Deuteronomy 1:1-4:43

New American Bible (Revised Edition)

I. First Address

Chapter 1

Introduction. ^1 [a]These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah, opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ² It is a journey of eleven days from Horeb^[b] to Kadesh-barnea by way of the highlands of Seir.

³ In the fortieth year,^[c] on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites according to all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to them, ⁴ after he had defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon,^(A) and Og, king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. ⁵ Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law:

Departure from Horeb. ^6 [d](B)The Lord, our God, said to us at Horeb:^[e] You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Leave here and go to the hill country of the Amorites^[f] and to all the surrounding regions, the Arabah, the mountains, the Shephelah, the Negeb and the seacoast—the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon as far as the Great River, the Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have given that land over to you.^(C) Go now and possess the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.

Appointment of Elders. ^9 (D)At that time I said to you, “I am unable to carry you by myself.^{(E) 10} The Lord, your God, has made you numerous, and now you are as numerous as the stars of the heavens.^{(F) 11} May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times over, and bless you as he promised! ¹² But how can I, by myself, bear the weight, the contentiousness of you? ¹³ Provide wise, discerning, and reputable persons for each of your tribes, that I may appoint them as your leaders.” ¹⁴ You answered me, “What you have proposed is good.” ¹⁵ So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and reputable, and set them as leaders over you, commanders over thousands, over hundreds, over fifties and over tens, and other tribal officers. ^16 (G)I charged your judges at that time, “Listen to complaints among your relatives, and administer true justice to both parties even if one of them is a resident alien. ¹⁷ In rendering judgment, do not consider who a person is; give ear to the lowly and to the great alike, fearing no one, for the judgment is God’s. Any case that is too difficult for you bring to me and I will hear it.” ¹⁸ Thus I charged you, at that time, with all the things you were to do.

The Twelve Scouts. ^19 (H)Then we set out from Horeb and journeyed through that whole vast and fearful wilderness that you have seen, in the direction of the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord, our God, had commanded; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.^{(I) 20} I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord, our God, is giving us. ²¹ See, the Lord, your God, has given this land over to you. Go up and take possession of it, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” ²² Then all of you approached me and said, “Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and report to us on the road we should follow and the cities we will come upon.” ²³ Agreeing with the proposal, I took twelve men from your number, one from each tribe. ²⁴ They set out into the hill country as far as the Wadi Eshcol, and explored it. ²⁵ Then, taking along some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, “The land the Lord, our God, is giving us is good.”

Threats of Revolt. ^26 (J)But you refused to go up;^(K) you defied the command of the Lord, your God. ²⁷ You set to murmuring in your tents, “Out of hatred for us the Lord has brought us out of the land of Egypt,^(L) to deliver us into the power of the Amorites and destroy us. ²⁸ What shall we meet with up there? Our men have made our hearts melt by saying, ‘The people are bigger and taller than we, and their cities are large and fortified to the sky; besides, we saw the Anakim^[g] there.’”^(M)

²⁹ But I said to you, “Have no dread or fear of them. ^30 (N)The Lord, your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he acted with you before your very eyes in Egypt, ³¹ as well as in the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord, your God, carried you, as one carries his own child, all along your journey until you arrived at this place.” ³² Despite this, you would not trust the Lord, your God, ³³ who journeys before you to find you a place to camp—by night in the fire, and by day in the cloud, to show you the way to go.^{(O) 34} When the Lord heard your words, he was angry, and took an oath: ³⁵ Not a single one of this evil generation shall look upon the good land I swore to give to your ancestors, ³⁶ except Caleb,^[h] son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, for to him and to his descendants I will give the land he trod upon,^(P) because he has fully followed the Lord.

³⁷ The Lord was angered against me also on your account, and said, You shall not enter there either,^{(Q) 38} but Joshua,^(R) son of Nun, your attendant, shall enter. Encourage him, for he is the one who is to give Israel its possession. ³⁹ Your little ones, who you said would become plunder, and your children, who as yet do not know good from evil—they shall enter there; to them I will give it, and they shall take possession of it. ⁴⁰ But as for yourselves: turn back and proceed into the wilderness on the Red Sea road.

