Daily Text and Bible Reading: Sunday, February 23 [Press play below]

1.1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel in the region of the Jordan in the wilderness, on the desert plains in front of Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
1.2 It is 11 days from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by way of Mount Seir.
1.3 In the 40th year, in the 11th month, on the first of the month, Moses spoke to the Israelites according to all that Jehovah had instructed him to tell them.
1.4 This was after he defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who was dwelling in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who was dwelling in Ashtaroth, in Edrei.
1.5 In the region of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this Law, saying:
1.6 “Jehovah our God told us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough in this mountainous region.
1.7 Turn and set out for the mountainous region of the Amorites and toward all their neighbors in the Arabah, the mountainous region, the Shephelah, the Negeb, and the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, up to the great river, the river Euphrates.
1.8 See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land about which Jehovah swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give it to them and their offspring after them.’
1.9 “And I told you at that time, ‘I am not able to carry you by myself.
1.10 Jehovah your God has multiplied you, and here you are today as numerous as the stars of the heavens.
1.11 May Jehovah, the God of your forefathers, multiply you a thousand times as many as you are, and may he bless you just as he has promised you.
1.12 How can I bear by myself the burden of you and the load of you and your quarreling?
1.13 Select wise, discreet, and experienced men of your tribes, and I will appoint them as heads over you.’
1.14 You answered me, ‘What you have told us to do is good.’
1.15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and appointed them as heads over you, chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, chiefs of tens, and officers of your tribes.
1.16 “At that time I instructed your judges, ‘When you hear a case between your brothers, you are to judge with righteousness between a man and his brother or a foreign resident.
1.17 You must not be partial in judgment. You should hear the small one the same as the great one. You must not become intimidated by men, for the judgment belongs to God; and if a case is too difficult for you, you should present it to me, and I will hear it.’
1.18 At that time I instructed you regarding all the things that you should do.
1.19 “Then we departed from Horeb and marched through all that great and fearsome wilderness that you saw on the way to the mountainous region of the Amorites, just as Jehovah our God had commanded us, and we eventually came to Kadesh-barnea.
1.20 I then said to you, ‘You have come to the mountainous region of the Amorites, which Jehovah our God is giving to us.
1.21 See, Jehovah your God has given the land over to you. Go up, take possession of it, just as Jehovah, the God of your forefathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or terrified.’
1.22 “However, all of you approached me and said, ‘Let us send men ahead of us to search out the land for us and bring word back to us as to what route we should take and what kind of cities we will encounter.’
1.23 The suggestion seemed good to me, so I selected 12 of your men, one for each tribe.
1.24 They left and went up into the mountainous region and reached the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out.
1.25 They took some of the fruitage of the land and carried it back to us, and they brought word back to us, ‘The land that Jehovah our God is giving us is good.’
1.26 But you refused to go up, and you rebelled against the order of Jehovah your God.
1.27 You kept grumbling in your tents and were saying, ‘It was because Jehovah hated us that he brought us out of the land of Egypt to hand us over to the Amorites to annihilate us.
1.28 What kind of place are we going to? Our brothers made us lose heart by saying, “They are a people greater and taller than we are, and their cities are great and fortified to the heavens, and we saw the sons of the Anakim there.”’
1.29 “So I said to you, ‘Do not be struck with terror or be afraid because of them.
1.30 Jehovah your God will go before you and will fight for you, just as he did in Egypt before your very eyes.
1.31 And you saw in the wilderness how Jehovah your God carried you just as a man carries his son, everywhere you went until you came to this place.’
1.32 But despite all of this, you did not put faith in Jehovah your God,
1.33 who was going ahead of you on the way, to spy out a place for you to camp. He appeared by fire at night and by a cloud in the daytime to show you the way you should walk.
1.34 “All the while Jehovah heard what you were saying, and he became indignant and solemnly swore,
1.35 ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation will see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers,
1.36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give the land on which he walked to him and to his sons, because he has followed Jehovah wholeheartedly.
1.37 (Jehovah even became angry with me because of you, and he said, “You too will not go in there.
1.38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, is the one who will enter into the land. Make him strong, for he will cause Israel to inherit it.”)
1.39 Moreover, your children who you said would become plunder and your sons who today do not know good or bad, these will enter, and I will give it to them to possess.
1.40 But as for you, turn back and depart for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.’
1.41 “At this you said to me, ‘We have sinned against Jehovah. We will now go up and fight, just as Jehovah our God has commanded us!’ So each of you put on his weapons of war, and you thought it would be an easy thing to go up the mountain.
1.42 But Jehovah said to me, ‘Tell them: “You must not go up and fight, for I will not be with you. If you do, you will be defeated by your enemies.”’
