Deuteronomy, 1 - 6
1 THESE ARE THE WORDS THAT MOSES SPOKE to all
Israel in Transjordan, in the wilderness, that is to say in the Arabah
opposite Suph, between Paran on the one side and Tophel, Laban,
Hazeroth, and Dizahab on the other. (The journey from Horeb through the
hill-country of Seir to Kadeshbarnea takes eleven days.)
On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, after the
defeat of Sihon king of the Amorites who ruled in Heshbon, and the defeat
at Edrei of Og king of Bashan who ruled in Ashtaroth, Moses repeated to
the Israelites all the commands that the LORD had given him for them. It
was in Transjordan, in Moab, that Moses resolved to promulgate this law.
These were his words: The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb and said,
'You have stayed on this mountain long enough; go now, make for the
hill-country of the Amorites, and pass on to all their neighbours in the
Arabah, in the hill-country, in the Shephelah, in the Negeb, and on
the coast, in short, all Canaan and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the
Euphrates. I have laid the land ope before you; go in and occupy it,
the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefather's Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, and to their descendants after them.'
At that time I said to you, 'You are a burden too heavy for me to carry
unaided. The LORD your God has increased you so that today you are as
numerous as the stars in the sky. May the LORD the God of your fathers
increase your number a thousand times and may he bless you as he pro-
mised. How can I bear unaided the heavy burden you are to me, and put
up with your complaints? choose men of wisdom, understanding, and
repute for each of your tribes, and I will set them in authority over you.'
Your answer was, 'What you have told us to do is right.' So I took men of
wisdom and repute and set them in authority over you, some as commanders
over units of a thousand, of a hundred, of fifty or of ten, and others as
officers, for each of your tribes. And at that time I gave your judges this
command: 'You are to hear the cases that arise among your kinsmen and
judge fairly between man and man, whether fellow-countryman or resident
alien. You must be impartial and listen to high and low alike: have no fear
of man, for judgement belongs to God. If any case is too difficult for you,
bring it before me and I will hear it.' At the same time I instructed you in
all these duties.
Then we set out from Horeb, in obedience to the orders of the LORD
our God, and marched through the vast and terrible wilderness, as you
found it to be, on the way to the hill-country of the Amorites; and so we
came to Kadesh-barnea. Then I said to you, 'You have reached the
hill-country of the Amorites which the LORD our God is giving us. The
LORD your God has indeed now laid the land open before you. Go forward
and occupy it in fulfilment of the promise which the LORD the God of your
fathers made you; do not be discouraged or afraid.' But you all came to me
and said, 'Let us send men ahead to spy out the country and report back
to us about the route we should take and the cities we shall find. I approved
this plan and picked twelve of you, one from each tribe. They set out and
made their way up into the hill-country as far as the gorge of Eshcol,
which they explored. They took samples of the fruit of the country and
brought them back to us, and made their report: 'It is a rich land that the
LORD our God is giving us.'
But you refused to go up and rebelled against the command of the LORD
your God. You muttered treason in your tents and said, 'It was because
the LORD hated us that he brought us out of Egypt to hand us over to the
Amorites to be wiped out. What shall we find up there? Our kinsmen have
discouraged us by their report of a people bigger and taller than we are,
and of great cities with fortifications towering to the sky. And they told us
they saw there the descendants of the Anakim.'
Then I said to you, 'You must not dread them nor be afraid of them.
The LORD your God who goes at your head will fight for you and he will
do again what you saw him do for you in Egypt and in the wilderness. You
saw there how the LORD your God carried you all the way to this place,
as a father carries his son.' In spite of this you did not trust the LORD your
God, who went ahead on the journey to find a place for your camp. He
went in fire by night to show you the way you should take, and in a cloud
by day.
When the LORD heard of your complaints, he was indignant and solemnly
swore: 'Not one of these men, this wicked generation, shall see the rich
land which I swore to give to your forefathers, except Caleb son of Jephunneh.
He shall see it, and to him and his descendants I will give the land on which
he has set foot, because he followed the LORD with his whole heart.' On
your account the LORD was angry wit me also and said, 'You yourself
shall never enter it, but Joshua son of Nun, who is in attendance on you,
shall enter it. Encourage him, for he shall put Israel in possession of that
land. Your dependants who, you thought, would become spoils of war,
and your children who do not yet know good and evil, they shall enter;
I will give it to them, and they shall occupy it. You must turn back and set
out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.'
