Deuteronomy 1:19-33

International Standard Version

Moses Reviews the Sending of the Scouts^(A)

¹⁹ “Then we set out from Horeb and walked through that vast and dreadful desert, where you observed the road to the Amorite hill country. Just as the Lord our God ordained for us, we finally arrived at Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ I told you at that time, ‘You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is about to give us. ²¹ Look! The Lord your God has given the land that lies^[a] before you. Go and possess it, just as the Lord God of your ancestors commanded you. Don’t be afraid or discouraged.’

²² “Then all of you approached me and said: ‘Let’s send out men in advance of us so they can survey the land and bring back a report to us on how we’ll go up to their cities.’ ²³ Because this suggestion^[b] seemed good to me, I chose twelve men from among you, one from each tribe. ²⁴ Then these men set out,^[c] went up to the hill county, reached the Eshcol Valley, and surveyed it. ²⁵ They hand-picked some of the fruit of the land, brought it down to us, and gave a report that said, ‘The land which the Lord is about to give us is good.’”

Israel Rebels

²⁶ “However, your ancestors didn’t go up. Instead, they rebelled against the command^[d] of the Lord your God. ²⁷ You murmured in your tents, ‘The Lord hates us. He brought us out of the land of Egypt in order to deliver us to^[e] the Amorites so he could destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go? Our brothers discouraged us when they said that the people are bigger and taller than we are. Their cities are tall and fortified to the sky, and we also saw the Anakim^[f] there.’

²⁹ “Then I told you, ‘Don’t be terrified or afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God is the One who will be going ahead of you. He’ll fight for you just as he did in Egypt before your eyes. ³¹ In the desert you saw that the Lord carried you like a man carries his son, on every road you traveled until you reached this place.’ ³² But despite this, you didn’t trust in the Lord your God, ³³ who walked ahead of you along the way to scout a place for you to pitch camp—by fire at night and cloud by day—to lead you on the way you should go.”