1.43 So I spoke to you, but you did not listen. Instead, you rebelled against Jehovah’s order and presumptuously tried to go up the mountain.
1.44 Then the Amorites who were dwelling in that mountain came out to meet you and chased you away like bees do, and they scattered you in Seir as far as Hormah.
1.45 So you returned and began to weep before Jehovah, but Jehovah did not listen to you or pay attention to you.
1.46 That is why you kept dwelling in Kadesh for as long as you did.
2.1 “Then we turned and departed for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, just as Jehovah had told me, and we traveled for many days around Mount Seir.
2.2 Finally Jehovah said to me,
2.3 ‘You have gone around this mountain long enough. Now turn north.
2.4 And give this command to the people: “You will pass by the border of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who are dwelling in Seir, and they will be afraid of you, and you must be very careful.
2.5 Do not engage in hostilities with them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even the space of a footprint, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as his possession.
2.6 You should give them money for the food you will eat, and you should pay for the water you will drink.
2.7 For Jehovah your God has blessed you in all that you have done. He is fully aware of your walking through this great wilderness. These 40 years Jehovah your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.”’
2.8 So we passed by our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who are dwelling in Seir, keeping away from the way of the Arabah, from Elath and from Ezion-geber. “Next we turned and traveled by the way of the wilderness of Moab.
2.9 Jehovah then said to me, ‘Do not engage in hostilities or in war with Moab, for I will not give you any of his land as a possession because I have given Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.
2.10 (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and numerous and tall like the Anakim.
2.11 The Rephaim were also considered like the Anakim, and the Moabites used to call them Emim.
2.12 Previously, the Horites were living in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and annihilated them and settled in their place, just as Israel will do to the land that is their possession, which Jehovah will certainly give to them.)
2.13 Now go and cross over the Valley of Zered.’ So we crossed over the Valley of Zered.
2.14 The time it took us to walk from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Valley of Zered was 38 years, until the entire generation of the men of war had perished from the camp, just as Jehovah had sworn to them.
2.15 Jehovah’s hand was against them to eliminate them from the camp until they had perished.
2.16 “As soon as all the men of war had died off from among the people,
2.17 Jehovah spoke to me again, saying,
2.18 ‘Today you are to pass by the territory of Moab, that is, Ar.
2.19 When you come near to the Ammonites, do not harass or provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the Ammonites as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their possession.
2.20 This too used to be considered the land of the Rephaim. (The Rephaim formerly lived there, and the Ammonites used to call them Zamzummim.
2.21 They were a great and numerous and tall people like the Anakim; but Jehovah annihilated them before the Ammonites, and these drove them out and settled in their place.
2.22 That is what he did for the descendants of Esau, who now dwell in Seir, when he annihilated the Horites from before them, so that they could dispossess them and dwell in their place to this very day.
2.23 As for the Avvim, they had dwelled in settlements as far as Gaza until the Caphtorim, who came out from Caphtor, annihilated them and settled in their place.)
2.24 “‘Get up, and make your way across the Arnon Valley. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon. So begin taking possession of his land, and engage him in war.
2.25 This day I will start to put the dread and the fear of you upon all the people under the heavens who hear the report about you. They will be disturbed and will tremble because of you.’
2.26 “Then I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon, with these peaceful words,
2.27 ‘Let me pass through your land. I will remain on the road and not turn to the right or to the left.
2.28 I will eat only the food and drink only the water that you will sell to me. Just allow me to pass through on foot
2.29 —that is what the descendants of Esau dwelling in Seir and the Moabites dwelling in Ar did for me—until I pass over the Jordan into the land that Jehovah our God is giving to us.’
2.30 But King Sihon of Heshbon did not let us pass through, because Jehovah your God allowed his spirit to become obstinate and his heart to become hard, in order to give him into your hand as is now the case.
2.31 “Then Jehovah said to me, ‘See, I have already begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Start to take possession of his land.’
2.32 When Sihon came out along with all his people to meet us in battle at Jahaz,
2.33 Jehovah our God handed him over to us, so that we defeated him, his sons, and all his people.
2.34 We captured all his cities at that time and devoted every city to destruction, including men, women, and children. We left no survivor.
2.35 We plundered only the livestock for ourselves along with the spoils from the cities that we had captured.
2.36 From Aroer, which is on the rim of the Arnon Valley (including the city that is in the valley), as far as Gilead, no town was beyond our reach. Jehovah our God handed them all over to us.
2.37 However, you did not approach the land of the Ammonites, the whole bank of the Valley of Jabbok and the cities of the mountainous region, or any other place forbidden by Jehovah our God.