But the Israelites defeated him in battle and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strongly defended.

And the Lord said to Moses, "Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand. You will do to him what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.

And he sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor at Pethor, which is by the Euphrates River in the land of Amaw, to summon him, saying, "Look, a nation has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are settling next to me.

So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fee for divination in their hand. They came to Balaam and reported to him the words of Balak.

And they came to Balaam and said to him, "Thus says Balak son of Zippor: 'Please do not let anything hinder you from coming to me.

God came to Balaam that night, and said to him, "If the men have come to call you, get up and go with them; but the word that I will say to you, that you must do."

Then God's anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him.

The angel of the Lord said to him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Look, I came out to oppose you because what you are doing is perverse before me.

When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at a city of Moab which was on the border of the Arnon at the boundary of his territory.

And Balak sacrificed bulls and sheep, and sent some to Balaam, and to the princes who were with him.

Then on the next morning Balak took Balaam, and brought him up to Bamoth Baal. From there he saw the extent of the nation.

Then God met Balaam, who said to him, "I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram."

So he returned to him, and he was still standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place from which you can observe them. You will see only a part of them, but you will not see all of them. Curse them for me from there."

When Balaam came to him, he was still standing by his burnt offering, along with the princes of Moab. And Balak said to him, "What has the Lord spoken?"

When Balaam lifted up his eyes, he saw Israel camped tribe by tribe; and the Spirit of God came upon him.

They crouch and lie down like a lion, and as a lioness, who can stir him? Blessed is the one who blesses you, and cursed is the one who curses you!'"

I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not close at hand. A star will march forth out of Jacob, and a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab, and the heads of all the sons of Sheth.

Therefore, announce: 'I am going to give to him my covenant of peace.

So it will be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he has been zealous for his God, and has made atonement for the Israelites.'"

and if his father has no brothers, then you are to give his inheritance to his relative nearest to him from his family, and he will possess it. This will be for the Israelites a legal requirement, as the Lord commanded Moses.'"

The Lord replied to Moses, "Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is such a spirit, and lay your hand on him;

set him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission him publicly.

Then you must delegate some of your authority to him, so that the whole community of the Israelites will be obedient.

And he will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will seek counsel for him before the Lord by the decision of the Urim. At his command they will go out, and at his command they will come in, he and all the Israelites with him, the whole community."

So Moses did as the Lord commanded him; he took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community.

He laid his hands on him and commissioned him, just as the Lord commanded, by the authority of Moses.

So Moses told the Israelites everything, just as the Lord had commanded him.

and said to him, "Your servants have taken a count of the men who were in the battle, who were under our authority, and not one is missing.

For if you turn away from following him, he will once again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will be the reason for their destruction."

Then they came very close to him and said, "We will build sheep folds here for our flocks and cities for our families,

If he strikes him by throwing a stone large enough that he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

Or if he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon so that he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

The avenger of blood himself must kill the murderer; when he meets him, he must kill him.

"But if he strikes him out of hatred or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies,

or with enmity he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood must kill the murderer when he meets him.

"But if he strikes him suddenly, without enmity, or throws anything at him unintentionally,

or with any stone large enough that a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy nor sought his harm,

The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil.

and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of the town of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the slayer, he will not be guilty of blood,

"Whoever kills any person, the murderer must be put to death by the testimony of witnesses; but one witness cannot testify against any person to cause him to be put to death.

And you must not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a town of refuge, to allow him to return home and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.

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.

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."

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."

However, Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, will go. Encourage him, because he will enable Israel to inherit the land.

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!

But King Sihon of Heshbon was unwilling to allow us to pass near him because the Lord our God had made him obstinate and stubborn so that he might deliver him over to you this very day.

the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, along with his sons and everyone else.

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."

Commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, because he will lead these people over and will enable them to inherit the land you will see."

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

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,

But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul.

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

You have been taught that the Lord alone is God -- there is no other besides him.

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

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.

You must revere the Lord your God, serve him, and take oaths using only his name.

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.

So realize that the Lord your God is the true God, the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

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!

So you must keep his commandments, live according to his standards, and revere him.

Just like the nations the Lord is about to destroy from your sight, so he will do to you because you would not obey him.

Remember -- don't ever forget -- how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him.

At Horeb you provoked him and he was angry enough with you to destroy you.

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.

The Lord was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him too.

And when he sent you from Kadesh-Barnea and told you, "Go up and possess the land I have given you," you rebelled against the Lord your God and would neither believe nor obey him.

You have been rebelling against him from the very first day I knew you!

I prayed to him: O, Lord God, do not destroy your people, your valued property that you have powerfully redeemed, whom you brought out of Egypt by your strength.

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.

Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, to obey all his commandments, to love him, to serve him with all your mind and being,

Revere the Lord your God, serve him, be loyal to him and take oaths only in his name.

Now, if you pay close attention to my commandments that I am giving you today and love the Lord your God and serve him with all your mind and being,

For if you carefully observe all of these commandments I am giving you and love the Lord your God, live according to his standards, and remain loyal to him,

You must not do like we are doing here today, with everyone doing what seems best to him,

Then you must come to the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to reside, bringing everything I am commanding you -- your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, and all your choice votive offerings which you devote to him.

You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! For everything that is abhorrent to him, everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods!

You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him with all your mind and being.

You must follow the Lord your God and revere only him; and you must observe his commandments, obey him, serve him, and remain loyal to him.

You must not give in to him or even listen to him; do not feel sympathy for him or spare him or cover up for him.

Instead, you must kill him without fail! Your own hand must be the first to strike him, and then the hands of the whole community.

You must stone him to death because he tried to entice you away from the Lord your God, who delivered you from the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.

Thus you must obey the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am giving you today and doing what is right before him.

if you carefully obey him by keeping all these commandments that I am giving you today.

Instead, you must be sure to open your hand to him and generously lend him whatever he needs.

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 by all means lend to him and not be upset by doing it, for because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you attempt.

You should not consider it difficult to let him go free, for he will have served you for six years, twice the time of a hired worker; the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

You shall rejoice before him -- you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites in your villages, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows among you -- in the place where the Lord chooses to locate his name.

Three times a year all your males must appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses for the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Temporary Shelters; and they must not appear before him empty-handed.

You must not sacrifice to him a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive to the Lord your God.

When he sits on his royal throne he must make a copy of this law on a scroll given to him by the Levitical priests.

It must be with him constantly and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out.

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you -- from your fellow Israelites; you must listen to him.

"But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.

whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him."