¶These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.

It happened 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 Yahweh had given him in commandment to them;

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

Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declareª this law, saying,

“Yahweh our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, You have lived long enough in this mountain:

turn, and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all the places near there, in the Arabah, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and in the South, and by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.”

¶I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone:

Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day as the stars of the sky for multitude.

Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!

How can I myself alone bear your encumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?

Take wise men of understanding and well known according to your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.”

¶You answered me, and said, “The thing which you have spoken is good for us to do.”

So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens, and officers, according to your tribes.

I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him.

You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.

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

We traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea.

I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God gives to us.

Behold, Yahweh your God has set the land before you: go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you; don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed.”