Deuteronomy 1:1-4:43

New Catholic Bible

Moses’ First Address^[a]

Chapter 1

Introduction.^{[b] 1} These are the words that Moses spoke to the whole of Israel on the desert side of the Jordan, in the Arabah,^[c] opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ² This was an eleven days’ journey from Horeb^[d] to Kadesh-barnea by way of the highlands of Seir.

³ On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, Moses told the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him to say to them.^{[e] 4} This was after he had killed Sihon, the king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei.^[f]

Command to Leave Horeb. ⁵ On the eastern side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying, ⁶ The Lord, our God, spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed at this mountain long enough. ⁷ Go and proceed into the hill country of the Amorites, into all the territory neighboring the Arabah, into the hill country and the lowlands, into the Negeb and the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. ⁸ Behold, I have given you the land. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord promised he would give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants after them.”

Appointment of Leaders. ⁹ At that time I said to you, “I am not able to carry the burden of leading you all by myself. ¹⁰ The Lord, your God, has multiplied you and now you are as numerous as the stars in the heavens. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your fathers, multiply you a thousand times over and bless you, as he has promised you. ¹² How can I handle your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself? ¹³ Choose some wise, prudent, and respected men from your tribesmen, and I will appoint them as your leaders.”

¹⁴ They answered, saying, “It would be good to do what you suggested.” ¹⁵ So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and made them your leaders, captains of the thousands, and captains of the hundreds, and captains of the fifties and the tens, as your tribal officials. ¹⁶ At that time I instructed your judges, “Listen to the disputes among your brethren and judge them justly, whether between a man and his fellow countryman or even the foreigner who is with him.^{[g] 17} Do not show partiality in judging; listen to both the lowly and the great. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case that is too difficult for you and I will hear it.” ¹⁸ At that time I instructed you concerning everything that you were to do.

¹⁹ Twelve Explorers. Then, as the Lord, our God, had commanded us, we set out from Horeb. We passed through the great and terrible wilderness that you have seen up into the hill country of the Amorites, coming to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ I said to you, “Come up into the hill country of the Amorites that the Lord, our God, is giving to us. ²¹ Look! The Lord, your God, has given the land to you. Go up and take possession of it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has instructed you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

²² All of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead of ourselves to explore the land. They can bring a report back to us as to which way we should travel and as to what cities we will encounter.”

²³ This seemed to be a very good idea to me. I chose twelve of your men, one from each tribe. ²⁴ They left and went up into the hill country and reached the Valley of Eshcol which they explored. ²⁵ They gathered some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, reporting, “The land that the Lord, our God, has given us is good.”

²⁶ The People Rebel. But you were unwilling to go up. You defied the command of the Lord, your God. ²⁷ You complained in your tents and said, “It is because the Lord hates us that he brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites so they might destroy us. ²⁸ Why should we go up? Our brothers have frightened us by saying, ‘The people are larger and taller than we are. The cities have great walls that reach up into the heavens. Moreover, there are the sons of the Anakim,^[h] we have seen them there.’ ”

²⁹ But I said to them, “Do not be afraid of them! ³⁰ The Lord, your God, marches before you. He will fight for you, just as he did on your behalf in Egypt, as you yourselves have seen. ³¹ You saw how the Lord, your God, carried you all throughout your journey in the wilderness, just as a man carries his son, until you arrived in this place.” ³² Yet, in spite of this, you did not trust the Lord, your God. ³³ He went ahead of you on your journey, as fire by night to search out a place for you to pitch your tents and as cloud by day to show you the path by which you should travel.

³⁴ When the Lord heard your words, he became angry and swore, ³⁵ “Not one of these men from this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your fathers ³⁶ except for Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his children the land upon which he has set foot, for he has wholeheartedly followed the Lord.”

³⁷ The Lord grew angry with me because of you and said, “You are not going to enter it either. ³⁸ Joshua, the son of Nun, who assists you, will enter it. Encourage him, for he will bring Israel in to inherit it. ³⁹ Furthermore, your children whom you said would be taken captive, those who do not yet know the difference between good and evil, they will enter it. I will give it to them, and they will take possession of it. ⁴⁰ But as for you, turn back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”

⁴¹ Then you replied and said to me, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight as the Lord, our God, has commanded us.” So every one of you put on your weapons, thinking it would be easy to go up into the hill country.

