Deuteronomy

These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan River. They were in the dry valley across from Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

1These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

NoteDeuteronomy is presented as a series of speeches Moses gives to Israel just before they cross the Jordan River into Canaan; he himself does not cross. "East of the Jordan" is the region of what is now Jordan, on the far side of the river from the land they are about to enter. The "dry valley" is the Arabah, the deep rift valley running south from the Dead Sea. The place names in this verse are otherwise unknown to us, and the location of Suph is uncertain; the list seems meant to fix the setting for the original hearers.

2(It takes eleven days to travel from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by the road that goes past Mount Seir.)

2(There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)

NoteHoreb is another name for Mount Sinai, the mountain where Israel received the law after leaving Egypt. Kadesh-barnea is an oasis on the southern edge of Canaan, the staging point for entering the land. The distance is short, about eleven days' walk, which the reader is meant to hold alongside verse 3's "fortieth year."

3In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel. He told them everything the LORD had commanded him to tell them.

3And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them;

NoteThe fortieth year is counted from the departure from Egypt. The eleventh month of the Hebrew calendar falls roughly in January–February.

4This was after Moses had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and was beaten at Edrei.

4After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:

NoteThe Amorites were one of the peoples living in Canaan and in the territory east of the Jordan. Sihon and Og ruled two small kingdoms in that eastern territory, which Israel had just taken; Heshbon, Ashtaroth and Edrei were their cities. Bashan is the fertile upland east of the Sea of Galilee.

5East of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law. He said:

5On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,

NoteThe word translated "law" is the Hebrew *torah*, which means instruction or teaching as much as legislation. The book's English name, Deuteronomy, comes from a Greek phrase meaning "second law": that is, the law restated.

6The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb. He said, "You have stayed at this mountain long enough.

6The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount:

7Turn and set out for the hill country of the Amorites and all the neighboring places. Go into the dry valley, the hills, and the low foothills, into the dry southern land, and along the seacoast. Go to the land of the Canaanites, and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates.

7Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.

NoteThese are the standard regions of the land, each with a Hebrew name: the Arabah (the rift valley), the hill country, the Shephelah (the low hills between the highlands and the coastal plain), and the Negev (the arid south). The Euphrates, in modern Iraq, marks the widest limit ever claimed for the territory.

8Look, I have set the land in front of you. Go in and take it. It is the land the LORD promised with an oath to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants after them."

8Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

NoteAbraham, Isaac and Jacob are three generations of ancestors from whom Israel traced its descent; Jacob was also called Israel, and the twelve tribes are named for his sons. The promise of land sworn to them is told in Genesis.

9At that time I said to you, "I cannot carry the load of you all by myself.

9And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone:

10The LORD your God has made you many. Today you are as many as the stars in the sky.

10The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.

11(May the LORD, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times as many as you are now, and bless you, just as he promised!)

11(The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)

12How can I carry your troubles, your loads, and your arguments all by myself?

12How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?

13Choose wise men from your tribes, men who understand things and are respected. I will make them your leaders."

13Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.

14And you answered me, "What you have said is a good thing for us to do."

14And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do.

15So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise men who were respected, and made them heads over you. Some were put in charge of a thousand people, some of a hundred, some of fifty, and some of ten. I also appointed officers for your tribes.

15So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.

NoteThe units of a thousand, a hundred, fifty and ten are a military-style chain of command borrowed for civil administration; the numbers are conventional groupings rather than exact head counts. "Officers" translates a Hebrew word for record-keepers or administrative officials, not soldiers.

16At that time I gave your judges this order: "Listen to the disputes between your fellow Israelites. Judge fairly between a man and his brother, or between a man and a foreigner living among you.

16And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.

NoteThe word rendered "foreigner living among you" means a resident outsider, someone settled long-term in Israel without belonging to a tribe or clan, and so without relatives to defend his interests in a dispute. Israelite law repeatedly singles such people out for protection.

17Do not show favor to one side in a case. Listen to the unimportant person the same as the important one. Do not be afraid of any person, because the decision belongs to God. Bring me any case that is too hard for you, and I will hear it."

17Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.

Note"Do not show favor to one side" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "do not recognize faces", do not let it matter whose case it is. "The decision belongs to God" states the standing assumption behind the courts: a judge is understood to be handing down God's verdict, not his own, which is why partiality is treated as so serious.

18At that time I told you everything you were to do.

18And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do.

19Then we left Horeb, just as the LORD our God had commanded us. We traveled through that whole huge and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the road toward the hill country of the Amorites. And we came to Kadesh-barnea.

19And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadeshbarnea.

20I said to you, "You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving to us.

20And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us.

21Look, the LORD your God has set the land in front of you. Go up and take it, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart."

21Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.

22Then all of you came to me and said, "Let us send men ahead of us to explore the land. They can bring back word about which road we should take and which cities we will come to."

