Deuteronomy 1

• 1. This book records the words that Moses spoke to all the people of Israel while they were in the wilderness east of the Jordan River. They were camped in the Jordan Valley near Suph, between Paran on one side and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab on the other.
• 2. Normally it takes only eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, going by way of Mount Seir.
• 3. But forty years after the Israelites left Mount Sinai, on a day in midwinter, Moses gave these speeches to the Israelites, telling them everything the LORD had commanded him to say.
• 4. This was after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who had ruled in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who had ruled in Ashtaroth and Edrei.
• 5. So Moses addressed the people of Israel while they were in the land of Moab east of the Jordan River. He began to explain the law as follows:
• 6. "When we were at Mount Sinai, the LORD our God said to us, `You have stayed at this mountain long enough.
• 7. It is time to break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the neighboring regions--the Jordan Valley, the hill country, the western foothills, the Negev, and the coastal plain. Go to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, and all the way to the great Euphrates River.
• 8. I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it is the land the LORD swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants.'
• 9. "At that time I told you, `You are too great a burden for me to carry all by myself.
• 10. The LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars!
• 11. And may the LORD, the God of your ancestors, multiply you a thousand times more and bless you as he promised!
• 12. But how can I settle all your quarrels and problems by myself?
• 13. Choose some men from each tribe who have wisdom, understanding, and a good reputation, and I will appoint them as your leaders.'
• 14. "You agreed that my plan was a good one.
• 15. So I took the wise and respected men you had selected from your tribes and appointed them to serve as judges and officials over you. Some were responsible for a thousand people, some for a hundred, some for fifty, and some for ten.
• 16. I instructed the judges, `You must be perfectly fair at all times, not only to fellow Israelites, but also to the foreigners living among you.
• 17. When you make decisions, never favor those who are rich; be fair to lowly and great alike. Don't be afraid of how they will react, for you are judging in the place of God. Bring me any cases that are too difficult for you, and I will handle them.'
• 18. And at that time I gave you instructions about everything you were to do.
• 19. "Then, just as the LORD our God directed us, we left Mount Sinai and traveled through the great and terrifying wilderness, which you yourselves saw, and headed toward the hill country of the Amorites. When we arrived at Kadesh-barnea,
• 20. I said to you, `You have now reached the land that the LORD our God is giving us.
• 21. Look! He has placed it in front of you. Go and occupy it as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Don't be afraid! Don't be discouraged!'
• 22. "But you responded, `First, let's send out scouts to explore the land for us. They will advise us on the best route to take and decide which towns we should capture.'
• 23. This seemed like a good idea to me, so I chose twelve scouts, one from each of your tribes.
• 24. They crossed into the hills and came to the valley of Eshcol and explored it.
• 25. They picked some of its fruit and brought it back to us. And they reported that the land the LORD our God had given us was indeed a good land.
• 26. "But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God and refused to go in.
• 27. You murmured and complained in your tents and said, `The LORD must hate us, bringing us here from Egypt to be slaughtered by these Amorites.
• 28. How can we go on? Our scouts have demoralized us with their report. They say that the people of the land are taller and more powerful than we are, and that the walls of their towns rise high into the sky! They have even seen giants there--the descendants of Anak!'
• 29. "But I said to you, `Don't be afraid!
• 30. The LORD your God is going before you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt.
• 31. And you saw how the LORD your God cared for you again and again here in the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.'
• 32. But even after all he did, you refused to trust the LORD your God,
• 33. who goes before you looking for the best places to camp, guiding you by a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud by day.
• 34. "When the LORD heard your complaining, he became very angry. So he solemnly swore,
• 35. `Not one of you from this entire wicked generation will live to see the good land I swore to give your ancestors,
• 36. except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see this land because he has followed the LORD completely. I will give to him and his descendants some of the land he walked over during his scouting mission.'
• 37. "And the LORD was also angry with me because of you. He said to me, `You will never enter the Promised Land!
• 38. Instead, your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will lead the people into the land. Encourage him as he prepares to enter it.
• 39. I will give the land to your innocent children. You were afraid they would be captured, but they will be the ones who occupy it.
• 40. As for you, turn around now and go on back through the wilderness toward the Red Sea. '
• 41. "Then you confessed, `We have sinned against the LORD! We will go into the land and fight for it, as the LORD our God has told us.' So your men strapped on their weapons, thinking it would be easy to conquer the hill country.
• 42. "But the LORD said to me, `Tell them not to attack, for I will not go with them. If they do, they will be crushed by their enemies.'
• 43. This is what I told you, but you would not listen. Instead, you again rebelled against the LORD's command and arrogantly went into the hill country to fight.
• 44. But the Amorites who lived there came out against you like a swarm of bees. They chased and battered you all the way from Seir to Hormah.
• 45. Then you returned and wept before the LORD, but he refused to listen.
• 46. So you stayed there at Kadesh for a long time.

