at Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land the Lord our God is giving us."

When Sihon and all his troops emerged to encounter us in battle at Jahaz,

At that time we seized all his cities and put every one of them under divine judgment, including even the women and children; we left no survivors.

From Aroer, which is at the edge of Wadi Arnon (it is the city in the wadi), all the way to Gilead there was not a town able to resist us -- the Lord our God gave them all to us.

Next we set out on the route to Bashan, but King Og of Bashan and his whole army came out to meet us in battle at Edrei.

The Lord, however, said to me, "Don't be afraid of him because I have already given him, his whole army, and his land to you. You will do to him exactly what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon."

We captured all his cities at that time -- there was not a town we did not take from them -- sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the dominion of Og in Bashan.

All of these cities were fortified by high walls, gates, and locking bars; in addition there were a great many open villages.

So at that time we took the land of the two Amorite kings in the Transjordan from Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon

all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaites. (It is noteworthy that his sarcophagus was made of iron. Does it not, indeed, still remain in Rabbath of the Ammonites? It is thirteen and a half feet long and six feet wide according to standard measure.)

But your wives, children, and livestock (of which I know you have many) may remain in the cities I have given you.

You must fight until the Lord gives your countrymen victory as he did you and they take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan River. Then each of you may return to his own territory that I have given you."

"O, Lord God, you have begun to show me your greatness and strength. (What god in heaven or earth can rival your works and mighty deeds?)

Let me please cross over to see the good land on the other side of the Jordan River -- this good hill country and the Lebanon!"

So we settled down in the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

But you who remained faithful to the Lord your God are still alive to this very day, every one of you.

Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God told me to do, so that you might carry them out in the land you are about to enter and possess.

In fact, what other great nation has a god so near to them like the Lord our God whenever we call on him?

You stood before the Lord your God at Horeb and he said to me, "Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands. Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children."

And he revealed to you the covenant he has commanded you to keep, the ten commandments, writing them on two stone tablets.

Moreover, at that same time the Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to keep in the land which you are about to enter and possess.

I say this so you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female,

any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky,

anything that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the deep waters of the earth.

When you look up to the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars -- the whole heavenly creation -- you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, for the Lord your God has assigned them to all the people of the world.

So I must die here in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you are going over and will possess that good land.

Be on guard so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he has made with you, and that you do not make an image of any kind, just as he has forbidden you.

After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him,

In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, if you return to the Lord your God and obey him

Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it.

Or has God ever before tried to deliver a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, signs, wonders, war, strength, power, and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

From heaven he spoke to you in order to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire from which you also heard his words.

Today realize and carefully consider that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below -- there is no other!

Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you as a permanent possession.

Then Moses selected three cities in the Transjordan, toward the east.

Anyone who accidentally killed someone without hating him at the time of the accident could flee to one of those cities and be safe.

These cities are Bezer, in the desert plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.

in the Transjordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. (It is he whom Moses and the Israelites attacked after they came out of Egypt.

They possessed his land and that of King Og of Bashan -- both of whom were Amorite kings in the Transjordan, to the east.

including all the Arabah of the Transjordan in the east to the sea of the Arabah, beneath the watershed of Pisgah.)

You must not make for yourself an image of anything in heaven above, on earth below, or in the waters beneath.

You are to work and do all your tasks in six days,

but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the foreigner who lives with you, so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest.

Recall that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by strength and power. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

Honor your father and your mother just as the Lord your God has commanded you to do, so that your days may be extended and that it may go well with you in the land that he is about to give you.

The Lord said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. Then he inscribed the words on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

Then, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was ablaze, all your tribal leaders and elders approached me.

You said, "The Lord our God has shown us his great glory and we have heard him speak from the middle of the fire. It is now clear to us that God can speak to human beings and they can keep on living.

When the Lord heard you speaking to me, he said to me, "I have heard what these people have said to you -- they have spoken well.

If only it would really be their desire to fear me and obey all my commandments in the future, so that it may go well with them and their descendants forever.

But as for you, remain here with me so I can declare to you all the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that you are to teach them, so that they can carry them out in the land I am about to give them."

Walk just as he has commanded you so that you may live, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land you are going to possess.

Now these are the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed

Pay attention, Israel, and be careful to do this so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in number -- as the Lord, God of your ancestors, said to you, you will have a land flowing with milk and honey.

Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!

These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind,

and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.

You should tie them as a reminder on your forearm and fasten them as symbols on your forehead.

Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and gates.

Then when the Lord your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you -- a land with large, fine cities you did not build,

When your children ask you later on, "What are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God commanded you?"

you must say to them, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt in a powerful way.

And he brought signs and great, devastating wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on his whole family before our very eyes.

When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you -- Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you --

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. He has chosen you to be his people, prized above all others on the face of the earth.

It is not because you were more numerous than all the other peoples that the Lord favored and chose you -- for in fact you were the least numerous of all peoples.

He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you.

The Lord will protect you from all sickness, and you will not experience any of the terrible diseases that you knew in Egypt; instead he will inflict them on all those who hate you.