You answered me, 'We have sinned against the LORD; we will now go
up and attack just as the LORD our God commanded us,' And each of you
fasten on his weapons, thinking it an easy thing to invade the hill-
country. But the LORD said to me, 'Tell them not to go up and not to fight;
for I will not be with them, and their enemies will defeat them.' And I told
you this, but you did not listen; you rebelled against the LORD's command
and defiantly went up to the hill-country. The Amorites living in the hills
came out against you and like bees they chased you; they crushed you at
Hormah in Seir. Then you came back and wept before the LORD, but he
would not hear you or listen to you. That is why you remained in Kadesh
as long as you did.
2 So we turned and set out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea as
the LORD had told me we must do, and we spent many days marching
round the hill-country of Seir. Then the LORD said to me, 'You have been
long enough marching round these hills; turn towards the north. And give
the people this charge: 'You are about to go through the territory of your
kinsmen the descendants of Esau who live in Seir. Although they are not
afraid of you, be on your guard and do not provoke them; for I shall not
give you any of their land, not so much as a foot's-breadth: I have given
the hill-country of Seir to Esau as a possession. You may purchase food
from them for silver, and eat it, and you may buy water to drink."' The
LORD your God has blessed you in everything you have undertaken; he
has watched your journey through this great wilderness; these forty years
the LORD your God has been with you and you have gone short of nothing.
So we went on past our kinsmen, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir,
and along the road of the Arabah which comes from Elath and Ezion-
geber, and we turned and followed the road to the wilderness of Moab.
There the LORD said to me, 'Do not harass the Moabites nor provoke them
to battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession. I have
given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.' (The emim once lived
there——a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. The Rephaim
also were reckoned as Anakim; but the Moabites called them Emim. The
Horites lived in Seir at one time, but the descendants of Esau occupied their
territory: they destroyed them as they advanced and then settled in the land
instead of them, just as Israel did in their own territory which the LORD
gave them.) 'Come now, cross the gorge of the Zared.' So we went across.
The journey from Kadesh-barnea to the crossing of the Zared took us
thirty-eight years, until the whole generation of fighting men had passed
away as the LORD had sworn that they would. The LORD's hand was raised
against them, and he rooted them out of the camp to the last man.
When the last of the fighting men among the people had died, the LORD
spoke to me, 'Today', he said, 'you are to cross by Ar which lies on the
frontier of Moab, and when you reach the territory of the Ammonites, you
must not harass them or provoke them to battle, for I will not give you any
Ammonite land as a possession; I have assigned it to the descendants of
Lot.' (This also is reckoned as the territory of the Rephaim, who lived there
at one time; but the Ammonites called them Zamzummim. Tey were a
great an numerous people, as tall as the Anakim, but the LORD destroyed
them as the Ammonites advanced and occupied their territory instead of
them, just as he had done for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir. As
they advanced, he destroyed the Horites so that they occupied their terri-
tory and took possession instead of them: so it is to this day. It was
Caphtorites from Caphtor who destroyed the Avvim who lived in the
hamlets near Gaza, and settled in the land instead of them.) 'Come, set out
on your journey and cross the gorge of the Arnon, for I have put Sihon the
Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his territory into your hands. Begin to
occupy it and provoke him to battle. Today I will begin to put the fear and
dread of you upon all the peoples under heaven; if they so much as hear a
rumour of you, they will quake and tremble before you.'
Then I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king
of Heshbon with these peaceful overtures: 'Grant us passage through your
country by the highway: we will keep to the highway, trespassing neither
to right nor left, and we will pay you the full price for the food we eat
and the water we drink. The descendants of Esau who live in Seir granted
us passage, and so did the Moabites who live in Ar. We will simply pass
through your land on foot, until we cross the Jordan to the land which
the LORD our God is giving us.' But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to
grant s passage; for the LORD your God had made him stubborn and
obstinate, in order that he and his land might become subject to you, as it
still is. So the LORD said to me, 'Come, I have begun to deliver Sihon and
his territory into your hands. Begin now to occupy his land.' Then Sihon
with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz, and the LORD
our God delivered him into our hands; we killed him with his sons and all
his people. We captured all his cities at that time and put to death everyone
in the cities, men, women, and dependants; we left no survivor. We took
the cattle as booty and plundered the cities we captured. From Aroer on
the edge of the gorge of the Arnon and the level land of the gorge, as far as
Gilead, no city wall were too lofty for us; the LORD our God laid them all
open to us. But you avoided the territory of the Ammonites, both the parts
along the gorge of the Jabbok and their cities in the hills, thus fulfilling
all that the LORD our God had commanded.
