Deuteronomy 1:16-46

1:16 I furthermore admonished your judges at that time that they ¹  should pay attention to issues among your fellow citizens ²  and judge fairly, ³  whether between one citizen and another ⁴  or a citizen and a resident foreigner. ⁵  1:17 They ⁶  must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly ⁷  and the great alike. Nor should they be intimidated by human beings, for judgment belongs to God. If the matter being adjudicated is too difficult for them, they should bring it before me for a hearing.

Instructions at Kadesh Barnea

1:18 So I instructed you at that time regarding everything you should do. 1:19 Then we left Horeb and passed through all that immense, forbidding wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as the Lord our God had commanded us to do, finally arriving at Kadesh Barnea. 1:20 Then I said to you, “You have come to the Amorite hill country which the Lord our God is about to give ⁸  us. 1:21 Look, he ⁹  has placed the land in front of you! ¹⁰  Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!” 1:22 So all of you approached me and said, “Let’s send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.” 1:23 I thought this was a good idea, ¹¹  so I sent ¹²  twelve men from among you, one from each tribe. 1:24 They left and went up to the hill country, coming to the Eshcol Valley, ¹³  which they scouted out. 1:25 Then they took ¹⁴  some of the produce of the land and carried it back down to us. They also brought a report to us, saying, “The land that the Lord our God is about to give us is good.”

Disobedience at Kadesh Barnea

1:26 You were not willing to go up, however, but instead rebelled against the Lord your God. ¹⁵  1:27 You complained among yourselves privately ¹⁶  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 ¹⁷  by describing people who are more numerous ¹⁸  and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven ¹⁹  itself! Moreover, they said they saw ²⁰  Anakites ²¹  there.” 1:29 So I responded to you, “Do not be terrified ²²  of them! 1:30 The Lord your God is about to go ²³  ahead of you; he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt ²⁴  1:31 and in the desert, where you saw him ²⁵  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.

Judgment at Kadesh Barnea

1:34 When the Lord heard you, he became angry and made this vow: ²⁶  1:35 “Not a single person ²⁷  of this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors! 1:36 The exception is Caleb son of Jephunneh; ²⁸  he will see it and I will give him and his descendants the territory on which he has walked, because he has wholeheartedly followed me.” ²⁹  1:37 As for me, the Lord was also angry with me on your account. He said, “You also will not be able to go there. 1:38 However, Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, ³⁰  will go. Encourage him, because he will enable Israel to inherit the land. ³¹  1:39 Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, ³²  and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, ³³  will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it. 1:40 But as for you, ³⁴  turn back and head for the desert by the way to the Red Sea.” ³⁵ 

Unsuccessful Conquest of Canaan

1:41 Then you responded to me and admitted, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will now go up and fight as the Lord our God has told us to do.” So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country. 1:42 But the Lord told me: “Tell them this: ‘Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you and you will be defeated by your enemies.’” 1:43 I spoke to you, but you did not listen. Instead you rebelled against the Lord ³⁶  and recklessly went up to the hill country. 1:44 The Amorite inhabitants of that area ³⁷  confronted ³⁸  you and chased you like a swarm of bees, striking you down from Seir as far as Hormah. ³⁹  1:45 Then you came back and wept before the Lord, but he ⁴⁰  paid no attention to you whatsoever. ⁴¹  1:46 Therefore, you remained at Kadesh for a long time – indeed, for the full time. ⁴² 

[1:16]  ¹ tn Or “you.” A number of English versions treat the remainder of this verse and v. 17 as direct discourse rather than indirect discourse (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[1:16]  ² tn Heb “brothers.” The term “brothers” could, in English, be understood to refer to siblings, so “fellow citizens” has been used in the translation.

[1:16]  ³ tn The Hebrew word צֶדֶק (tsedeq, “fairly”) carries the basic idea of conformity to a norm of expected behavior or character, one established by God himself. Fair judgment adheres strictly to that norm or standard (see D. Reimer, NIDOTTE 3:750).

[1:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “between a man and his brother.”

[1:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “his stranger” or “his sojourner”; NAB, NIV “an alien”; NRSV “resident alien.” The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger) commonly means “foreigner.”

[1:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “you,” and throughout the verse (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[1:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “the small,” but referring to social status, not physical stature.

[1:20]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew participle has an imminent future sense here, although many English versions treat it as a present tense (“is giving us,” NAB, NIV, NRSV) or a predictive future (“will give us,” NCV).

[1:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid repetition.

[1:21]  ¹⁰ tn Or “has given you the land” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[1:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the thing was good in my eyes.”

[1:23]  ¹² tn Or “selected” (so NIV, NRSV, TEV); Heb “took.”

[1:24]  ¹³ tn Or “the Wadi Eshcol” (so NAB).

[1:25]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text includes “in their hand,” which is unnecessary and somewhat redundant in English style.

[1:26]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in your tents,” that is, privately.

[1:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “have caused our hearts to melt.”

[1:28]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Or “as the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[1:28]  ²⁰ tn Heb “we have seen.”

[1:28]  ²¹ tn Heb “the sons of the Anakim.”

[1:29]  ²² tn Heb “do not tremble and do not be afraid.” Two synonymous commands are combined for emphasis.

[1:30]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn Heb “according to all which he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.”

[1:31]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun (“him”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:34]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and swore,” i.e., made an oath or vow.

[1:35]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Not a man among these men.”

[1:36]  ²⁸ sn Caleb had, with Joshua, brought back to Israel a minority report from Canaan urging a conquest of the land, for he was confident of the Lord’s power (Num 13:6, 8, 16, 30; 14:30, 38).

[1:36]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun (“me”) has been employed in the translation, since it sounds strange to an English reader for the Lord to speak about himself in third person.

[1:38]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the one who stands before you”; NAB “your aide”; TEV “your helper.”

[1:38]  ³¹ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the land) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:39]  ³² tn Heb “would be a prey.”

[1:39]  ³³ sn Do not know good from bad. This is a figure of speech called a merism (suggesting a whole by referring to its extreme opposites). Other examples are the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:9), the boy who knows enough “to reject the wrong and choose the right” (Isa 7:16; 8:4), and those who “cannot tell their right hand from their left” (Jonah 4:11). A young child is characterized by lack of knowledge.

[1:40]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew pronoun is plural, as are the following verbs, indicating that Moses and the people are addressed (note v. 41).

[1:40]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the Reed Sea.” “Reed” is a better translation of the Hebrew סוּף (suf), traditionally rendered “red.” The name “Red Sea” is based on the LXX which referred to it as ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάσσης (eruqra" qalassh", “red sea”). Nevertheless, because the body of water in question is known in modern times as the Red Sea, this term was used in the translation. The part of the Red Sea in view here is not the one crossed in the exodus but its eastern arm, now known as the Gulf of Eilat or Gulf of Aqaba.

[1:43]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord.” See note at 1:26.

[1:44]  ³⁷ tn Heb “in that hill country,” repeating the end of v. 43.

[1:44]  ³⁸ tn Heb “came out to meet.”

[1:44]  ³⁹ sn Hormah is probably Khirbet el-Meshash, 5.5 mi (9 km) west of Arad and 7.5 mi (12 km) SE of Beer Sheba. Its name is a derivative of the verb חָרָם (kharam, “to ban; to exterminate”). See Num 21:3.

[1:45]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun (“he”) has been employed in the translation here for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.

[1:45]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “did not hear your voice and did not turn an ear to you.”

[1:46]  ⁴² tn Heb “like the days which you lived.” This refers to the rest of the forty-year period in the desert before Israel arrived in Moab.