Deuteronomy 1
Eleven Days’ Journey That Took Forty Years
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Command to Leave Horeb
1:1These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the wilderness toward the west, near the Red Sea, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Aulon, and Katachrysea.
1:2It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb by the Mount Seir road to Kadesh-barnea.
1:3In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to all the Israelites according to everything the Lord had commanded him concerning them.
1:4after defeating Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei,
1:5beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying:
1:6The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb: Let your stay at this mountain be sufficient.
1:7Turn and set out. Enter the hill country of the Amorites and go to all the neighboring inhabitants of Arabah, to the hill country, the plain, the southwest, and the seacoast—the land of the Canaanites and Anti-Lebanon, as far as the great river Euphrates.
1:8See, I have handed the land over before you. Enter and inherit the land that I swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and their offspring after them.
Appointment of Leaders
1:9At that time I said to you: I will not be able to carry you alone.
1:10The Lord your God has multiplied you, and today you are as numerous as the stars of heaven.
1:11May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousandfold and bless you as He promised you.
1:12How will I alone be able to carry your trouble, your resistance, and your disputes?
1:13Choose for yourselves wise, knowledgeable, and discerning men for your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders.
1:14You answered me: What you have proposed is good to do.
1:15I took from among you wise, knowledgeable, and discerning men and appointed them to lead you: commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and recording officials for your judges.
1:16At that time I commanded your judges: Hear the disputes between your brothers and judge justly between a man and his brother or the newcomer with him.
1:17Do not show partiality in judgment. Judge the small and the great alike. Do not shrink back before anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.
1:18At that time I commanded you everything you were to do.
Spies Sent from Kadesh-barnea
1:19We set out from Horeb and crossed all that great and fearsome wilderness you saw, by the road to the Amorite hill country, as the Lord our God commanded us. We came to Kadesh-barnea.
1:20I said to you: You have reached the Amorite hill country, which the Lord our God is giving you.
1:21See, the Lord your God has handed the land over to you. Go up and inherit it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not fear or lose heart.
1:22All of you came to me and said: Let us send men ahead to inspect the land for us and report back about the road we should take and the cities we should enter.
1:23The proposal pleased me, and I selected twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.
1:24They turned and went up into the hill country, reached the Valley of the Cluster, and explored it.
1:25They took some of the land’s fruit in their hands, brought it down to us, and said: The land the Lord our God is giving us is good.
Rebellion and Refusal
1:26But you refused to go up and disobeyed the word of the Lord your God.
1:27You grumbled in your tents and said: Because the Lord hates us, He brought us out of Egypt to hand us over to the Amorites and destroy us.
1:28Where are we going? Your brothers have made your hearts fail, saying: The nation is great, numerous, and stronger than we are; its cities are great and fortified up to heaven. We even saw sons of giants there.
1:29I said to you: Do not cower or be afraid of them.
1:30The Lord your God, who goes before you, will fight against them alongside you, just as He did for you in the land of Egypt
1:31and in this wilderness which you saw, how the Lord your God nurtured you as a man nurtures his son, along the whole road you traveled until you reached this place.
1:32Yet in this matter you did not trust the Lord your God,
1:33who goes ahead of you on the road to choose a place for you, guiding you in fire by night to show you the road to take, and in a cloud by day.
1:34The Lord heard your words and, provoked to anger, swore:
1:35Not one of these men will see this good land I swore to their fathers,
1:36except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his sons the land he walked on, because he remained devoted to the Lord’s concerns.
1:37The Lord was also angry with me because of you and said: Neither will you enter there.
1:38Joshua son of Nun, who attends you, will enter there. Strengthen him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it.
1:39Every young child who today does not know good or evil will enter there. I will give it to them, and they will inherit it.
1:40But you, turn and encamp in the wilderness by the road to the Red Sea.
1:41You answered me: We have sinned before the Lord our God. We will go up and fight as the Lord our God commanded us. Each of you took up his weapons, and you gathered together and went up into the hill country.
1:42The Lord said to me: Tell them, You shall not go up or fight, for I am not with you; then you shall certainly not be crushed before your enemies.
1:43I spoke to you, but you did not listen to me. You transgressed the Lord’s word and forced your way up into the hill country.
1:44The Amorites living in that hill country came out to meet you and chased you like bees. They wounded you from Seir as far as Hormah.
1:45You sat down and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or pay attention to you.
1:46You remained in Kadesh many days, as many days as you remained there.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.