The Wilderness · c. 1406 BC
Chapter 14
Remember the Road
For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has known your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years, Yahweh your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.
For parents
Moses tells how Israel defeated King Sihon and King Og and completely destroyed every town where people lived, with the women and the little ones (Deuteronomy 2:32–35; 3:3–7). He recalls the Lord’s oath that the men who refused to go into the land would not see it, and how the Amorites chased Israel and beat them down all the way to Hormah (1:34–44). The Lord himself worked against the fighting men of that generation until they had all died (2:14–16). He also tells of earlier peoples in Seir and Ammon who were destroyed, with others taking their place (2:12, 21–23), and of the men who followed Baal Peor, whom the Lord destroyed (4:3). He warns that if Israel turns to carved images, they will be wiped out of the land and scattered among the nations (4:25–28). All of it is told plainly, without detail.
These are the words spoke to all on the far side of the . They were in the wilderness, in the across from Suf, among places such as and . The trip from to takes eleven days, going by Mount .
It was the first day of the eleventh month, in the fortieth year. Moses spoke to the Israelites and told them everything the had commanded him to tell them. By then he had struck down two kings. One was , the king of the , who lived in . The other was , the king of , who lived in Ashtaroth, at .
There, on the far side of the Jordan, in the land of , Moses began to lay out this law. He said:
“At Horeb, the Lord our God spoke to us. ‘You have been at this mountain long enough,’ he said. ‘Turn and set out. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and all the places near it: the Arabah, the hill country, the lowland, and the seashore. Go into the land of the , and into as far as the great river, the river . Look, I have set the land in front of you. Go in and take it. The Lord swore to your ancestors, , and , that he would give it to them and to their after them.’
“At that time I told you, ‘I can’t carry you by myself. The Lord your God has made you so many that today there are as many of you as there are stars in the sky. And may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, bless you and make you a thousand times as many as you are, as he has promised you! How can I, one man, carry all your troubles, your loads and your quarrels? Pick out wise men from your , men with good sense whom people respect, and I will make them your leaders.’
“You answered me, ‘What you have said is a good thing to do.’ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and respected men, and put them in charge of you. Some led a thousand people, some a hundred, some fifty and some ten. There were officers too, for each tribe.
“At that time I gave your judges these orders: ‘Listen to the cases between your fellow Israelites. Judge fairly between one man and another, or between a man and a foreigner who lives among you. Don’t favor anyone when you judge. Listen to ordinary people and important people alike. Don’t be afraid of anyone, because judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case that is too hard for you, and I will hear it.’
“At that time I told you all the things you should do.
“Then we set out from Horeb,” Moses said, “and went through all that huge and terrible wilderness you saw. We took the road to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us, and we came to Kadesh Barnea.
“I told you, ‘Now you have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God gives us. Look, the Lord your God has set the land in front of you. Go up and take it, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said you should. Don’t be afraid, and don’t be discouraged.’
“Then every one of you came to me and said, ‘Let’s send some men on ahead of us. They can search the land for us, and come back and tell us which way we should go up, and which cities we will come to.’ I liked the idea, so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.
“They set off and went up into the hill country. They came to the Valley of and spied it out. They took some of the land’s fruit in their hands and carried it down to us. Then they gave us their report: ‘The Lord our God is giving us a good land.’
“But you wouldn’t go up. You rebelled against what the Lord your God commanded, and you complained in your tents. ‘The Lord hates us,’ you said. ‘That is why he brought us out of : to give us over to the Amorites and destroy us. Where are we going up to? Our brothers have taken away our courage. They say the people there are bigger and taller than we are. They say the cities are big, with walls up to the sky. They even saw the there!’
“Then I said to you, ‘Don’t be terrified, and don’t be afraid of them. The Lord your God goes ahead of you, and he himself will fight for you. He will do just what you saw him do for you in Egypt, and in the wilderness too. There you saw the Lord your God carry you, the way a man carries his son, the whole way you went until you came to this place.’
“Even then you didn’t believe the Lord your God. He went ahead of you on the way to find you a place to put up your tents. He went in fire by night, to show you which way to go, and in the cloud by day.
