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.

This took place after he defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon and Og, king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth at Edrei.

Break camp, get going, and proceed to the hill country of the Amorites and all the nearby places in the Arabah desert, the highlands, the foothills, the Negev, the coastal plains, all of the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates.

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.

"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.

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.'

"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.'

Then these men set out, went up to the hill county, reached the Eshcol Valley, and surveyed it.

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.'

who walked ahead of you along the way to scout a place for you to pitch camp by fire at night and cloud by day to lead you on the way you should go."

"When the LORD heard your complaints, he became angry and declared,

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.'

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.'

"I spoke to you but you didn't listen. Instead you rebelled against the command of the LORD and went up to the hill country.

The Amorites who lived in the hill country came out to engage you in battle. They pursued you like bees do and crushed you from Seir to Hormah.

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.

You may buy food to eat and water to drink from them, paying with cash."'

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."

(The Emites, a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakim, lived there before.

The Horites used to live in Seir before the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, exterminated them, and settled there instead, just as Israel will do in the land of its possession, which the LORD gave them.)

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.

It was the same for the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza. The Caphtorites, who came from Crete, destroyed them and settled there in their place.)

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.

Starting today I will begin to instill fear and terror of you on the part of every nation under heaven who hears reports about you. They'll tremble in anguish before you.'"

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,

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.

"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.

We captured all his towns at that time. We utterly destroyed every town the men, the women, and the children leaving no survivors.

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."

"We set out and went up along the road to Bashan. Then King Og of Bashan came out to meet us he and his whole army for a battle at Edrei.

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.

We utterly destroyed them, just as we did King Sihon of Heshbon, attacking them in every city the men, women, and children.

But we kept for ourselves all of the livestock and plunder from the towns.

We took control of all the cities of the plain, all of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

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."

"Of the land that we captured at that time, I've given its towns to the descendants of Reuben and the descendants of Gad from Aroer near the Wadi Arnon to half of the hill country of Gilead.

The remainder of Gilead and Bashan of the kingdom of Og, I've given to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (The whole region of Argob that is, all of Bashan is called the land of the Rephaim.)

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.

And I've given Gilead to the descendants of Reuben and the descendants of Gad as far as the Arnon Valley, designating the middle of the valley as its boundary, including up to the Jabbok River as a boundary with the Ammonites.

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."

However, your women, children, and livestock and I know you have many may reside in your towns that I gave 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?

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.

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.

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.'

And what great nation has all the decrees and righteous ordinances like all this teaching that I'm giving you today?

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.'"

"When you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain a mountain that was blazing with fire at its core while the sky was covered with thick, dark clouds

The LORD commanded me at that time to teach you to observe the statutes and ordinances in the land after you cross over to take possession of it.

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.

I'm going to die in this land and I won't cross the Jordan River, but you're about to cross over to possess that good land.

"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.

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

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.

"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?

Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of a fire just as you did, and survived 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?

"You have been shown this in order to know that "the LORD is God' and there is no one like him.

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.

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 acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in the heavens above and over the earth below there is no other God.

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:

Bezer in the desert plain for the descendants of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead for the descendants of Gad, and Golan in Bashan for the descendants of Manasseh.

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

He did this east of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and whom Moses and the Israelis defeated after leaving Egypt.

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.

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:

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,

but showing gracious love to the thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

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.