3 Next we turned and advanced along the road to Bashan. Og king of
Bashan, with all his people, came out against us at Edrei. The LORD said
to me, 'Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your hands,
with all his people and his land. Deal with him as you dealt with Sihon the
king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon.' So the LORD our God also
delivered Og king of Bashan into our hands, with all his people. We
slaughtered them and left no survivor, and at the same time we captured
all his cities; there was not a single town that we did not take from them.
In all we took sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og
in Bashan; all these were fortified cities with high walls, gates, and bars,
apart from a great many open settlements. Thus we put to death all the
men, women, and dependants in every city, as we did to Sihon king of
Heshbon. All the cattle and the spoil from the cities we took as booty for
ourselves.
At that time we took from these two Amorite kings in Transjordan the
territory that runs from the gorge of the Arnon to Mount Hermon ( the
mountain that the Sidonians call Sirion and the Amorites Senir), all
the cities of the tableland, and the whole of Gilead and Bashan as far as
Salcah and Edrei, cities in the kingdom of Og in Bashan. (Only Og king of
Bashan remained as the sole survivor of the Rephaim. His sarcophagus of
basalt was nearly fourteen feet long and six feet wide, and it may still be
seen in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.)
At that time, when we occupied this territory, I assigned to the Reuben-
ites and Gadites the land beyond Aroer on the gorge of the Arnon and half
the hill-country of Gilead with its towns. The rest of Gilead and the whole
of Bashan the kingdom of Og, all the region of Argod, I assigned to half
the tribe of Manasseh. (All Bashan used to be called the land of the
Rephaim. Jair son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob as far as the
Geshurite and Maacathite border. There are tent-villages in Bashan still
called by his name, Havvoth-jair.) To Machir I assigned Gilead, and to
the Reubenites and Gadites I assigned land from Gilead to the gorge of
the Arnon, that is to the middle of the gorge; and its territory ran to the
gorge of the Jabbok, the Ammonite frontier, and included the Arabah,
with the Jordan and adjacent land, from Kinnereth to the Sea of the
Arabah, that is the Dead Sea, below the watershed of Pisgah on the east.
At that time I gave you this command: 'The LORD your God has given
you this land to occupy; let all your fighting men be drafted and cross at
the head of their fellow-Israelites. Only your wives and dependants and
your livestock——I know you have much livestock——shall stay in the towns
I have given you. This you shall do until the LORD gives your kinsmen
security as he has given it to you, and until they too occupy the land which
the LORD your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan; then you
may return to the possession which I have given you, every man to his own.'
At that time also I gave Joshua this charge: 'You have seen with your
own eyes all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings; he will
do the same to all the kingdoms into which you will cross over. Do not be
afraid of them, for the LORD your God himself will fight for you.'
At that same time I pleaded with the LORD, 'O Lord GOD, thou hast
begun to show to thy servant thy greatness and thy strong hand: what god
is there in heaven or on earth which can match thy works and mighty deeds?
Let me cross over and see that rich land which lies beyond the Jordan, and
the fine hill-country and the Lebanon.' But because of you the LORD
brushed me aside and would not listen. 'Enough!' he answered, 'Say no
more about this. Go to the top of Pisgah and look west and north, south and
east; look well at what you see, for you shall not cross this river Jordan.
Give Joshua his commission, encourage him and strengthen him; for he
will lead this people across, and he will put them in possession of the land
you see before you.'
So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.
4 NOW, ISRAEL, LISTEN to the statutes and laws which I am teaching you,
and obey them; then you will live, and go in and occupy the land which
the LORD the God of your fathers is giving you. You must not add any-
thing to my charge, nor take anything away from it. You must carry out all
the commandments of the LORD your God which I lay upon you.
You saw with your wn eyes what the LORD did at Baal-peor; the LORD
your God destroyed among you every man who went to the Baal of
Peor, but you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive today. I
have taught you statutes and laws, as the LORD my God commanded me;
these you must duly keep when you enter the land and occupy it. You
must observe them carefully, and thereby you will display your wisdom
and understanding to other peoples. When they hear about these statutes
they will say, 'What a wise and understanding people this great nation is!'
What great nation has a god close at hand as the LORD our God is close to
us whenever we call to him? What great nation is there whose statutes and
laws are just, as is this law which I am setting before you today? But
take good care: be on the watch not to forget the things that you have seen
with your own eyes, and do not let them pass from your minds as long as
you live, but teach them to your sons and to your sons' sons. You must
never forget that day when you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb,
and the LORD said to me, 'Assemble the people before me; I will make
them hear my words and they shall learn to fear me all their lives on earth,
and they shall tech their sons to do so.' Then you came near and stood at
the foot of the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with fire to the very
skies: there was darkness, cloud, and thick mist. When the LORD spoke to
you from the fire you heard a voice speaking, but you saw no figure; there
was only a voice. He announced the terms of his covenant to you, bidding
you observe the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.
