Deuteronomy 1:26-33

Disobedience at Kadesh Barnea

1:26 You were not willing to go up, however, but instead rebelled against the Lord your God. ¹  1:27 You complained among yourselves privately ²  and said, “Because the Lord hates us he brought us from Egypt to deliver us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us! 1:28 What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage ³  by describing people who are more numerous ⁴  and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven ⁵  itself! Moreover, they said they saw ⁶  Anakites ⁷  there.” 1:29 So I responded to you, “Do not be terrified ⁸  of them! 1:30 The Lord your God is about to go ⁹  ahead of you; he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt ¹⁰  1:31 and in the desert, where you saw him ¹¹  carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.” 1:32 However, through all this you did not have confidence in the Lord your God, 1:33 the one who was constantly going before you to find places for you to set up camp. He appeared by fire at night and cloud by day, to show you the way you ought to go.

[1:26]  ¹ tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord your God.” To include “the mouth” would make for odd English style. The mouth stands by metonymy for the Lord’s command, which in turn represents the Lord himself.

[1:27]  ² tn Heb “in your tents,” that is, privately.

[1:28]  ³ tn Heb “have caused our hearts to melt.”

[1:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “greater.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “stronger,” NAB, NIV, NRSV; “bigger,” NASB).

[1:28]  ⁵ tn Or “as the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[1:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “we have seen.”

[1:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “the sons of the Anakim.”

[1:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “do not tremble and do not be afraid.” Two synonymous commands are combined for emphasis.

[1:30]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew participle indicates imminent future action here, though some English versions treat it as a predictive future (“will go ahead of you,” NCV; cf. also TEV, CEV).

[1:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “according to all which he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.”

[1:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun (“him”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.