Deuteronomy 3–4

1Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his whole army came out to meet us in battle at Edrei.

2But the LORD said to me, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, along with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”

3So the LORD our God also delivered Og king of Bashan and his whole army into our hands. We struck them down until no survivor was left.

4At that time we captured all sixty of his cities. There was not a single city we failed to take—the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

5All these cities were fortified with high walls and gates and bars, and there were many more unwalled villages.

6We devoted them to destruction, as we had done to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city.

7But all the livestock and plunder of the cities we carried off for ourselves.

8At that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites the land across the Jordan, from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon—

9which the Sidonians call Sirion but the Amorites call Senir—

10all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilead, and all of Bashan as far as the cities of Salecah and Edrei in the kingdom of Og.

11(For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

12So at that time we took possession of this land. To the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the land beyond Aroer along the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead, along with its cities.

13To the half-tribe of Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og. (The entire region of Argob, the whole territory of Bashan, used to be called the land of the Rephaim.)

14Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. He renamed Bashan after himself, Havvoth-jair, by which it is called to this day.

15To Machir I gave Gilead,

16and to the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead to the Arnon Valley (the middle of the valley was the border) and up to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.

17The Jordan River in the Arabah bordered it from Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) with the slopes of Pisgah to the east.

18At that time I commanded you: “The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor are to cross over, armed for battle, ahead of your brothers, the Israelites.

19But your wives, your children, and your livestock—I know that you have much livestock—may remain in the cities I have given you,

20until the LORD gives rest to your brothers as He has to you, and they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then each of you may return to the possession I have given you.”

21And at that time I commanded Joshua: “Your own eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. The LORD will do the same to all the kingdoms you are about to enter.

22Do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God Himself will fight for you.”

23At that time I also pleaded with the LORD:

24“O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your greatness and power to Your servant. For what god in heaven or on earth can perform such works and mighty acts as Yours?

25Please let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that pleasant hill country as well as Lebanon!”

26But the LORD was angry with me on account of you, and He would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the LORD said to me. “Do not speak to Me again about this matter.

27Go to the top of Pisgah and look to the west and north and south and east. See the land with your own eyes, for you will not cross this Jordan.

28But commission Joshua, encourage him, and strengthen him, for he will cross over ahead of the people and enable them to inherit the land that you will see.”

29So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

1Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

2You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you.

3Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal of Peor.

4But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive to this day, every one of you.

5See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

6Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

7For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him?

8And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

9Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

10The day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, “Gather the people before Me to hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach them to their children.”

11You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.

12And the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of the words but saw no form; there was only a voice.

13He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to follow—the Ten Commandments that He wrote on two tablets of stone.

14At that time the LORD commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

15So since you saw no form of any kind on the day the LORD spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb, be careful

16that you do not act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves of any form or shape, whether in the likeness of a male or female,

17of any beast that is on the earth or bird that flies in the air,

18or of any creature that crawls on the ground or fish that is in the waters below.

19When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

20Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.

21The LORD, however, was angry with me on account of you, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan to enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

22For I will not be crossing the Jordan, because I must die in this land. But you shall cross over and take possession of that good land.

23Be careful that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that He made with you; do not make an idol for yourselves in the form of anything He has forbidden you.

24For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25After you have children and grandchildren and you have been in the land a long time, if you then act corruptly and make an idol of any form—doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God and provoking Him to anger—

26I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.

27Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.

28And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

29But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice.

31For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.

32Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?

33Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived?

34Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?

35You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides Him.

36He let you hear His voice from heaven to discipline you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire.

37Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,

38to drive out before you nations greater and mightier than you, and to bring you into their land and give it to you for your inheritance, as it is this day.

39Know therefore this day and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

40Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.

41Then Moses set aside three cities across the Jordan to the east

42to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:

43Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau belonging to the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to the Gadites, or Golan in Bashan belonging to the Manassites.

44This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.

45These are the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances that Moses proclaimed to them after they had come out of Egypt,

46while they were in the valley across the Jordan facing Beth-peor in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.

47They took possession of the land belonging to Sihon and to Og king of Bashan—the two Amorite kings across the Jordan to the east—

48extending from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Siyon (that is, Hermon),

49including all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan and as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.