However, it was not until the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year that Moses addressed the Israelites just as the Lord had instructed him to do.

Get up now, resume your journey, heading for the Amorite hill country, to all its areas including the arid country, the highlands, the Shephelah, the Negev, and the coastal plain -- all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates.

The Lord your God has increased your population to the point that you are now as numerous as the very stars of the sky.

Indeed, may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are now, blessing you just as he said he would!

Select wise and practical men, those known among your tribes, whom I may appoint as your leaders."

So I chose as your tribal leaders wise and well-known men, placing them over you as administrators of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and also as other tribal officials.

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!"

So all of you approached me and said, "Let's send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there."

What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage by describing people who are more numerous and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven itself! Moreover, they said they saw Anakites there."

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

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.

But as for you, turn back and head for the desert by the way to the Red Sea."

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.

The Amorite inhabitants of that area confronted you and chased you like a swarm of bees, striking you down from Seir as far as Hormah.

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.

Instruct these people as follows: 'You are about to cross the border of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who inhabit Seir. They will be afraid of you, so watch yourselves carefully.

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.

Then the Lord said to me, "Do not harass Moab and provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as your territory. This is because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.

(The Emites used to live there, a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites.

These people, as well as the Anakites, are also considered Rephaites; the Moabites call them Emites.

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.)

Now the length of time it took for us to go from Kadesh Barnea to the crossing of Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, time for all the military men of that generation to die, just as the Lord had vowed to 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.

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.)

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."

The Lord said to me, "Look! I have already begun to give over Sihon and his land to you. Start right now to take his land as your possession."

We put all of these under divine judgment just as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon -- every occupied city, including women and children.

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.

Jair, son of Manasseh, took all the Argob region as far as the border with the Geshurites and Maacathites (namely Bashan) and called it by his name, Havvoth-Jair, which it retains to this very day.)

To the Reubenites and Gadites I allocated the territory extending from Gilead as far as Wadi Arnon (the exact middle of the wadi was a boundary) all the way to the Wadi Jabbok, the Ammonite border.

At that time I instructed you as follows: "The Lord your God has given you this land for your possession. You warriors are to cross over before your fellow Israelites equipped for battle.

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."

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.

And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this whole law that I am about to share with you today?

You, however, the Lord has selected and brought from Egypt, that iron-smelting furnace, to be his special people as you are today.

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.

I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will surely and swiftly be removed from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be annihilated.

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.

Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it?

to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property.

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.

Their territory extended from Aroer at the edge of the Arnon valley as far as Mount Siyon -- that is, Hermon --

Be careful to observe the Sabbath day just as the Lord your God has commanded you.

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.

Who is there from the entire human race who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of the fire as we have, and has lived?

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.

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.

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.

You must not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.

Keep his commandments very carefully, as well as the stipulations and statutes he commanded you to observe.

and that you may drive out all your enemies just as the Lord said.

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

The Lord commanded us to obey all these statutes and to revere him so that it may always go well for us and he may preserve us, as he has to this day.

We will be innocent if we carefully keep all these commandments before the Lord our God, just as he demands."

but who pays back those who hate him as they deserve and destroys them. He will not ignore those who hate him but will repay them as they deserve!

If you obey these ordinances and are careful to do them, the Lord your God will faithfully keep covenant with you as he promised your ancestors.

Be keenly aware that just as a parent disciplines his child, the Lord your God disciplines you.

You must remember the Lord your God, for he is the one who gives ability to get wealth; if you do this he will confirm his covenant that he made by oath to your ancestors, even as he has to this day.

Understand today that the Lord your God who goes before you is a devouring fire; he will defeat and subdue them before you. You will dispossess and destroy them quickly just as he has told you.

Understand, therefore, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is about to give you this good land as a possession, for you are a stubborn people!

Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him.

For I was terrified at the Lord's intense anger that threatened to destroy you. But he listened to me this time as well.

As for your sinful thing that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets into the ark I had made -- they are still there, just as the Lord commanded me.

At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the Lord's covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings in his name, as they do to this very day.

Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance among his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance just as the Lord your God told him.

As for me, I stayed at the mountain as I did the first time, forty days and nights. The Lord listened to me that time as well and decided not to destroy you.

The heavens -- indeed the highest heavens -- belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it.

However, only to your ancestors did he show his loving favor, and he chose you, their descendants, from all peoples -- as is apparent today.

When your ancestors went down to Egypt, they numbered only seventy, but now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.

Fix these words of mine into your mind and being, and tie them as a reminder on your hands and let them be symbols on your forehead.

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.

Every place you set your foot will be yours; your border will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the River (that is, the Euphrates) as far as the Mediterranean Sea.

Nobody will be able to resist you; the Lord your God will spread the fear and terror of you over the whole land on which you walk, just as he promised you.

These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess.

But you must seek only the place he chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, and you must go there.

When you do go across the Jordan River and settle in the land he is granting you as an inheritance and you find relief from all the enemies who surround you, you will live in safety.

On the other hand, you may slaughter and eat meat as you please when the Lord your God blesses you in all your villages. Both the ritually pure and impure may eat it, whether it is a gazelle or an ibex.

Be careful not to overlook the Levites as long as you live in the land.

When the Lord your God extends your borders as he said he would do and you say, "I want to eat meat just as I please," you may do so as you wish.

If the place he chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages just as you wish.

As for that prophet or dreamer, he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within.

Suppose you should hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you as a place to live, that

you must by all means slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock.

You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin forever -- it must never be rebuilt again.

You must not take for yourself anything that has been placed under judgment. Then the Lord will relent from his intense anger, show you compassion, have mercy on you, and multiply you as he promised your ancestors.

As for the Levites in your villages, you must not ignore them, for they have no allotment or inheritance along with you.

This is the nature of the cancellation: Every creditor must remit what he has loaned to another person; he must not force payment from his fellow Israelite, for it is to be recognized as "the Lord's cancellation of debts."

However, there should not be any poor among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land that he is giving you as an inheritance,

For the Lord your God will bless you just as he has promised; you will lend to many nations but will not borrow from any, and you will rule over many nations but they will not rule over you.

Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite and you do not lend him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you and you will be regarded as having sinned.

You must supply them generously from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress -- as the Lord your God has blessed you, you must give to them.

you shall take an awl and pierce a hole through his ear to the door. Then he will become your servant permanently (this applies to your female servant as well).

If they have any kind of blemish -- lameness, blindness, or anything else -- you may not offer them as a sacrifice to the Lord your God.

You may eat it in your villages, whether you are ritually impure or clean, just as you would eat a gazelle or an ibex.