1 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.2 (It takes eleven days to get from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.)3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that Jehovah had given him commandment concerning them,4 after he had struck Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei.5 On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this Law, saying,6 Jehovah our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.7 Turn and set out, 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.8 Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which Jehovah has sworn to your fathers; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; to give to them and their seed after them.9 And I spoke to you at that time, saying: I alone am not able to bear you.10 Jehovah your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of the heavens in multitude.11 May Jehovah the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you as He has promised you!12 How can I alone bear your burdens and your loads and your disputes?13 Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.14 And you answered me and said, The thing which you have spoken to us is good to do.15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, rulers of tens, and officials for your tribes.16 And 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 sojourner.17 You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid of any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. And any matter that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.18 And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.19 So we set out from Horeb, and went through all that great and dreadful wilderness which you have seen on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as Jehovah our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea.20 And I said to you, You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which Jehovah our God is giving to us.21 Behold, Jehovah your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as Jehovah the God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be dismayed.22 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 of the cities into which we shall come.23 And the thing was good in my eyes; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.24 And they turned and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and explored it.25 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 Jehovah our God is giving to us.26 Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the mouth of Jehovah your God;27 and you murmured in your tents, and said, Because Jehovah hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.28 Where shall we go up? Our brethren have caused our hearts to melt, saying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to the heavens; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.29 Then I said to you, Do not be terrified, nor afraid of them.30 Jehovah your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,31 and in the wilderness where you have seen how Jehovah your God has carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.32 Yet, for all that, you did not believe Jehovah your God,33 who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to encamp, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.34 And Jehovah heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying,35 Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land which I have sworn to give to your fathers,36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land upon which he has walked, because he has wholly followed Jehovah.37 Jehovah was also angry with me on account of you, saying, You also shall not go in there.38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.39 Moreover your little ones and your children, whom you say will be prey, 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.40 But as for you, turn and set out into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.41 Then you answered and said to me, We have sinned against Jehovah; we will go up and fight, just as Jehovah our God commanded us. And each of you girded on his weapons of war, and were ready to go up into the mountain.42 And Jehovah said to me, Say to them, Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be struck down before your enemies.43 So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the mouth of Jehovah, and presumptuously went up into the mountain.44 And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you as bees do, and shattered you in pieces from Seir to Hormah.45 And you returned and wept before Jehovah, but Jehovah would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.46 So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained there.