“The Lord heard what you said and was angry, and he swore an oath: ‘Not one man of this evil generation will ever see the good land I swore I would give your ancestors. Only , Jephunneh’s son, will see it. I will give him and his children the land he has walked on, because he has followed the Lord completely.’
“Because of you, the Lord was angry with me too. He said, ‘You will not go in there either. , the son of , who serves you, will go in there. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to take the land as their own. And your little ones will go in there, the ones you said would be captured or killed. Your children, who today know nothing of good or evil, will go in. I will give the land to them, and it will be theirs. But as for you, turn around and set out into the wilderness, on the road to the .’
“‘We have sinned against the Lord,’ you answered me. ‘We will go up and fight, and do all that the Lord our God commanded us.’ Every one of you put on his weapons of war, and you decided on your own to go up into the hill country.
“The Lord said to me, ‘Tell them not to go up and not to fight, because I am not among them. Otherwise their enemies will strike them down.’
“So I told you, but you wouldn’t listen. You rebelled against the Lord’s command. You were proud, and you went up into the hill country. The Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you. They chased you the way bees do, and they beat you down in Seir, all the way to .
“You came back and wept in the Lord’s presence, but the Lord wouldn’t listen to you or pay you any attention. So you stayed in Kadesh for many days, the whole long time you were there.
“Then we turned and set out into the wilderness on the road to the Red Sea,” Moses said, “as the Lord had told me. For many days we went around Mount Seir.
“Then the Lord said to me, ‘You have gone around this mountain long enough. Turn north. Give the people this command: “You are about to pass along the border of your relatives, ’s descendants, living in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so take care. Don’t pick a fight with them, because I won’t give you any of their land, not even a spot the size of the sole of your foot. I have given Mount Seir to Esau as his own. Pay them money for the food you eat, and pay them money for the water you drink.”’
“The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has known all about your travels through this huge wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You haven’t gone without anything.
“So we went on past our relatives, Esau’s descendants, who live in Seir. We left the Arabah road, which comes from Elath and from Ezion Geber. We turned and went along the road through the wilderness of Moab.
“The Lord said to me, ‘Don’t bother Moab, and don’t go to war with them. I will not give you any of Moab’s land to own, because I have given to ’s descendants as their own.’
“Long before, the Emim lived there. They were a great people, there were many of them, and they were as tall as the Anakim. Like the Anakim, they are counted among the , but the Moabites call them Emim. In Seir, Esau’s descendants destroyed the who lived there before them, and took their place, the way Israel did in the land the Lord gave them to own.
“Then the Lord said, ‘Now get up and cross the brook .’ So we crossed the brook Zered.
“Thirty-eight years went by after we left Kadesh Barnea, before we crossed the brook Zered. By then the whole generation of fighting men had died out of the camp, as the Lord swore to them. The Lord himself worked against them, wiping them out of the camp until they were all gone.
“When the last of the fighting men had died and were gone from among the people, the Lord spoke to me. ‘You are to cross over Ar, the border of Moab, today. When you come near the border of the , don’t bother them, and don’t pick a fight with them. I will not give you any of their land to own, because I have given it to Lot’s descendants as their own.’
“That land too is counted as a land of the Rephaim. Rephaim lived there long ago, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim. They were a great people, there were many of them, and they were as tall as the Anakim. The Lord destroyed them, and the Ammonites took their place. He had done the same in Seir, where he destroyed the Horites, and Esau’s descendants took their place. They have lived there to this day. And the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, and took their place.
“The Lord went on, ‘Get up, set out, and cross the Valley. Look, I have handed Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, over to you, with his land. Begin to take it as your own, and fight him in battle. Starting today, I will make all the peoples under the whole sky dread you and fear you. They will hear the news about you, and they will shake with fear and be in great distress because of you.’
“I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with a message of peace. ‘Let me pass through your land,’ I said. ‘I will keep to the highway, and I won’t turn off to the right or to the left. Sell me food and water, and I will pay for what I eat and drink. Just let me walk through. Esau’s descendants who live in Seir let me do that, and the Moabites who live in Ar did too. Let me go on until I cross over the Jordan into the land the Lord our God gives us.’
“But Sihon, king of Heshbon, wouldn’t let us pass through, because the Lord your God made his spirit hard and his heart stubborn. The Lord did this to hand Sihon over to you, as you can see today.