Unsuccessful Invasion. ^41 (S)In reply you said to me, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up ourselves and fight, just as the Lord, our God, commanded us.” And each of you girded on his weapons, making light of going up into the hill country. ⁴² But the Lord said to me, Warn them: Do not go up and fight—for I will not be in your midst—lest you be beaten down before your enemies. ⁴³ I gave you this warning but you would not listen. You defied the Lord’s command and arrogantly went off into the hill country. ⁴⁴ Then the Amorites living in that hill country came out against you and put you to flight the way bees do, cutting you down in Seir as far as Hormah. ⁴⁵ On your return you wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. ⁴⁶ That is why you had to stay as long as you did at Kadesh.

Chapter 2

Northward Along Edom. ^1 (T)Then we turned and proceeded into the wilderness on the Red Sea road,^(U) as the Lord had told me, and circled around the highlands of Seir for a long time. ² Finally the Lord said to me, ³ You have wandered round these highlands long enough; turn and go north. ⁴ Command the people: You are now about to pass through the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. Though they are afraid of you, be very careful ⁵ not to come in conflict with them, for I will not give you so much as a foot of their land, since I have already given Esau possession of the highlands of Seir.^{(V) 6} You shall purchase from them with money the food you eat; even the water you drink you shall buy from them with money. ⁷ Surely, the Lord, your God, has blessed you in all your undertakings; he has been concerned^[i] about your journey through this vast wilderness. It is now forty years that the Lord, your God, has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.^{(W) 8} So we passed by our relatives, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, leaving behind us the Arabah route, Elath, and Ezion-geber.

Along Moab. Then we turned and passed on toward the wilderness of Moab. ^9 (X)And the Lord said to me, Do not show hostility to the Moabites or engage them in battle, for I will not give you possession of any of their land, since I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.^{(Y) 10} (Formerly the Emim lived there, a people great and numerous and as tall as the Anakim;^{(Z) 11} like the Anakim they are considered Rephaim, though the Moabites call them Emim.^{(AA) 12} In Seir, however, the former inhabitants were the Horites;^(AB) the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, clearing them out of the way and dwelling in their place, just as Israel has done in the land of its possession which the Lord gave it.) ¹³ Now get ready to cross the Wadi Zered.

So we crossed the Wadi Zered. ^14 (AC)Now thirty-eight years had elapsed between our departure from Kadesh-barnea and the crossing of the Wadi Zered; in the meantime the whole generation of soldiers had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn they should. ¹⁵ Indeed the Lord’s own hand was against them, to rout them from the camp completely.

Along Ammon. ^16 (AD)When at length death had put an end to all the soldiers among the people, ¹⁷ the Lord said to me, ¹⁸ You are now about to leave Ar and the territory of Moab behind. ¹⁹ As you come opposite the Ammonites,^(AE) do not show hostility or come in conflict with them, for I will not give you possession of any land of the Ammonites, since I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their possession. ²⁰ (This also is considered a country of the Rephaim; formerly the Rephaim dwelt there. The Ammonites call them Zamzummim,^{(AF) 21} a people great and numerous and as tall as the Anakim. But these, too, the Lord cleared out of the way for the Ammonites, so that they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place.^{(AG) 22} He did the same for the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, by clearing the Horites out of their way, so that they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place down to the present.^{(AH) 23} As for the Avvim, who once lived in villages in the vicinity of Gaza,^[j] the Caphtorim, migrating from Caphtor, cleared them away and dwelt in their place.)^(AI)

Defeat of Sihon. ^24 (AJ)Advance now across the Wadi Arnon. I now deliver into your power Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession; engage him in battle.^{(AK) 25} This day I will begin to put a fear and dread of you into the peoples everywhere under heaven, so that at the mention of your name they will quake and tremble before you.

²⁶ So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with this offer of peace: ²⁷ “Let me pass through your country. I will travel only on the road. I will not turn aside either to the right or to the left. ²⁸ The food I eat you will sell me for money, and the water I drink, you will give me for money. Only let me march through, ²⁹ as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar have done, until I cross the Jordan into the land the Lord, our God, is about to give us.”^{(AL) 30} But Sihon, king of Heshbon, refused to let us pass through his land, because the Lord, your God, made him stubborn in mind and obstinate in heart that he might deliver him into your power, as indeed he has now done.