Deuteronomy 2

• 1. "Then we turned around and set out across the wilderness toward the Red Sea, just as the LORD had instructed me, and we wandered around Mount Seir for a long time.
• 2. Then at last the LORD said to me,
• 3. `You have been wandering around in this hill country long enough; turn northward.
• 4. Give these orders to the people: "You will be passing through the country belonging to your relatives the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. The Edomites will feel threatened, so be careful.
• 5. Don't bother them, for I have given them all the hill country around Mount Seir as their property, and I will not give you any of their land.
• 6. Pay them for whatever food or water you use.
• 7. The LORD your God has blessed everything you have done and has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the LORD your God has been with you and provided for your every need so that you lacked nothing."'
• 8. So we went past our relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, and avoided the road through the Arabah Valley that comes up from Elath and Ezion-geber. "Then as we traveled northward along the desert route through Moab,
• 9. the LORD warned us, `Do not bother the Moabites, the descendants of Lot, or start a war with them. I have given them Ar as their property, and I will not give you any of their land.'"
• 10. (A numerous and powerful race of giants called the Emites had once lived in the area of Ar. They were as tall as the Anakites, another race of giants.
• 11. Both the Emites and the Anakites are often referred to as the Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites.
• 12. In earlier times the Horites had lived at Mount Seir, but they were driven out and displaced by the descendants of Esau. In a similar way the peoples in Canaan were driven from the land that the LORD had assigned to Israel.)
• 13. Moses continued, "Then the LORD told us to cross Zered Brook, and we did.
• 14. So thirty-eight years passed from the time we first arrived at Kadesh-barnea until we finally crossed Zered Brook! For the LORD had vowed that this could not happen until all the men old enough to fight in battle had died in the wilderness.
• 15. The LORD had lifted his hand against them until all of them had finally died.
• 16. "When all the men of fighting age had died,
• 17. the LORD said to me,
• 18. `Today you will cross the border of Moab at Ar
• 19. and enter the land of Ammon. But do not bother the Ammonites, the descendants of Lot, or start a war with them. I have given the land of Ammon to them as their property, and I will not give you any of their land.'"
• 20. (That area, too, was once considered the land of the Rephaites, though the Ammonites referred to them as Zamzummites.
• 21. They were a numerous and powerful race, as tall as the Anakites. But the LORD destroyed them so the Ammonites could occupy their land.
• 22. He had similarly helped the descendants of Esau at Mount Seir, for he destroyed the Horites so they could settle there in their place. The descendants of Esau live there to this day.
• 23. A similar thing happened when the Caphtorites from Crete invaded and destroyed the Avvites, who had lived in villages in the area of Gaza.)
• 24. Moses continued, "Then the LORD said, `Now cross the Arnon Gorge! Look, I will help you defeat Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and I will give you his land. Attack him and begin to occupy the land.
• 25. Beginning today I will make all people throughout the earth terrified of you. When they hear reports about you, they will tremble with dread and fear.'
• 26. "Then from the wilderness of Kedemoth I sent ambassadors to King Sihon of Heshbon with this proposal of peace:
• 27. `Let us pass through your land. We will stay on the main road and won't turn off into the fields on either side.
• 28. We will pay for every bite of food we eat and all the water we drink. All we want is permission to pass through your land.
• 29. The descendants of Esau at Mount Seir allowed us to go through their country, and so did the Moabites, who live in Ar. Let us pass through until we cross the Jordan into the land the LORD our God has given us.'
• 30. But King Sihon refused to allow you to pass through, because the LORD your God made Sihon stubborn and defiant so he could help you defeat them, as he has now done.
• 31. "Then the LORD said to me, `Look, I have begun to hand King Sihon and his land over to you. Begin now to conquer and occupy his land.'
• 32. Then King Sihon declared war on us and mobilized his forces at Jahaz.
• 33. But the LORD our God handed him over to us, and we crushed him, his sons, and all his people.
• 34. We conquered all his towns and completely destroyed everyone--men, women, and children. Not a single person was spared.
• 35. We took all the livestock as plunder for ourselves, along with anything of value from the towns we ransacked.
• 36. "The LORD our God helped us conquer Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Gorge, the town in the gorge, and the whole area as far as Gilead. No town had walls too strong for us.
• 37. However, we stayed away from the Ammonites along the Jabbok River and the towns in the hill country--all the places the LORD our God had commanded us to leave alone.

