Chronological Plan

¹These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

²It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.

³In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, in accordance with everything that the LORD had commanded him to declare to them,

⁴after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei.

⁵Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this Law, saying,

⁶“The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain.

⁷Turn and set out on your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the Negev, by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

⁸See, I have placed the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and their descendants after them.’

⁹“And I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to endure you alone.

¹⁰The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number.

¹¹May the LORD, the God of your fathers increase you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you, just as He has promised you!

¹²How can I alone endure the burden and weight of you and your strife?

¹³Obtain for yourselves men who are wise, discerning, and informed from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’

¹⁴And you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’

¹⁵So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and informed men, and appointed them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and officers for your tribes.

¹⁶“Then I ordered your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen and judge righteously between a person and his fellow countryman, or the stranger who is with him.

¹⁷You are not to show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You are not to be afraid of any person, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too difficult for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’

¹⁸At that time I commanded you all the things that you were to do.

¹⁹“Then we set out from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the LORD our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.

²⁰And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is about to give us.

²¹See, the LORD your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’

²²“Then all of you approached me and said, ‘Let us send men ahead of us, so that they may spy out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up, and the cities which we should enter.’

²³The plan pleased me, and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe.

²⁴Then they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.

²⁵And they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us. They also brought us back a report and said, ‘The land that the LORD our God is about to give us is good.’

²⁶“Yet you were unwilling to go up; instead you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God;

²⁷and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us.

²⁸Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, by saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.” ’

²⁹But I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, nor fear them.

³⁰The LORD your God, who goes before you, will Himself fight for you, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

³¹and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, on all of the road which you have walked until you came to this place.’

³²Yet in spite of all this, you did not trust the LORD your God,

³³who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to make camp, in the fire by night to show you the way by which you should go, and in the cloud by day.

³⁴“Then the LORD heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and swore an oath, saying,

³⁵‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers,

³⁶except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him I will give the land on which he has set foot, and to his sons, because he has followed the LORD fully.’

³⁷The LORD was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there.

³⁸Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall himself enter there; encourage him, for he will give it to Israel as an inheritance.

³⁹Moreover, your little ones who, you said, would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good and evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall take possession of it.

⁴⁰But as for you, turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹“Then you replied to me, ‘We have sinned against the LORD; we ourselves will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.’ And every man of you strapped on his weapons of war, and you viewed it as easy to go up into the hill country.

⁴²But the LORD said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; otherwise you will be defeated by your enemies.” ’

⁴³So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead, you rebelled against the command of the LORD, and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country.

⁴⁴And the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do, and they scattered you from Seir to Hormah.

⁴⁵Then you returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD did not listen to your voice, nor pay attention to you.

⁴⁶So you remained at Kadesh for many days, the days that you spent there.

¹“Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to me, and we circled Mount Seir for many days.

²And the LORD spoke to me, saying,

³‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north,

⁴and command the people, saying, “You are going to pass through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful;

⁵do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even as much as a footprint, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

⁶You are to buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also purchase water from them with money so that you may drink.

⁷For the LORD your God has blessed you in all that you have done; He has known your wandering through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have not lacked anything.” ’

⁸“So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road, away from Elath and Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

⁹Then the LORD said to me, ‘Do not attack Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession.’

¹⁰(The Emim lived there previously, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim.

¹¹Like the Anakim, they too are regarded as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.

¹²The Horites previously lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and settled in their place; just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the LORD gave them.)

¹³‘Now arise and cross over the Wadi Zered yourselves.’ So we crossed over the Wadi Zered.

¹⁴Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, just as the LORD had sworn to them.

¹⁵Indeed, the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from within the camp until they all perished.

¹⁶“So it came about, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people,

¹⁷that the LORD spoke to me, saying,

¹⁸‘Today you shall cross over Ar, the border of Moab.

¹⁹When you come opposite the sons of Ammon, do not attack them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession.’

²⁰(It is also regarded as the land of the Rephaim, because the Rephaim previously lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin,

²¹a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim; but the LORD destroyed them before them. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place,

²²just as He did for the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them; they dispossessed them and settled in their place, where they remain even to this day.

²³And as for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.)

²⁴‘Arise, set out, and pass through the Valley of Arnon. Look! I have handed over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; start taking possession and plunge into battle with him.

²⁵This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the faces of people everywhere, who, when they hear the news of you, will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

²⁶“So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,

²⁷‘Let me pass through your land; I will travel only on the road. I will not turn aside to the right or to the left.

²⁸You will sell me food for money so that I may eat, and give me water for money so that I may drink, only let me pass through on foot,

²⁹just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross over the Jordan into the land that the LORD our God is giving us.’

³⁰But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass through his land; for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to hand him over to you, as he is today.

³¹And the LORD said to me, ‘See, I have begun to turn Sihon and his land over to you. Begin taking possession, so that you may possess his land.’

³²“Then Sihon came out with all his people to meet us in battle at Jahaz.

³³And the LORD our God turned him over to us, and we defeated him with his sons and all his people.

³⁴So we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed the men, women, and children of every city. We left no survivor.

³⁵We took only the animals as our plunder, and the spoils of the cities which we had captured.

³⁶From Aroer which is on the edge of the Valley of Arnon and from the city which is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was no city that was too high for us; the LORD our God turned it all over to us.

³⁷Only you did not go near the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever the LORD our God had commanded us to avoid.