These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

It is eleven dayś journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.

Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him as commandments to them,

after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei.

On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying,

«The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: «You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.

Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates.

See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers--to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--to give to them and their descendants after them.́

«And I spoke to you at that time, saying: «I alone am not able to bear you.

The LORD your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude.

May the LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you as He has promised you!

How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints?

Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.́

And you answered me and said, «The thing which you have told us to do is good.́

So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.

«Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, «Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him.

You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any mańs presence, for the judgment is God́s. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.́

And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

«So we departed from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the LORD our God had commanded us. Then we came to Kadesh Barnea.

And I said to you, «You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us.

Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the LORD God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged.́

«And every one of you came near to me and said, «Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.́

«The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.

And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.

They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, «It is a good land which the LORD our God is giving us.́

«Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God;

and you complained in your tents, and said, «Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, «The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.»́

«Then I said to you, «Do not be terrified, or afraid of them.

The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.́

Yet, for all that, you did not believe the LORD your God,

who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.

«And the LORD heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying,

«Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers,

except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the LORD.́

The LORD was also angry with me for your sakes, saying, «Even you shall not go in there.

Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

«Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.

But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.́

«Then you answered and said to me, «We have sinned against the LORD; we will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.́ And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain.

«And the LORD said to me, «Tell them, «Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.»́

So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the command of the LORD, and presumptuously went up into the mountain.

And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you as bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah.

Then you returned and wept before the LORD, but the LORD would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.

«So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spent there.

«Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you.

You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal Peor; for the LORD your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor.

But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive today, every one of you.

«Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess.

Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, «Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.́

«For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?

And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?

Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren,

especially concerning the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, «Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.́

«Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice.

So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.

And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

«Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female,

the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,

the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth.

And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.

But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day.

Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

But I must die in this land, I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possess that good land.

Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you.

For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

«When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger,

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.

And there you will serve gods, the work of meńs hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice

(for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

«For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard.

Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?

Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.

Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.

And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power,

driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day.

Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time.»

Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,

that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

Now this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel.

These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt,

on this side of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel defeated after they came out of Egypt.

And they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,

from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount Sion (that is, Hermon),

and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.