³¹ Then the Lord said to me, Now that I have already begun to give over to you Sihon and his land, begin to take possession. ³² So Sihon and all his people advanced against us to join battle at Jahaz; ³³ but since the Lord, our God, had given him over to us, we defeated him and his sons and all his people. ^34 (AM)At that time we captured all his cities and put every city under the ban,^[k] men, women and children; we left no survivor. ³⁵ Our only plunder was the livestock and the spoils of the captured cities. ³⁶ From Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon and from the town in the wadi itself, as far as Gilead,^(AN) no city was too well fortified for us. All of them the Lord, our God, gave over to us. ³⁷ However, just as the Lord, our God, commanded us, you did not encroach upon any of the Ammonite land, neither the region bordering on the Wadi Jabbok, nor the cities of the highlands.^(AO)

Chapter 3

Defeat of Og. ¹ Then we turned and proceeded up the road to Bashan. But Og, king of Bashan,^(AP) came out against us with all his people to give battle at Edrei. ² The Lord said to me, Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your power with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon. ³ And thus the Lord, our God, delivered into our power also Og, king of Bashan, with all his people. We defeated him so completely that we left him no survivor. ⁴ At that time we captured all his cities; there was no town we did not take: sixty cities in all, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan— ⁵ all these cities were fortified with high walls and gates and bars—besides a great number of unwalled towns. ^6 (AQ)As we had done to Sihon, king of Heshbon, so also here we put all the towns under the ban, men, women and children; ⁷ but all the livestock and the spoils of each city we took as plunder for ourselves.

⁸ And so at that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan the territory from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁹ (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion and the Amorites call it Senir), ¹⁰ all the towns of the plateau, all of Gilead, and all of Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹ (Og, king of Bashan, was the last remaining survivor of the Rephaim. He had a bed of iron,^[l] nine regular cubits long and four wide, which is still preserved in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)^(AR)

Allotment of the Conquered Lands. ^12 (AS)As for the land we took possession of at that time, I gave Reuben and Gad the territory from Aroer, on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, halfway up into the highlands of Gilead, with its cities. ¹³ The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (The whole Argob region, all that part of Bashan, was once called a land of the Rephaim.^{(AT) 14} Jair, a Manassite,^(AU) took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and named them—Bashan, that is—after himself, Havvoth-jair, the name it bears today.) ¹⁵ To Machir^[m] I gave Gilead, ¹⁶ and to Reuben and Gad the territory from Gilead to the Wadi Arnon—the middle of the wadi being its boundary—and to the Wadi Jabbok, which is the border of the Ammonites, ¹⁷ as well as the Arabah with the Jordan and its banks from Chinnereth^[n] to the Salt Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

^18 (AV)At that time I charged you: The Lord, your God, has given you this land as your possession. But all your troops equipped for battle must cross over in the vanguard of your fellow Israelites. ¹⁹ But your wives and children, as well as your livestock, of which I know you have a large number, shall remain behind in the towns I have given you, ²⁰ until the Lord has settled your relatives as well, and they too possess the land which the Lord, your God, will give them on the other side of the Jordan. Then you may all return to the possessions I have given you.

²¹ And I charged Joshua as well, “Your own eyes have seen all that the Lord, your God, has done to both these kings; so, too, will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you will cross over. ²² Do not fear them, for it is the Lord, your God, who will fight for you.”^(AW)

Moses Excluded from the Promised Land. ^23 (AX)It was then that I entreated the Lord, ²⁴ “Lord God, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. What god in heaven or on earth can perform deeds and powerful acts like yours? ²⁵ Ah, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that fine hill country, and the Lebanon!” ²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me on your account^[o] and would not hear me.^(AY) The Lord said to me, Enough! Speak to me no more of this. ²⁷ Go up to the top of Pisgah and look out to the west, and to the north, and to the south, and to the east. Look well, for you shall not cross this Jordan.^{(AZ) 28} Commission Joshua,^(BA) and encourage and strengthen him, for it is he who will cross at the head of this people and he who will give them possession of the land you are to see.