Deuteronomy 3

• 1. "Next we headed for the land of Bashan, where King Og and his army attacked us at Edrei.
• 2. But the LORD told me, `Do not be afraid of him, for I have given you victory over Og and his army, giving you his entire land. Treat him just as you treated King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon.'
• 3. So the LORD our God handed King Og and all his people over to us, and we killed them all.
• 4. We conquered all sixty of his towns, the entire Argob region in his kingdom of Bashan.
• 5. These were all fortified cities with high walls and barred gates. We also took many unwalled villages at the same time.
• 6. We completely destroyed the kingdom of Bashan, just as we had destroyed King Sihon of Heshbon. We destroyed all the people in every town we conquered--men, women, and children alike.
• 7. But we kept all the livestock for ourselves and took plunder from all the towns.
• 8. "We now possessed all the land of the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River--from the Arnon Gorge to Mount Hermon.
• 9. (Mount Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians; the Amorites call it Senir.)
• 10. We had now conquered all the cities on the plateau, and all Gilead and Bashan as far as the towns of Salecah and Edrei, which were part of Og's kingdom in Bashan.
• 11. (Incidentally, King Og of Bashan was the last of the giant Rephaites. His iron bed was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It can still be seen in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.)
• 12. "When we took possession of this land, I gave the territory beyond Aroer along the Arnon Gorge, plus half of the hill country of Gilead with its towns, to the tribes of Reuben and Gad.
• 13. Then I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan--Og's former kingdom--to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (The Argob region of Bashan used to be known as the land of the Rephaites.
• 14. Jair, a leader from the tribe of Manasseh, acquired the whole Argob region in Bashan all the way to the borders of the Geshurites and Maacathites. Jair renamed this region after himself, calling it the Towns of Jair, as it is still known today.)
• 15. I gave Gilead to the clan of Makir.
• 16. And to the tribes of Reuben and Gad I gave the area extending from Gilead to the middle of the Arnon Gorge, all the way to the Jabbok River on the Ammonite frontier.
• 17. They also received the Jordan Valley, including the Jordan River and its eastern banks, all the way from the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea, with the slopes of Pisgah on the east.
• 18. "At that time I gave this command to the tribes that will live east of the Jordan: `Although the LORD your God has given you this land as your property, all your fighting men must cross the Jordan, armed and ready to protect your Israelite relatives.
• 19. Your wives, children, and numerous livestock, however, may stay behind in the towns I have given you.
• 20. When the LORD has given security to the rest of the Israelites, as he has to you, and when they occupy the land the LORD your God is giving them across the Jordan River, then you may return here to the land I have given you.'
• 21. "At that time I said to Joshua, `You have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. He will do the same to all the kingdoms on the west side of the Jordan.
• 22. Do not be afraid of the nations there, for the LORD your God will fight for you.'
• 23. "At that time I pleaded with the LORD and said,
• 24. `O Sovereign LORD, I am your servant. You have only begun to show me your greatness and power. Is there any god in heaven or on earth who can perform such great deeds as yours?
• 25. Please let me cross the Jordan to see the wonderful land on the other side, the beautiful hill country and the Lebanon mountains.'
• 26. "But the LORD was angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. `That's enough!' he ordered. `Speak of it no more.
• 27. You can go to Pisgah Peak and view the land in every direction, but you may not cross the Jordan River.
• 28. But commission Joshua and encourage him, for he will lead the people across the Jordan. He will give them the land you now see before you.'
• 29. So we stayed in the valley near Beth-peor.

New Living Translation: 53 of 324 days.