⁴² The Lord said to me, “Say to them, ‘Do not go up, nor fight. Otherwise you will be slain by your enemies.’ ” ⁴³ So I spoke to you, but you would not listen to me. You defied the command of the Lord and arrogantly went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴ The Amorites who dwell in that hill country came out against you and chased you like bees, beating you down from Seir all the way to Hormah. ⁴⁵ You came back and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not pay attention to your voice nor give ear to you. ⁴⁶ So you stayed in Kadesh for a long time, all the days that you spent there.

Chapter 2

The People Travel North. ¹ Then we turned back and set out for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had instructed me. We traveled around the highlands of Seir for many days.

² Then the Lord spoke to me, saying, ³ “You have been going around these highlands long enough. Turn to the north ⁴ and command the people: ‘You are to pass through the territory of your kin, the children of Esau,^[i] who dwell in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so be very careful. ⁵ Do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even a single foot, for I have given Esau possession of the highlands of Seir. ⁶ You are to purchase your food with silver, and you will also purchase your drinking water with silver. ⁷ The Lord, your God, has blessed you in all your undertakings, and he has watched over your journey through this great wilderness these forty years. The Lord, your God, has been with you, and you have lacked for nothing.’ ”

⁸ So we went on, bypassing our kin, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road that comes up from Elath and Ezion-geber and traveled along the desert road of Moab.

Bypassing Moab. ⁹ Then the Lord said to me, “Do not provoke the Moabites nor fight with them, for I will not give you their land as a possession. I have given the Ar to the children of Lot as a possession.” ¹⁰ (The Emim lived there in days of old, they were a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. ¹¹ Like the Anakim they were considered to be Rephaim, but the Moabites called them the Emim. ¹² The Horites lived in Seir in days of old, but the children of Esau drove them out from before themselves and destroyed them, settling where they had lived, just as Israel did in the land that the Lord had given them to possess.)

¹³ “Now rise up and cross the Valley of the Zered.” So we crossed the Valley of the Zered. ¹⁴ It was thirty-eight years from when we left Kadesh-barnea until when we crossed over the Valley of the Zered. During this time the entire generation of men of war perished in the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ For the hand of the Lord was set against them, to wipe them out from the camp until they were consumed. ¹⁶ And so the men of war among the people perished.

¹⁷ Bypassing Ammon. Then the Lord spoke to me, saying, ¹⁸ “Today you will cross over the Ar,^[j] the boundary of Moab. ¹⁹ When you come up against the Ammonites, do not harass nor provoke them, for I will not give you the land of the Ammonites as a possession. I have given it to the children of Lot as a possession.” ²⁰ (It is considered to be the land of the Rephaim, for the Rephaim lived in it in days of old, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin. ²¹ They were a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim, but the Lord destroyed them before them. They drove them out and settled in their place. ²² He had done the same for the children of Esau in Seir when he destroyed the Horites before them. They drove them out and live where they had lived to the present. ²³ The Avvim, who lived in villages up to Gaza,^[k] were destroyed by the Caphtorim who came from Caphtor. They dwell in their place.)

²⁴ Defeat of Sihon.“Rise, set out and cross over the Valley of the Arnon. I have given Sihon the Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and his land into your hands. Start to occupy it and do battle with him. ²⁵ From today on I will place terror and fear of you in all of the nations under the heavens. Whoever hears about you will tremble and be in anguish because of you.”

²⁶ I sent messengers from the Desert of Kedemoth to Sihon, the king of Heshbon, with words of peace saying, ²⁷ “Let me pass through your land. I will travel on the road, and I will not turn either to the right or the left. ²⁸ You can sell us food for silver so that we might eat, and water for silver so that we might drink, only let me pass through on foot. ²⁹ This is what the descendants of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me. Then I will pass over the Jordan into the land that the Lord, our God, has given us.” ³⁰ But Sihon, the king of Heshbon, would not let us pass through, for the Lord had hardened his spirit and made his heart stubborn so that he might deliver him into your hands, as he has today.

³¹ Then the Lord said to me, “I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land to you. Now begin to take it, so that you may inherit his land.” ³² Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to give battle at Jahaz. ³³ The Lord, our God, delivered him over to us. We killed him and his sons and all his people. ³⁴ It was then that we captured all of his cities and completely wiped out the men, the women, and the children of all the cities.^[l] We left nothing alive ³⁵ except for the cattle that we took as pillage along with the spoils from the cities that we captured. ³⁶ There was not a city that was too strong for us, from Aroer on the shore of the Arnon River and the city that is in the valley, all the way up to Gilead. The Lord, our God, delivered everything into our hands. ³⁷ But as the Lord, our God, had commanded, you did not enter the land of the Ammonites, nor the land along the River Jabbok, nor the cities in the hill country.