²⁹ So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

Chapter 4

Advantages of Fidelity. ¹ Now therefore, Israel, hear the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.^{(BB) 2} In your observance of the commandments of the Lord, your God,^(BC) which I am commanding you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. ³ You have seen with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal-peor:^(BD) the Lord, your God, destroyed from your midst everyone who followed the Baal of Peor; ⁴ but you, who held fast to the Lord, your God, are all alive today. ⁵ See, I am teaching you the statutes and ordinances as the Lord, my God, has commanded me, that you may observe them in the land you are entering to possess. ⁶ Observe them carefully, for this is your wisdom and discernment in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “This great nation is truly a wise and discerning people.”^{(BE) 7 (BF)}For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? ⁸ Or what great nation has statutes and ordinances that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?^(BG)

Revelation at Horeb. ⁹ However, be on your guard and be very careful not to forget the things your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your heart as long as you live, but make them known to your children^(BH) and to your children’s children, ¹⁰ that day you stood before the Lord, your God, at Horeb, when the Lord said to me: Assemble the people for me, that I may let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear^[p] me as long as they live in the land and may so teach their children. ^11 (BI)You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain blazed to the heart of the heavens with fire and was enveloped in a dense black cloud. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire.^(BJ) You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. ¹³ He proclaimed to you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep: the ten words,^[q] which he wrote on two stone tablets.^{(BK) 14} At that time the Lord charged me to teach you the statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land you are about to cross into and possess.

Danger of Idolatry. ¹⁵ Because you saw no form at all on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, be strictly on your guard ¹⁶ not to act corruptly by fashioning an idol for yourselves to represent any figure, whether it be the form of a man or of a woman,^{(BL) 17} the form of any animal on the earth, the form of any bird that flies in the sky, ¹⁸ the form of anything that crawls on the ground, or the form of any fish in the waters under the earth. ¹⁹ And when you look up to the heavens and behold the sun or the moon or the stars, the whole heavenly host, do not be led astray into bowing down to them and serving them.^(BM) These the Lord, your God, has apportioned to all the other nations under the heavens; ²⁰ but you the Lord has taken and led out of that iron foundry, Egypt, that you might be his people, his heritage, as you are today.^{(BN) 21} But the Lord was angry with me on your account^(BO) and swore that I should not cross the Jordan nor enter the good land which the Lord, your God, is giving you as a heritage. ²² I myself shall die in this country; I shall not cross the Jordan; but you are going to cross over and take possession of that good land.^{(BP) 23} Be careful, therefore, lest you forget the covenant which the Lord, your God, has made with you, and fashion for yourselves against his command an idol in any form whatsoever.^{(BQ) 24} For the Lord, your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God.^[r](BR)

God’s Fidelity and Love. ^25 (BS)When you have children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, should you then act corruptly by fashioning an idol in the form of anything, and by this evil done in his sight provoke the Lord, your God, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that you shall all quickly perish from the land which you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You shall not live in it for any length of time but shall be utterly wiped out.^{(BT) 27} The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and there shall remain but a handful of you among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ There you shall serve gods that are works of human hands, of wood and stone, gods which can neither see nor hear, neither eat nor smell.^{(BU) 29} Yet when you seek the Lord, your God, from there, you shall indeed find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.^{(BV) 30} In your distress, when all these things shall have come upon you, you shall finally return to the Lord, your God, and listen to his voice. ³¹ Since the Lord, your God, is a merciful God, he will not abandon or destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.^(BW)

³² Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created humankind upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? ³³ Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?^{(BX) 34} Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders,^(BY) by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? ³⁵ All this you were allowed to see that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other.^{(BZ) 36} Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard him speaking out of the fire. ³⁷ For love of your ancestors he chose their descendants after them and by his presence and great power led you out of Egypt, ³⁸ dispossessing before you nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to give their land to you as a heritage, as it is today. ³⁹ This is why you must now acknowledge, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.^{(CA) 40} And you must keep his statutes and commandments which I command you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you forever.^(CB)

Cities of Refuge. ^41 (CC)Then Moses set apart three cities in the region east of the Jordan, ⁴² to which a homicide might flee who killed a neighbor unintentionally, where there had been no hatred previously, so that the killer might flee to one of these cities and live: ⁴³ Bezer in the wilderness, in the region of the plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.