At that time the LORD charged me to teach you the statutes and laws which you
should observe in the land into which you are passing to occupy it.
On the day when the LORD spoke to you out of the fire on Horeb, you
saw no figure of any kind; so take good care not to fall into the degrading
practice of making figures carved in relief, in the form of a man or a woman,
or of any animal on earth or bird that flies in the air, or of any reptile on the
ground or fish in the waters under the earth. Nor must you raise your eyes
to the heavens and look up to the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host
of heaven, and be led to bow down to them and worship them; the LORD
your God assigned these for the worship of the various peoples under
heaven. But you are the people whom the LORD brought out of Egypt,
from the smelting-furnace, and took for his own possession, as you are
to this day. The LORD was angry with me on your account and swore that
I should not cross the Jordan nor enter the rich land which the LORD your
God is giving you for your possession. I shall die in this country; I shall
not cross the Jordan, but you are about to cross and occupy that rich land.
Be careful not to forget the covenant which the LORD your God made with
you, and do not make yourselves a carved figure of anything which the
LORD your God has forbidden. For the LORD your God is a devouring fire,
a jealous god.
When you have children and grandchildren and grow old in the land,
if you then fall into the degrading practice of making any kind of carved
figure, doing what is wrong in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoke-
ing him to anger, I summon heaven and earth to witness against you this
day: you will soon vanish from the land which you are to occupy after
crossing the Jordan. You will not live long in it; you will be swept away.
The LORD will disperse you among the peoples, and you will be left few in
number among the nations to which the LORD will lead you. There you
will worship gods made by human hands out of wood and stone, gods that
can neither see nor hear, neither eat nor smell. But if from there you seek
the LORD your God, you will find him, if indeed you search with all your
heart and soul. When you are in distress and all these things come upon
you, you will in days to come turn back to the LORD your God and obey
him. The LORD your God is a merciful god; he will never fail you nor
destroy you, nor will he forget the covenant guaranteed by oath with your
forefathers.
Search into days gone by, long before your time, beginning at the day
when God created man on earth; search from one end of heaven to the
other, and ask if any deed as mighty as this has been seen or heard. Did
any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you
heard it, and remain alive? Or did ever a god attempt to come and take a
nation for himself away from another nation, with a challenge, and with
signs, portents, and wars, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
and with great deeds of terror, as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt
in the sight of all? You have had sure proof that the LORD is God;
there is no other. From heaven he let you hear his voice for your instruction,
and on earth he let you see his great fire, and out of the fire you heard his
words, Because he loved your fathers and chose their children after them,
he in his own person brought you out of Egypt by his great strength, so
that he might drive out before you nations greater and more powerful than
you and bring you in to give you their land in possession as it is today. This
day, then, be sure and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above
and on earth below; there is no other. You shall keep his statutes and his
commandments which I give you today; then all will be well with you and
with your children after you, and you will live long in the land which the
LORD your God is giving you for all time.
Then Moses set apart three cities in the east, in Transjordan, to be places
of refuge for the homicide who kills a man without intent, with no previous
enmity between them. If he takes sanctuary in one of these cities his life
shall be safe. The cities were Bezer-in-the-Wilderness on the tableland
for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in
Bashan for the Manassites.
This is the law which Moses laid down for the Israelites. These are the
precepts, the statutes, and the laws which Moses proclaimed to the Israel-
ites, when they came out of Egypt and were in Transjordan in the valley
opposite Beth-peor in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites who lived in
Heshbon. Moses and the Israelites had defeated him when they came out
of Egypt and had occupied his territory sand the territory of Og king of
Bashan, the two Amorite kings in the east, in Transjordan. The territory
ran from Aroer on the gorge of the Arnon to Mount Sirion, that s Hermon;
and all the Araba on the east, in Transjordan, as far as the Sea of the Arabah
below the watershed of Pisgah.
5 Moses summoned all Israeli and said to them: Listen, O Israel, to the
statutes and the laws which I proclaim in your hearing today. Learn them
and be careful to observe them. The LORD our God made a covenant with
us at Horeb. It was not with our forefathers that the LORD made this cove-
nant, but with us, all of us who are alive and are here this day. The LORD
spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the fire. I stood between
the LORD and you at that time to report the words of the LORD; for you were
afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain. And the LORD said:
I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land
of slavery.
You shall have no other god to set against me.
