<t /><p class="bodytext">Then Moses selected three cities in the Transjordan, toward the east.

you must set apart for yourselves three cities<n id="1" /> in the middle of your land that the <sc>Lordsc> your God is giving you as a possession.

Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities.

All of these cities were fortified by high walls, gates, and locking bars;<n id="1" /> in addition there were a great many open villages.<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications.<n id="1" />

What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage<n id="1" /> by describing people who are more numerous<n id="2" /> and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven<n id="3" /> itself! Moreover, they said they saw<n id="4" /> Anakites<n id="5" /> there.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then when the <sc>Lordsc> your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you &#8211; a land with large, fine cities you did not build,

and then you are careful to observe all these commandments<n id="1" /> I am giving<n id="2" /> you today (namely, to love the <sc>Lordsc> your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities<n id="3" /> to these three.