Chapter 3

Defeat of Og. ¹ Next we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og, the king of Bashan, came out against us, he and all his people, to give battle at Edrei. ² But the Lord said to me, “Do not fear him, for I will deliver him and all his people and his land into your hands. You will do the same thing to him that you did to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.” ³ The Lord, our God, delivered Og, the king of Bashan, and all his people into our hands. We continued to attack them until there was not a single survivor left. ⁴ This was when we captured all of his cities. There was not a single city that we did not take from them, sixty in all, the entire region of the Argob, the kingdom of Og of Bashan. ⁵ All of these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars. There were also a great number of unfortified cities. ⁶ We totally destroyed them, just as we had destroyed Sihon, the king of Heshbon, wiping out the men, women, and children from every city. ⁷ But we took all the cattle and spoils of the cities as pillage.

⁸ This was when we took the land of two of the kings of the Amorites from their hands, land on the east of the Jordan, from the Arnon River to Mount Hermon. ⁹ (The Sidonians call Hermon Siron, while the Amorites call it Senir.) ¹⁰ This included all of the cities of the plain and all of Gilead and all of Bashan, up to Salecah and Edrei, cities in the kingdom of Og of Bashan. ¹¹ (Og was the last of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed was made of iron, and it was nine cubits long and four cubits wide. It is now in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)^[m]

¹² Distribution of Conquered Lands. From the land that we occupied at this time, I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the land beginning at Aroer on the Arnon River and half of the hill country of Gilead as well as its cities. ¹³ I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (This was the whole region of Argob with all of Bashan, and it was known as the land of the Rephaim. ¹⁴ The clan of Jair, the son of Manasseh, took the entire region of Argob up to the borders with the Geshurites and the Maacathites. They named it after themselves, so that Bashan is known as Havvoth-jair until the present.) ^15 [n]I gave Gilead to Machir. ¹⁶ I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the land that stretched from Gilead up to the Arnon River (with the center of the valley being the boundary) and on to the Jabbok River, the border with the Ammonites. ¹⁷ Its border on the west was the Jordan in the Arabah, from the Kinnereth down to the Sea in the Arabah, the Salt Sea, at the foot of the slopes of the Pisgah.

¹⁸ At that time I commanded you, “The Lord, your God, has given you this land to possess. Have all of the armed men pass over in front of their brethren, the Israelites, armed for battle. ¹⁹ But your wives and your children and your cattle (for I know that you have many cattle) can remain in your cities that I have given you. ²⁰ It will be this way until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he already has to you, so that they also come to possess the land that the Lord, your God, has given them on the other side of the Jordan. Then, each of you can return to the property that I have given you.”

²¹ Then I commanded Joshua, “You have seen with your own eyes what the Lord, your God, has done to these two kings. This is what the Lord will do to any kingdom that you might encounter.^{[o] 22} Do not be afraid of them, for the Lord, your God, will fight for you.”

²³ Moses Forbidden to Enter Jordan. At that time I pleaded with the Lord, ²⁴ “O Lord God, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong arm. What God in heaven or on earth can do such deeds and mighty works as yours? ²⁵ Please let me cross over and see the bounteous land that is on the other side of the Jordan, the hill country and the Lebanon.”

²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me because of you^[p] and would not listen to me. The Lord said to me, “Enough! Do not speak to me about this anymore. ²⁷ Climb up to the top of Pisgah and look to the west, the north, the south, and the east and see it with your own eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. ²⁸ But give orders to Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he is to lead this people across and he will give them the land that you see as an inheritance.” ²⁹ So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

Chapter 4

Benefits of Obedience. ¹ Now listen, O Israel, to the statutes and the ordinances that I am teaching you to observe so that you might live and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ^2 [q]You will not add to what I command you, nor will you take away from it, so that you might observe the commandments of the Lord, your God, that I am giving you. ³ Your own eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor, for the Lord, your God, wiped out from all of those who followed Baal-peor from your midst. ⁴ But every one of you who clung to the Lord, your God, is alive today.