22And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.

NoteThis is the sending of the twelve scouts told at greater length in Numbers 13–14. There the LORD tells Moses to send them; here Moses recalls the request as coming from the people.

23That plan seemed good to me, so I picked twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.

23And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe:

24They set out and went up into the hill country. They came to the Valley of Eshcol and explored it.

24And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out.

NoteThe Valley of Eshcol lay near Hebron in the southern hill country. The name means "cluster," and the fuller account in Numbers 13 describes the scouts carrying back a single cluster of grapes so large that two men carried it on a pole.

25They picked some of the fruit of the land, carried it down to us, and brought back this report: "It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us."

25And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us.

26Even so, you refused to go up. You rebelled against the command of the LORD your God.

26Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:

27You complained in your tents and said, "The LORD brought us out of Egypt because he hates us. He wants to hand us over to the Amorites so they can wipe us out.

27And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

28Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose our courage. They said, 'The people there are bigger and taller than we are. The cities are large, with walls that reach the sky. We even saw the descendants of the Anakim there.'"

28Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.

NoteThe Anakim were remembered as an unusually tall people living in the hill country around Hebron. "Walls that reach the sky" is deliberate exaggeration for very high fortifications, the report is meant to sound alarming.

29Then I said to you, "Do not be terrified. Do not be afraid of them.

29Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.

30The LORD your God goes ahead of you. He himself will fight for you, just as you watched him do for you in Egypt,

30The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;

31and in the wilderness. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, the way a man carries his son, the whole way you traveled until you came to this place."

31And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.

32Yet even then you did not trust the LORD your God,

32Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,

33who went ahead of you on the road to find places for you to camp. He went in fire by night and in a cloud by day to show you which way to go.

33Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.

NoteThe fire by night and cloud by day are the pillar of cloud and fire described in Exodus, a visible column that went ahead of the people and marked where they should stop and camp.

34When the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and made this promise on oath:

34And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying,

35"Not one of the men of this evil generation will see the good land I promised on oath to give to your ancestors,

35Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers,

36except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his children the land he walked on, because he followed the LORD completely."

36Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.

NoteCaleb was one of the twelve scouts. In Numbers 13–14 he and Joshua alone bring back a favorable report. "The land he walked on" became the region around Hebron, later held by his family.

37The LORD was angry with me too, because of you. He said, "You will not go in there either.

37Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.

Note"Because of you", Deuteronomy consistently ties Moses's exclusion from the land to the people's failure. Numbers 20 gives a different account, tracing it to Moses's own conduct at the waters of Meribah.

38But Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, will go in there. Give him courage, because he is the one who will lead Israel to take the land as their own.

38But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

Note"Your assistant" translates a phrase meaning literally "who stands before you", the posture of a personal attendant. Joshua was Moses's aide and became his successor as leader.

39And your little ones, the ones you said would be carried off as loot, your children who at that time did not yet know right from wrong, they will go in there. I will give the land to them, and they will take it as their own.

39Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.

Note"Carried off as loot" refers to the fate of children taken captive by a conquering army and kept or sold as property. "Did not yet know right from wrong" marks them as below the age of legal responsibility, and so not liable for the refusal their parents made.

40But as for you, turn around and set out into the wilderness by the road that goes toward the Red Sea."

40But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

NoteThe Hebrew is *yam suph*, "sea of reeds," traditionally rendered Red Sea. Here it means the eastern arm of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba, well to the south.

41Then you answered me, "We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us." So each of you strapped on his weapons, thinking you were ready to march up into the hill country.

41Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill.

Note"Strapped on his weapons" describes buckling on a sword belt and gear, arming for battle. The last clause is uncertain in Hebrew: it may mean "you thought it an easy thing to go up," or "you were ready to go up."

42But the LORD said to me, "Tell them not to go up and not to fight, because I am not with them. If they go, their enemies will defeat them."

42And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.

43So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the LORD and marched up into the hill country anyway, thinking you could do as you pleased.

43So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the hill.

Note"Thinking you could do as you pleased" renders a Hebrew word for acting arrogantly and without authorization, going ahead on your own say-so after being told not to.

44The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you. They chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down, from Seir all the way to Hormah.

44And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.

NoteSeir is the mountainous country of Edom, south of the Dead Sea. Hormah is a site whose name resembles the Hebrew word for destruction. Bees swarming out of a disturbed nest was a stock image for a pursuit you cannot outrun or fight off.

45You came back and wept in front of the LORD, but the LORD would not listen to you or pay attention to what you said.

45And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you.

46So you stayed at Kadesh a long time, as long as you stayed there.

46So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.

NoteThe Hebrew of the last phrase is awkward and its sense disputed, something like "as long as the days you stayed." It may be emphasis (a very long time), or a pointer back to a specific stated length of time.