You shall not make a carved image of yourself nor the likeness of any-
thing in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under
the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous god. I punish the children for the sins of the fathers to
the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. But I keep faith
with thousands, with those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not make wrong use of the name of the LORD your God; the
LORD will not leave unpunished the man who misuses his name.
Keep the sabbath day holy as the LORD your God commanded you.
You have six days to labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a
sabbath of the LORD your God; that day you shall not do any work, neither
you, your son or your daughter, your slave or your slave-girl, your ox,
your ass, or any of your cattle, nor the alien within your gates, so that your
slaves and slave-girls may rest as you do. Remember that you were slaves
in Egypt and the LORD your God brought you out with a strong hand and
an outstretched arm, and for that reason the LORD your God commanded
you to keep the sabbath day.
Honour your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded
you, so that you may live long, and that it may be well with you in the land
which the LORD your God is giving you.
You shall not commit murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not give false evidence against your neighbour.
You shall not covet your neighbour's wife; you shall not set your heart
on your neighbour's house, his land, his slave, his slave-girl, his ox, his
ass, or on anything that belongs to him.
These Commandments the LORD spoke in a great voice to your whole
assembly on the mountain out of the fire, the cloud, and the thick mist;
then he said no more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them
to me. When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain
was ablaze with fire, all the heads of your tribes and the elders came to me
and said, 'The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his greatness,
and we have heard his voice out of the fire: today we have seen that God
may speak with men and they may still live. Why should we now risk
death? for this great fire will devour us. If we hear the voice of the LORD
our God again, we shall die. Is there any mortal man who has heard the
voice of the living God speaking out of the fire, as we have, and has lived?
You shall go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says, and report
to us all that the LORD our God has said to you; we will listen and obey.'
When the LORD heard these words which you spoke to me, he said, 'I
have heard what this people has said to you; every word they have spoken
is right. Would that they always had such a heart to fear me and to observe
all my commandments, so that all might be well with them and their
children for ever! Go, and tell them to return to their tents, but you your-
self stand here beside me, and I will set forth to you all the commandments,
the statutes and laws which you shall teach them to observe in the land
which I am giving them to occupy.'
You shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you;
do not turn from it to right or to left. You must conform to all the LORD
your God commands you, if you would live and prosper and remain long
in the land you are to occupy.
These are the commandments, statutes, and laws which the LORD your
God commanded me to teach you to observe in the land into which you
are passing to occupy it, a land flowing with milk and honey, so that you
may fear the LORD your God and keep all his statutes and commandments
which I am giving you, both you, your sons, and your descendants all your
lives, and so that you may live long. If you listen, O Israel, and are careful
to observe them, you will prosper an increase greatly as the LORD the
God of your fathers promised you.
Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, one LORD, and you must love the
LORD your God with all your heart and soul and strength. These com-
mandments which I give you this day are to be kept in your heart; you
shall repeat them to your sons, and speak of them indoors and out of doors,
wear them as a phylactery on the forehead; write them up on the door-
posts of your house and on your gates.
The LORD your God will bring you into the land which he swore to your
forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give you, a land of
great and fine cities which you did not build, houses full of good things
which you did not provide, rock-hewn cisterns which you did not hew,
and vineyards and olive-groves which you did not plant. When you eat
your fill there, be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of
Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall fear the LORD your God, serve
him alone and take your oaths in his name. You must not follow other gods,
gods of the nations that are around you; if you do, the LORD your God who
is in your midst will be angry with you, and he will sweep you away off the
face of the earth, for the LORD your God is a jealous god.
You must not challenge the LORD your God as you challenged him at
Massah. You must diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your
God as well as the precepts and statutes which he gave you. You must do
what is right and good in the LORD's eyes so that all may go well with you,
and you may enter and occupy the rich land which the LORD promised by
oath to your forefathers; then you shall drive out all your enemies before
you, as the LORD promised.
When your sons ask you in time to come, 'What s the meaning of the
precepts, statutes, and laws which the LORD our God gave you?', you shall
say to him, 'We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the LORD brought us
out of Egypt with his strong hand, sending great disasters, signs, and por-
tents against the Egyptians and against Pharaoh and all his family, as we
saw for ourselves. But he led us out from there to bring us into the land and
give it to us as he had promised our forefathers. The LORD commanded
us to observe all these statutes and to fear the LORD our God; it will be for
our own good at all times, and he will continue to preserve our lives. It
will be counted to our credit if we keep all these commandments in the
sight of the LORD our God, as he has bidden us.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Apr 12, 2019, 1:37 PM UTC
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