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Deuteronomy 1

1
Moses Talks to the Israelites
1This is the message Moses gave the people of Israel. They were in the desert east of the Jordan River. They were in the Jordan Valley near Suph, between Paran and the towns of Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab.
2(The trip from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea on the Mount Edom road takes 11 days.) 3But it was now 40 years after the Israelites had left Egypt. On the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people. He told them everything the Lord had commanded him to tell them. 4This was after the Lord had defeated Sihon and Og. Sihon was king of the Amorite people and lived in Heshbon. Og was king of Bashan and lived in Ashteroth and Edrei.
5Now the Israelites were east of the Jordan River in the land of Moab. There Moses began to explain what God had commanded. Moses said:
6The Lord our God spoke to us at Mount Sinai. He said, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7Get ready. Go to the mountain country of the Amorites. Go to all the places around there—the Jordan Valley, the mountains, the western slopes, the southern area, the seacoast, the land of Canaan and Lebanon. Go as far as the great river, the Euphrates. 8See, I have given you this land. Go in and take it for yourselves. The Lord promised it to your ancestors—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants.”
Moses Appoints Leaders
9At that time I said, “I am not able to take care of you by myself. 10The Lord your God has made you grow in number. There are as many of you as there are stars in the sky. 11I pray that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, will give you a thousand times more people. That’s what he promised. 12But I cannot take care of your problems, your troubles and your arguments by myself. 13So choose some men from each tribe. Choose wise men who have understanding and experience. I will make them leaders over you.”
14And you said, “That’s a good thing to do.”
15So I took the wise and experienced leaders of your tribes. And I made them your leaders. I appointed commanders over 1,000 people, over 100 people, over 50 people and over 10 people. I made them officers over your tribes. 16Then I told your judges, “Listen to the arguments between your people. Judge fairly between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner. 17When you judge, be fair to everyone. Don’t act as if one person is more important than another. Don’t be afraid of anyone, because your decision comes from God. Bring the hard cases to me. I will judge them.” 18At that time I told you everything you must do.
Spies Enter the Land
19Then, as the Lord our God commanded us, we left Mount Sinai. We went toward the mountain country of the Amorite people. We went through that large and terrible desert you saw. Then we came to Kadesh Barnea. 20Then I said to you, “You have now come to the mountain country of the Amorites. The Lord our God will give us this land. 21Look, there it is! Go up. Take it. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you to do this. So don’t be afraid. Don’t worry.”
22Then all of you came to me. You said, “Let’s send men before us to spy out the land. They can come back and tell us the way we should go. They can tell us about the cities we will find.”
23I thought that was a good idea. So I chose 12 of your men, 1 for each tribe. 24They left and went up to the mountains. They came to the Valley of Eshcol and explored it. 25They took some of the fruit from that land. And they brought it down to us. They said, “It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.”
Israel Refuses to Enter
26But you refused to go. You would not obey the command of the Lord your God. 27You grumbled in your tents. You said, “The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to give us to the Amorites. They will destroy us. 28Where can we go now? The spies we sent have made us afraid. They said, ‘The people there are bigger and taller than we are. The cities are big. They have walls up to the sky. And we saw the Anakites there!’”
29Then I said to you, “Don’t be frightened. Don’t be afraid of those people. 30The Lord your God will go ahead of you. He will fight for you as he did in Egypt. You saw him do it. 31And in the desert you saw how the Lord your God carried you. He was like a man carrying his son. And he has brought you safely all the way to this place.”
32But you still did not trust the Lord your God. 33As you moved, he went before you. He found places for you to camp. He went before you in a fire at night and in a cloud during the day. He showed you which way to go.
34When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry. He made a promise. He said, 35“I promised a good land to your ancestors. But none of you evil people will see it. 36Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will see it. I will give him and his descendants the land he walked on. I will do this because he followed me completely.”
37Because of you, the Lord was also angry with me. He said to me, “You won’t enter the land either. 38But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will go there. Encourage Joshua, because he will lead Israel to take the land for their own.”
39The Lord said to us, “You said your babies would be captured. But they will go into the land. They are too young to know right from wrong. So I will give the land to them. And they will take it for their own. 40But you must turn around. Follow the desert road toward the Gulf of Aqaba.”
41Then you said to me, “We have sinned against the Lord. But now we will go up and fight, as the Lord our God commanded us.” Then all of you put on weapons. You thought it would be easy to go into the mountains.
42But the Lord said to me, “Tell them not to go up there and fight. I will not be with them. Their enemies will defeat them.”
43So I told you, but you would not listen. You would not obey the Lord’s command. You were proud. So you went on up into the mountains. 44The Amorites who lived there came out and fought you. They chased you like bees. They defeated you from Edom to Hormah. 45So you came back and cried to the Lord. But the Lord did not hear you. He refused to listen to you. 46So you stayed in Kadesh a long time.

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Deuteronomy 1: ICB

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