Deuteronomy 1:18-25

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 ¹  us. 1:21 Look, he ²  has placed the land in front of you! ³  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, ⁴  so I sent ⁵  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, ⁶  which they scouted out. 1:25 Then they took ⁷  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.”

[1:20]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid repetition.

[1:21]  ³ tn Or “has given you the land” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[1:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “the thing was good in my eyes.”

[1:23]  ⁵ tn Or “selected” (so NIV, NRSV, TEV); Heb “took.”

[1:24]  ⁶ tn Or “the Wadi Eshcol” (so NAB).

[1:25]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text includes “in their hand,” which is unnecessary and somewhat redundant in English style.