These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness of the plain, over against the Red Sea, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Haseroth, where there is a great deal of gold:

eleven days from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Cadesbarne.

In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel all that the Lord had commanded him to say to them

after he defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Hesebon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt in Astaroth and Edrei,

beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab. Moses began to comment on the law and say

The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: It is enough for you that you have lived in this mountain,

return, and come to the mountain of the Amorites, and to the other parts of the country that are near to it: the plains, and the mountains, and the low places toward the south, and the land of the Canaanites, and the land of Lebanon, on the shore of the sea, as far as the great river Euphrates.

Behold, he said, I have delivered it to you: go in and possess the land, about which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to them, and to their seed after them.

I told you at that time:

I cannot bear you alone, because the Lord your God has multiplied you, and you are today like many stars in the sky.

(May the Lord the God of your fathers add to this number many thousand, and may he bless you as he promised.)

I am not able alone to bear your problems and your weight and your differences.

Give from among you wise and knowledgeable men, and whose way of life is approved among your tribes, that I may make them your leaders.

Then you answered me: It is a good thing that you want to do.

So I took out of your tribes wise and honorable men, and appointed them chiefs, tribunes, and centurions, and fifties, and over tens, to teach you every thing.

And I commanded them, saying: Hear them, and judge that which is just: whether he be one of your country, or a stranger.

There shall be no difference of persons: you shall hear the small as well as the great, and you shall not respect any man's person, because it is the judgment of God. And if anything seems too hard for you, report it to me, and I will hear it.

And I commanded you all that you should do.

And departing from Horeb, we passed through the terrible and great desert, which you saw, by the way of the mountain of the Amorrhite, as the Lord our God had commanded us. And when we were come to Cadesbarne,

I said to you: You are come to the mountain of the Amorite, which the Lord our God will give to us.

Look at the land which the Lord your God gives you: go up and possess it, as the Lord our God said to your fathers. Do not be afraid, and do not be dismayed.

And all of you came to me, and said: Let us send men to view the land: and they shall tell us by what way we shall go up, and to what cities we should go.

And when the word pleased me, I sent from among you twelve men, one from their tribe.

And when they had gone and gone up into the mountains, they came as far as the valley of the cluster of grapes: and having viewed the earth,

taking some of the fruits thereof to show the fertility, they brought it to us, and said: The land which the Lord our God will give us is good.

And you would not go up, but disobey the word of the Lord our God,

you have murmured in your tents, and have said, The LORD hates us, and therefore he brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorrhite, and to destroy us.

Where are we going? our messengers have terrified our hearts, saying: The people are very great, and taller than us; the cities are great, and fortified even to the heavens: we have seen there the sons of the Anakims.

And I said to you, Do not be afraid, and do not be afraid of them.

The Lord your God, who is your leader, will fight for you, just as he did in Egypt in the sight of all.

And in the wilderness (you yourself have seen) the Lord your God has carried you, like a man carrying his little son, in every way you walked, until you came to this place.

And you did not even believe the Lord your God

who went before you by the way, and marked out the place where you ought to pitch your tents, showing you by night your journey by fire, and by day by the pillar of a cloud.

And when the Lord heard the voice of your words, being angry he swore, and said:

None of the men of this bad generation shall see the good land, which I promised your fathers under an oath,

except Caleb the son of Jephone: for he will see it, and to him will I give the land which he has trodden, and to his sons, because he has followed the Lord.

Nor is there a marvelous indignation among the people, when the Lord, being angry with me also, for your sakes said, You shall not go in thither;

but Joshua the son of Nun, your servant, he will go in for you. Encourage and encourage him, and he shall divide the land to Israel by lot.

Your little ones, of whom you have spoken, that they should be led away captives, and the children of today who do not know the difference between good and evil, they will enter in, and to them I will give the land, and they shall possess it.

But return, and go into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

And you answered me: We have sinned against the Lord: we will go up and fight, as the Lord our God hath commanded. And when you were armed with arms, you went into the mountain,

[5k]

The Lord said to me: Say to them: Go not up, nor fight: for I am not with you: lest you fall before your enemies.

I spoke, and you did not hear: but resisting the commandment of the Lord, and swelling with pride, you went up into the mountain.

And the Amorrhite, who dwelt in the mountains, going out, and coming to meet you, pursued you, as bees do after you are wont to do: and he fell from Seir as far as Horma.

And when you returned and wept before the Lord, he would not hear you, nor would he obey your voice.

You stayed therefore a long time in Cadesbarne.