1 These ben the wordis whiche Moyses spak to al Israel ouer Jordan, in the wildirnesse of the feeld, ayens the reed see, bitwix Pharan and Tophel and Laban and Asseroth, where is ful myche gold,2 by enleuene daies fro Oreb bi the weie of the hil of Seir, til to Cades Barne.3 In the fortithe yeer, in the enleuenth monethe, in the firste dai of the monethe, Moises spak to the sones of Israel alle thingis whiche the Lord commandide to hym that he schulde seie to hem,4 after that he smoot Seon, kyng of Ammorreis, that dwellide in Esebon, and Og, the kyng of Basan, that dwelide in Asseroth and in Edray, ouer Jordan, in the lond of Moab.5 And Moyses bigan to declare the lawe, and to seie,6 Oure Lord God spak to vs in Oreb, and seide, It suffisith to you that ye han dwellid in this hil;7 turne ye ayen, and come ye to the hil of Amorreis, and to othere placis that ben next it; to places of feeldis, and of hillis, and to lowere places ayens the south, and bisidis the brenke of the see, to the lond of Cananeys, and of Liban, `til to the greet flood Eufrates.8 Lo, `he seith, Y haue youe to you; entre ye, and `welde ye `that lond on which the Lord swoor to youre fadrys, Abraham, Ysaac, and Jacob, that he schulde yyue it to hem, and to her seed after hem.9 And Y seide to you in that time, Y may not aloone susteyne you, for youre Lord God hath multiplied you,10 and ye ben ful many to dai, as the sterris of heuene;11 the Lord God of youre fadris adde to this noumbre many thousyndis, and blesse you, as he spak.12 Y may not aloone susteyne youre causis, and birthun, and stryues; yyue ye of you men wise `in dyuyn thingis,13 and witti `in mennus thingis worthi to be don, whose conuersacioun is preued in youre lynagis, that Y sette hem princes to you.14 Thanne ye answeriden to me, The thing is good which thou wolt do.15 And Y took of youre lynagis men wise and noble, `in vertues and kyn; and Y ordeynede hem princis, tribunes, and centuryouns, and quynquagenaries, and denys, whiche schulden teche you all thingis.16 And Y comaundide to hem, and seide, Here ye hem, and deme ye that that is iust, whether he be a citeseyn, whether a pilgrym.17 No difference schal be of persones; ye schulen here so a litil man, `that is, pore, as a greet man, nether ye schulen take the persoone of ony man, for it is the doom of God. That if ony thing semeth hard to you, telle ye to me, and Y schal here.18 And Y comaundide alle thingis whiche ye ouyten to do.19 Forsothe we yeden forth fro Oreb, and passiden bi a feerdful deseert, and grettiste wildirnesse, which ye sien, bi the weye of the hil of Ammorrey, as oure Lord God comaundide to vs. And whanne we hadden come in to Cades Barne,20 Y seide to you, Ye ben comen to the hil of Ammorrey, which youre Lord God schal yyue to you;21 se thou the lond which thi Lord God schal yyue to thee; `stie thou, and welde it, as oure Lord God spak to thi fadris; `nyle thou drede, nether `drede thou in herte ony thing.22 And alle ye neiyiden to me, and ye seiden, Sende we men, that schulen biholde the lond, and telle to vs bi what weye we owen stie, and to whiche citees we owen to go.23 And whanne the word pleside to me, Y sente of you twelue men, of ech lynage oon.24 And whanne thei hadden go, and hadden stied in to the hilli places, thei camen `til to the valei of Clustre; and whanne thei hadden biholde the lond,25 thei token of the fruytis therof, to schewe the plentee, and brouyten `to vs, and seiden, The lond is good which oure Lord God schal yyue to vs.26 And ye `nolden stie, but ye weren vnbileueful to the word of oure Lord God.27 And ye grutchiden in youre tabernaclis, and ye seiden, The Lord hatith vs, and herfor he ledde vs out of the lond of Egipt, that he schulde bitake vs in the hond of Ammorey, and schulde do awei vs.28 Whidur schulen we stie? the messangeris maden aferd oure herte, and seiden, A grettiste multitude is, and largere in stature than we; the citees ben greete, and wallid `til to the heuene; we sien there the sones of Enachym, that is, giauntis.29 And Y seide to you, `Nyle ye drede `with ynne, nether `drede withoutforth; the Lord God hym silf,30 which is youre ledere, schal fiyte for you, as he dide in Egipt, while alle men sien.31 And ye sien in the wildirnesse, thi Lord God bar thee, as a man is wont to bere his litil sone, in al the weie bi which ye yeden til ye camen to this place.32 And sotheli nether so ye bileueden to youre Lord God, that yede bifor you in the weie,33 and mesuride the place in which ye ouyten to sette tentis, and schewide in nyyt the weie to you bi fier, and in dai bi a piler of cloude.34 And whanne the Lord hadde herd the vois of youre wordis, he was wrooth,35 and swoor, and seide, Noon of the men of this werste generacioun schal se the good lond, which Y bihiyte vndur an ooth to youre fadris,36 outakun Caleph, the sone of Jephone; for he schal se it, and Y schal yyue to hym the lond on which he trad, and to hise sones, for he suede the Lord.37 Nether the indignacioun ayens the puple is wondirful, sithen the Lord was wrooth also to me for you, and seide,38 Nether thou schalt entre thidur, but Josue, the sone of Nun, thi mynystre, he schal entre for thee; excyte and strengthe thou him, and he schal departe the lond bi lot to Israel.39 Youre litle children, of whiche ye seiden, that thei schulden be led prisoneris, and the sones that kunnen not to dai the diuersite of good and of yuel, thei schulen entre; and Y schal yyue to hem the lond, and thei schulen welde it.40 Sotheli turne ye ayen, and go ye in to the wildirnesse, bi the weie of the Reed See.41 And ye answeriden to me, We synneden to the Lord; we schulen stie, and we schulen fiyte, as oure Lord God comaundide. And whanne ye weren arayed with armeris, and yeden `into the hil, the Lord seide to me,42 Seie thou to hem, `Nyle ye stye, nether fiyte ye, for Y am not with you, lest ye fallen bifor youre enemyes.43 Y spak, and ye herden not; but ye `weren aduersaries to the comaundement of the Lord, and bolnden with prijde, and stieden in to the hil.44 Therfor Ammorrey yede out, that dwellide in the hillis, and he cam ayens you, and pursuede you, as bees ben wont to pursue, and killide fro Seir til Horma. And whanne ye turneden ayen,45 and wepten bifor the Lord, he herde not you, nether wolde asente to youre vois;46 therfor ye saten in Cades Barne bi myche tyme.