“The Lord told me, ‘Look, I have begun to give Sihon and his land up to you. Start taking it, so that his land will be yours.’
“Then Sihon and all his people came out to fight us at . The Lord our God gave him up to us, and we struck him down, with his sons and all his people.
“At that time we took all his towns. We completely destroyed every town where people lived, with the women and the little ones. No one was left. We took only the livestock and the plunder of the towns we had captured, and kept them for ourselves.
“There wasn’t a town too high for us to take, from Aroer on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city in the valley, all the way to . The Lord our God handed them all over to us. But you didn’t go near the land of the Ammonites: anywhere along the river , the towns of the hill country, or any place the Lord our God had forbidden us.
“Then we turned and went up toward Bashan. Og, king of Bashan, came out with all his people to fight us at Edrei. ‘Don’t be afraid of him,’ the Lord said to me, ‘because I have handed him over to you, with all his people and his land. Treat him the way you treated Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’
“So the Lord our God also handed Og, king of Bashan, over to us, with all his people. We struck them down until not one of his people was left. At that time we took all his towns. We took every one of them: sixty towns, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. All these towns were strong, with high walls and gates with bars. There were a great many villages without walls too.
“We completely destroyed them, as we had done to Sihon, king of Heshbon. We destroyed every town where people lived, with the women and the little ones. But we kept all the livestock and the plunder of the towns for ourselves.
“So at that time we took the land of the two kings of the Amorites on the far side of the Jordan, from the Arnon Valley to Mount . The call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir. We took all the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Bashan, all the way to Salecah and Edrei.
“Og, king of Bashan, was the last of the Rephaim. His bed was an iron bed. Isn’t it in Rabbah, in the land of the Ammonites? It is nine long and four cubits wide, measured by a man’s cubit: about thirteen and a half feet by six.
“We took this land at that time,” Moses said, “and I gave the and the the part from Aroer by the Arnon Valley, with half the hill country of Gilead and its towns. Their land ran from Gilead down to the middle of the Arnon Valley and up to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the Ammonites. It also took in the Arabah along the Jordan, from to the sea of the Arabah, the , below the slopes of . I gave the rest of Gilead and all Bashan, Og’s kingdom, to the half-tribe of . That took in all the region of Argob, which is called the land of the Rephaim.
“, the son of Manasseh, took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites. He named that land after himself, Havvoth Jair, and that is still its name today. I gave Gilead to .
“At that time I commanded you, ‘The Lord your God has given this land to you to own. All your brave men are to cross over armed, ahead of your fellow Israelites. But your wives and your little ones are to stay in the towns I have given you, with your livestock. I know you have plenty of livestock. They are to stay there until the Lord gives your fellow Israelites rest, as he has given you rest, and they too take the land the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan. Then each of you will go back to his own land, the land I have given you.’
“At that time I gave Joshua this command: ‘Your own eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. That is what the Lord will do to every kingdom you cross over into. Don’t be afraid of them, because the Lord your God himself fights for you.’
“At that time I begged the Lord. ‘Lord God,’ I said, ‘you have begun to show me your greatness and your strong hand. Is there any god in heaven or on earth that can do the things you do, or the mighty acts you do? Please let me go over and see the good land across the Jordan, that fine mountain, and Lebanon.’
“But the Lord was angry with me because of you, and didn’t listen to me. The Lord said to me, ‘Enough! Don’t speak to me about this anymore. Go up to the top of Pisgah and look out to the west and the north, the south and the east. See it with your own eyes, because you will not cross this Jordan. But appoint Joshua. Encourage him and make him strong, because he will cross over ahead of these people. He will lead them in to take the land you are going to see, and it will be theirs.’
“So we stayed in the valley near .
“Now, Israel,” Moses said, “listen to the laws and rules I am teaching you, and do them, so that you will live, and go in and take the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, gives you. Don’t add anything to what I command you, and don’t take anything away from it. That way you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am giving you.
“Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of . The Lord your God has destroyed all the men among you who followed Baal Peor. But you who stayed faithful to the Lord your God are all alive today.
