These are the commands that Moses gave the Israelites while they were in the Jordan Valley, in the desert east of the Jordan River. This was across from Suph, between the desert of Paran and the cities Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
But it was 40 years from the time the Israelites left Egypt until the time they came to this place. On the first day of the eleventh month of the 40 year, Moses spoke to the people and told them everything the Lord commanded.
This was after he defeated Sihon and Og. (Sihon was the king of the Amorites and lived in Heshbon. Og was the king of Bashan and lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei.)
Go to the hill country where the Amorites live and to all the neighboring areas in the Jordan Valley, the hill country, the western slopes, the Negev, and the seacoast. Go throughout the land of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates.
Look, I am giving you this land. Go and take it. I promised to give this land to your ancestors —Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I promised to give this land to them and to their descendants.'
"So I took the wise, experienced men you chose from your tribes, and I made them your leaders. In this way I gave you leaders over 1000 people, leaders over 100 people, leaders over 50 people, leaders over 10 people. I also gave you officers for each of your tribes.
"At that time I told these judges, 'Listen to the arguments between your people. Be fair when you judge each case. It doesn't matter if the problem is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner. You must judge each case fairly.
You must treat everyone the same when you judge. You must listen carefully to everyone—whether they are important or not. Don't be afraid of anyone, because your decision is from God. But if there is a case too hard for you to judge, bring it to me and I will judge it.'
"So we obeyed the Lord our God. We left Mount Horeb and went to the hill country of the Amorites. You remember that big, terrible desert that we walked through. We came as far as Kadesh Barnea.
Look, there it is! Go up and take the land for your own. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you to do this, so don't be afraid or worry about anything.'
"But all of you came to me and said, 'Let's send some men to look at the land first. They can spy out the land and come back and tell us the way we should go and which cities we will come to.'
They took some of the fruit from that land and brought it back to us. They told us about the land and said, 'The Lord our God is giving us a good land.'
You went to your tents and began to complain. You said, 'The Lord hates us! He brought us out of the land of Egypt just to let the Amorites destroy us.
Where can we go now? The men we sent have frightened us with their report. They said, "The people there are bigger and taller than we are. The cities are big and have walls as high as the sky. And we saw giants there!"'
You saw what happened in the desert. You saw how the Lord your God carried you like a man carries his child. He brought you safely all the way to this place.'
But he was always in front, going ahead to find a place for you to camp. At night, he was in the fire that showed you where to go. And during the day, he was in the cloud.
Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will see that land. I will give Caleb the land he walked on, and I will give that land to his descendants, because he did all that I commanded.'
"And the Lord said to us, 'You said your little children would be taken by your enemies. But those children who are still too young to know right from wrong, they will go into the land. I will give the land to them. Your children will take the land for their own.
"Then you said, 'Moses, we sinned against the Lord, but now we will do what the Lord our God commanded us before— we will go and fight.' "Then each of you put on your weapons. You thought it would be easy to go and take the hill country.
"I spoke to you, but you did not listen. You refused to obey the Lord's command. You thought you could use your own power, so you went up into the hill country.