The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children.

You are standing today, all of you, before the <sc>Lordsc> your God &#8211; the heads of your tribes,<n id="1" /> your elders, your officials, every Israelite man,

<p class="poetry">The sword will make people childless outside,p> <p class="poetry">and terror will do so inside;p> <p class="poetry">they will destroy<n id="1" /> both the young man and the virgin,p> <p class="poetry">the infant and the gray-haired man.p>

<t /><p class="poetry">Of Levi he said:p> <p class="poetry">Your Thummim and Urim<n id="1" /> belong to your godly one,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">whose authority you challenged at Massah,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">and with whom you argued at the waters of Meribah.<n id="4" />p>

He<n id="1" /> buried him in the land of Moab near Beth Peor, but no one knows his exact burial place to this very day.

So I chose<n id="1" /> as your tribal leaders wise and well-known men, placing them over you as administrators of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and also as other tribal officials.

They<n id="1" /> must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly<n id="2" /> 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.p>

So all of you approached me and said, &#8220;Let&#8217;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.&#8221;

and in the desert, where you saw him<n id="1" /> carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then you responded to me and admitted, &#8220;We have sinned against the <sc>Lordsc>. We will now go up and fight as the <sc>Lordsc> our God has told us to do.&#8221; So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country.

Now the length of time it took for us to go from Kadesh Barnea to the crossing of Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, time for all the military men of that generation to die, just as the <sc>Lordsc> had vowed to them.

Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaites. (It is noteworthy<n id="1" /> that his sarcophagus<n id="2" /> was made of iron.<n id="3" /> Does it not, indeed, still remain in Rabbath<n id="4" /> of the Ammonites? It is thirteen and a half feet<n id="5" /> long and six feet<n id="6" /> wide according to standard measure.)<n id="7" />p>

You must fight<n id="1" /> until the <sc>Lordsc> gives your countrymen victory<n id="2" /> as he did you and they take possession of the land that the <sc>Lordsc> your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan River. Then each of you may return to his own territory that I have given you.&#8221;

You have witnessed what the <sc>Lordsc> did at Baal Peor,<n id="1" /> how he<n id="2" /> eradicated from your midst everyone who followed Baal Peor.<n id="3" />

Nobody will be able to resist you; the <sc>Lordsc> your God will spread the fear and terror of you over the whole land on which you walk, just as he promised you.p>

Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you &#8211; in one of your villages<n id="1" /> that the <sc>Lordsc> your God is giving you &#8211; who sins before the Lord your God<n id="2" /> and breaks his covenant

you must select without fail<n id="1" /> a king whom the <sc>Lordsc> your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens<n id="2" /> you must appoint a king &#8211; you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites.<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">A single witness may not testify<n id="1" /> against another person for any trespass or sin that he commits. A matter may be legally established<n id="2" /> only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, &#8220;Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier&#8217;s<n id="1" /> heart as fearful<n id="2" /> as his own.&#8221;

the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father&#8217;s house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing<n id="1" /> in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father&#8217;s house. In this way you will purge<n id="2" /> evil from among you.p>