“Look, I have taught you laws and rules, just as the Lord my God commanded me. You are to obey them in the land you are going into, the land you will take as your own. Keep them and do them. That is what will show the peoples how wise and understanding you are. They will hear about all these laws and say, ‘This great nation really is a wise and understanding people!’
“What great nation has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is, whenever we call on him? And what great nation is there that has laws and rules as as all this law I am setting before you today?
“Only be careful. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget the things your eyes saw, and don’t let them slip out of your heart for the rest of your life. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren. Tell them about the day you stood in front of the Lord your God at Horeb. That day the Lord said to me, ‘Call the people together for me. I will make them hear my words, so that they learn to fear me for as long as they live on the earth, and so that they teach their children.’
“You came near and stood below the mountain. The mountain burned with fire that reached high into the sky, and there was darkness, cloud and thick darkness. The Lord spoke to you out of the middle of the fire. You heard a voice speaking words, but you saw no form. You only heard a voice.
“He told you his , the Ten Commandments, and he commanded you to keep it. He wrote them on two stone . The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you laws and rules, so that you would obey them in the land you are crossing over to take as your own.
“So be very careful. You saw no kind of form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the middle of the fire. Take care that you don’t ruin yourselves by making a carved for yourselves in the shape of any figure: something that looks like a male or a female, or like any animal on the earth, any bird with wings that flies in the sky, anything that creeps along the ground, or any fish in the water under the earth.
“Take care, too, when you look up at the sky. When you see the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole army of the sky, don’t let yourselves be drawn away to worship them and serve them. The Lord your God has shared them out among all the peoples under the whole sky.
“But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be his own people, his inheritance, as you are today.
“The Lord was angry with me too, because of you. He swore that I would not go over the Jordan, and that I would not go into that good land the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance. I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you will go over and take that good land as your own.
“Be careful that you don’t forget the covenant the Lord your God made with you. Don’t make yourselves a carved image in the shape of anything the Lord your God has forbidden you. The Lord your God is a devouring fire, a .
“In time you will have children and grandchildren, and you will have lived long in the land. If you then ruin yourselves by making a carved image in the shape of anything, and you do what the Lord your God sees as evil and make him angry, I call heaven and earth to be witnesses against you today: you will soon be wiped out of the land you are crossing the Jordan to take. You won’t last long there. You will be completely destroyed.
“The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord leads you away. There you will serve gods that people have made out of wood and stone, gods that can’t see or hear, eat or smell.
“Yet from there you will seek the Lord your God. When you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul, you will find him. In later days, when you are in trouble and all these things have happened to you, you will turn back to the Lord your God and listen to his voice. The Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you or destroy you, or forget the covenant he swore to your ancestors.
“Ask now about the days long past, the days before your time, ever since the day God created people on the earth. Ask from one end of the sky to the other. Has anything this great ever happened? Has anyone ever heard of anything like it? Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have, and live? Or has God ever tried to go and take a nation for himself from within another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors? The Lord your God did all this for you in Egypt, before your eyes.
“You were shown all this so that you might know that the Lord is God. There is no one else besides him. From heaven he let you hear his voice, to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire. You heard his words come out of the middle of the fire.
“Because he loved your ancestors, he chose their offspring after them. With his presence and his great power, he brought you out of Egypt. He did it to drive out nations ahead of you that were greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, and to give you their land for an inheritance, as you see today.
“So know this today, and take it to heart: the Lord himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else. Keep his laws and his commandments, which I command you today. Then things will go well for you and for your children after you, and you will live long in the land which the Lord your God gives you for all time.”
Then Moses set apart three on the far side of the Jordan, toward the sunrise. Anyone who killed his neighbor without meaning to, and who had not hated him before, could run away to one of these cities and stay alive.
The cities were Bezer, in the wilderness on the plain, for the Reubenites, and in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the people of Manasseh.
This is the law Moses set before the Israelites: the instructions, laws and rules he gave them after they had come out of Egypt. They were in the valley across from Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had lived at Heshbon. Moses and the Israelites had struck him down. They had taken his land and the land of Og, king of Bashan. That land ran from Aroer by the Arnon Valley to Mount Siyon, which is Hermon, and took in all the Arabah east of the Jordan, below the slopes of Pisgah.