⁵ Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord, my God, commanded me, so that you might enter into the land into which you are going and take possession of it. ⁶ Carefully observe them, for the nations will consider this is your wisdom and your understanding. They will hear all these statutes and say, “Truly this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ⁷ For what nation is as great as we are? Who has God as near to them, as the Lord, our God, is whenever we call upon him? ⁸ What nation is so great that it has statutes and ordinances as righteous as this law that I set before you today?

⁹ Only be careful and watch yourselves closely lest you ever forget the things that your eyes have seen or you let them slip out of your mind. Teach them to your children and your children’s children, ¹⁰ especially about the day that you stood before the Lord, your God, in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Assemble the people before me so that I might let them hear my words. They will thus learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and they will be able to teach their children.” ¹¹ You approached and stood at the base of the mountain. The mountain blazed with flames reaching the very heavens, and it was covered with dark clouds and thick darkness. ¹² The Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you did not see a form. There was only a voice. ¹³ He proclaimed his covenant to you which he ordered you to fulfill, the Ten Commandments, that he wrote upon two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ The Lord then commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances so that you might observe them in the land that you were crossing over to possess.

¹⁵ Pitfalls of Idolatry. Therefore, guard yourselves carefully, for you did not see any kind of form when the Lord spoke to you on Horeb from the midst of the fire. ¹⁶ Do not become perverse and make an idol for yourselves of any shape or likeness, whether male or female, ¹⁷ whether it be a land animal or a bird that flies in the skies, ¹⁸ or like something that crawls on the ground or a fish in the waters beneath the earth. ¹⁹ When you look up into the skies and you see the sun and the moon and stars, all the hosts of heaven, do not be enticed to worship and serve the things that the Lord, your God, has assigned to every other nation under the heavens. ²⁰ But as for you, the Lord has chosen you and taken you out from the iron furnace,^[r] out of Egypt, to be a people who are his own possession, as you are today.

²¹ The Lord was angry with me because of you and he swore that I would not cross over the Jordan nor enter the fertile land that the Lord, your God, has given to you as an inheritance. ²² I must die in this land; I will not cross over the Jordan. But you will cross over and take possession of this fertile land. ²³ Therefore, keep guard over yourselves, lest you forget the covenant that the Lord, your God, has made with you and you make an idol in the form of anything that the Lord, your God, has prohibited. ²⁴ The Lord, your God, is a consuming fire and a jealous God.

²⁵ When you have borne children and grandchildren and have dwelt in the land for a long time, if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, and provoking him to anger, ²⁶ I will call upon the heavens and the earth to give witness against you on that day so that you might be utterly obliterated from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess. You will not remain there long, but you will be totally wiped out.

²⁷ The Lord will scatter you among the nations and only a few of you will survive among the foreign peoples where the Lord has led you. ²⁸ There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, made of wood and stone, which cannot see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

The Lord Is God.

²⁹ But if you seek the Lord, your God, and you strive with all your heart and your soul, you will find him there. ³⁰ When you are in distress and all of these things happen to you in the future, you are to return to the Lord,^[s] your God, and obey his voice, ³¹ and he will not abandon you, nor destroy you nor forget the covenant that he made with your fathers, confirming it to them by oath, for the Lord, your God, is a merciful God.

³² Ask now about the days of old, the former times. From the day that God created humans upon the earth, inquire from one end of the heavens to the other, has anything so great ever happened or has anything like it been heard of? ³³ Has any other people heard the voice of God speak from the midst of the flame, as you heard, and still live? ³⁴ Did God ever go and lead one nation from the midst of another nation by trials, signs, wonders, and battle, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great and wondrous deeds, all things that the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

³⁵ You were shown these things so that you might come to know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. ³⁶ He had you hear his voice from out of the heavens so that he might instruct you. He showed you his great fire upon the earth so that you might hear his voice from the midst of the flames. ³⁷ It was because he loved your fathers and had chosen their descendants after them that he brought you out of Egypt before him by his great strength. ³⁸ He drove out greater and more powerful nations before you so that he might bring you into their land to give it to you as an inheritance, just as it is today.

³⁹ So today acknowledge it and take it to heart that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other. ⁴⁰ You shall obey his statutes and the commandments that I give you today, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may live long in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you for all time.

⁴¹ Cities of Refuge. Then Moses set aside three cities on the east of the Jordan ⁴² to which anyone who unintentionally killed another person with whom he had not previously been at enmity might flee. He could flee to one of these cities and save his life. ⁴³ They were Bezer,^[t] on the desert plateau, for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the men of Manasseh.