The Command to Leave Horeb
These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan — in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.
It is eleven days from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.
And it was in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel according to all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them,
after he had struck down Sihon king of the Amorite, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.
Across the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this instruction, saying:
The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
Turn and set out, and go to the hill country of the Amorite and to all its neighbors — in the Arabah, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and in the Negev, and by the coast of the sea — the land of the Canaanite, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
See — I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.”
Moses Appoints Leaders
And I said to you at that time, saying, “I am not able, I alone, to carry you.
The LORD your God has multiplied you — and look, today you are like the stars of the heavens for multitude.
May the LORD, the God of your fathers, add to you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has spoken to you.
How can I carry, I alone, your load and your burden and your disputes?
Choose for yourselves men wise and understanding and known to your tribes, and I will set them as your heads.”
And you answered me and said, “The thing that you have spoken is good to do.”
And I took the heads of your tribes, men wise and known, and I set them as heads over you — commanders of thousands, and commanders of hundreds, and commanders of fifties, and commanders of tens, and officers for your tribes.
And I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the sojourner with him.
You shall not show partiality in judgment; small and great alike you shall hear. You shall not be afraid before any man, for the judgment is God’s. And the matter that is too hard for you, you shall bring near to me, and I will hear it.”
And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.
Twelve Spies Sent Out
And we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and fearful wilderness that you saw, by the way of the hill country of the Amorite, as the LORD our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.
And I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorite, which the LORD our God is giving us.
See — the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear, and do not be dismayed.”
And all 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 the cities to which we shall come.”
And the thing was good in my eyes; and I took from you twelve men, one man for each tribe.
And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.
And they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us, and brought back word to us and said, “The land that the LORD our God is giving us is good.”
Israel’s Rebellion
But you were not willing to go up; and you rebelled against the mouth of the LORD your God.
And you grumbled in your tents and said, “Because the LORD hates us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorite, to destroy us.
Where are we going up? Our brothers have melted our heart, saying: ‘A people greater and taller than we, cities great and fortified to the heavens — and also the sons of the Anakim we saw there.’”
And I said to you, “Do not be terrified, and do not fear them.
The LORD your God, who goes before you — he will fight for you, according to all that he did with 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, all the way that you went, until you came to this place.
Yet in this thing you are not believing in the LORD your God,
who goes before you in the way to seek out for you a place for your camping — in fire by night, to show you the way by which you should go, and in the cloud by day.”
Israel’s Penalty
And the LORD heard the sound of your words, and he was wrathful, and swore, saying,
“Surely not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers —
except Caleb the son of Jephunneh: he shall see it, and to him I will give the land on which he has walked, and to his sons, because he has followed the LORD fully.”
With me also the LORD was angry on your account, saying, “You also shall not go in there.
Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you — he shall go in there. Strengthen him, for he shall give it to Israel as an inheritance.
And your little ones, whom you said would become plunder, and your sons, who today do not know good or evil — they shall go in there; and to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.
But you — turn, and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Sea of Reeds.”
The Defeat at Hormah
And you answered and said to me, “We have sinned against the LORD. We ourselves will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us.” And each man of you strapped on his weapons of war, and you made light of going up into the hill country.
And the LORD said to me, “Say to them: Do not go up, and do not fight — for I am not in your midst — so that you are not struck down before your enemies.”
And I spoke to you, and you did not listen; and you rebelled against the mouth of the LORD, and acted presumptuously, and went up into the hill country.
And the Amorite who lived in that hill country came out to meet you, and chased you as bees do, and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.
And you returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD did not listen to your voice, and did not give ear to you.
And you stayed at Kadesh many days — as many days as you stayed.