1 These are the messages that Mosheh (Moses) spoke to Yisrael (Israel) back when they were in the wilderness on the eastern side of the Yarden (Jordan) river, in the desert plain opposite Suf between Paran and Tofel, Lavan, Hatserot, and Di-Zahav. 2 (It takes eleven days to walk from Horev (Mt. Sinai) to Kadesh-Barnea via Mt. Seir.) 3 Forty years after the Israelis had left Egypt Mosheh passed on to them everything that Yahweh had instructed him 4 after he’d defeated the Amorite King Sihon who lived at Heshbon, and Bashan King Og who lived at Ashtarot in Edrei.[ref] 5 On the eastern side of the Yarden river in the Moav (Moab) region, Mosheh began explaining those instructions, saying,

6 “Our God Yahweh spoke to us at Horev, saying: You’ve camped here long enough at this mountain. 7 Now, pack up and travel to the Amorite hill country and the surrounding areas and the river plain, the lowlands and the southern wilderness, the coastal plain, all of Canaan, and Lebanon as far north-east as the Euphrates river. 8 Listen, that area of land ahead of you, I’ve given to you. Go ahead and take possession that land that Yahweh promised to your ancestors Avraham (Abraham), Yitshak (Isaac), and Yakov (Jacob). He promised to give it to them and to their descendants.”

9 Then Mosheh said, “I told you at that time that I wasn’t able to govern all of you by myself 10 because your god Yahweh has multiplied you, and wow, now you’re as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11 May your ancestors’ god Yahweh increase you all a thousand times more and bless you all as he’s promised 12 but how could I possibly bear all your loads and burdens and disputes by myself? 13 So nominate some men from your tribes who I can appoint as your leaders—men who are sensible and wise, and respected by the people, 14 and your parents agreed with that suggestion. 15 So I took those wise, respected men and appointed them to be your leaders—leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. I also appointed some as your tribal officials. 16 Then I instructed your new leaders telling them to listen carefully to both sides of disputes and make fair and honest judgements in conflicts involving either Israelis or foreigners. 17 Don’t show partiality when you’re making a judgement—treat important people just the same as the others. Don’t worry about what people will think because fair judgement is a godly activity. And if any matter is too difficult, bring it to me for a decision. 18 I also gave you all other instructions at that time.

19 “Then we left Horev (Mt. Sinai) and went through that wide and dangerous wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as our god Yahweh had instructed us, eventually arriving at Kadesh-Barnea. 20 Then I told you all, ‘You’ve all come to the Amorite hill country, which our god Yahweh is giving us. 21 Look, your god Yahweh has given you[fn] the land that’s in front of you, so go ahead and take possession of it as Yahweh, your ancestors’ god has told you. Don’t be afraid and don’t be discouraged.’ 22 Then you all approached me and suggested, ‘We should send some men ahead of us to scout out the place, and they can return and tell us the best way to get inside those cities.’ 23 That sounded good to me, so I took one man from each of the twelve tribes 24 and they went up into the hill country as far as the Eshkol valley, and the scouted it out. 25 They picked some fruit from there and brought it back to us, and reported that the land that our god Yahweh is giving us was very good.

26 “But your parents were unwilling to proceed and rebelled against your god Yahweh’s command.[ref] 27 So you all grumbled in your tents, saying that it was because Yahweh hated us that he brought us out of Egypt to hand us over to the Amorites to be destroyed. 28 You said that you all didn’t want to enter because the people were so tall and strong and their cities were fortified and powerful with very high walls around them.

29 “Then I told your parents, ‘Don’t be terrified or afraid of them. 30 Your god Yahweh who goes ahead of you, he’ll fight for you just like everything you saw him do in Egypt 31 and in the wilderness, where you saw how your god Yahweh carried you like a father carries his son—getting you through that difficult region until you all eventually arrived here.’[ref] 32 However, you all didn’t believe your god Yahweh[ref] 33 who had gone ahead of you to find a good place for you all to make your camp—using fire at night to show you all the way, and cloud in the daytime.

34 “Yahweh heard those complaints and got angry and made this promise,[ref] 35 ‘None of the men of this evil generation will get to enter the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors 36 apart from Yefunneh’s son Kalev (Caleb)—he can enter it and I’ll give him and his sons the land that he scouted out because he followed Yahweh whole-heartedly.’ 37 Yahweh was also angry at me because of you all, and told me that I also wouldn’t be able to enter, 38 but that Nun’s son Yehoshua who was standing there in front of me, would be the one to lead Yisrael to possess the land.

39 “Your children that you thought would be taken captive, and your young sons who don’t yet know right from wrong, they’ll be the ones to enter the land, and I’ll give it to them, and it’ll become theirs. 40 But you yourselves need to turn around and go back into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.

41 “but they all answered and admitted, ‘Yes, we’ve sinned against Yahweh, but now we’ll fix that by going in to fight and do everything that our god Yahweh has commanded us.’ So every man strapped on his weapons—now thinking it would be easy to take over the hill country.

42 “But Yahweh told me to warn them not to go ahead and fight because he wouldn’t help them, and so they’d end up being defeated by their enemies if they proceeded. 43 So I told your parents that, but they wouldn’t listen—they rebelled against Yahweh and arrogantly marched up into the hill country 44 where the Amorites who lived there came out against them, and chased them like bees and made the warriors scatter in Seir as far as Haremah. 45 So your parents returned and wept in front of Yahweh, but he didn’t pay any attention to them. 46 So that’s why we stayed at Kadesh-Barnea for as long as we all did.

13 The following day, Mosheh sat down to judge the people, and the people stood around him from morning until evening. 14 When his father-in-law noticed everything that he personally did for the people, he asked, “What’s this that you’re doing with the people? Why do you sit there alone, and all the people position themselves around you from morning until evening?”

15 “Because the people come to me to find out what God wants for them,” Mosheh replied to Yetro. 16 “When a difficult situation comes up among them, someone comes to me and I make the judgement between a man and his neighbour. In addition, I help them understand the god’s statutes and laws.”

17 “It’s not a good idea what you’re doing,” said Yetro. 18 “You’re definitely on the road to wear yourself out, plus you’ll also wear out these people who are with you, because the responsibility is too heavy for you—you can’t just do it alone. 19 Now, listen to this: I’ll advise you and God will be with you. You be before God for the people, and you should bring their disputes to God yourself. 20 You should also teach them the statutes and the laws, and you should teach them the way they should live and the work that they should do. 21 But you yourself should search through all the people to find capable men who are godly and faithful, and not greedy for dishonest profit. Then appoint the best of them to be over a thousand households, and then others to be over groups of one hundred, fifty, and ten households. 22 They’ll be the ones to judge the people, except that every serious situation they’ll bring to you—they’ll judge every minor situation themselves. Yes, you must lighten this load off yourself, and they’ll share the load with you. 23 If you do that, and if God tells you to proceed, then you’ll be able to endure in the long term, plus all of these people standing around will be able to return to their tents peacefully.”

24 So Mosheh took his father-in-law’s advice and implemented all of his suggestions. 25 He chose capable men from among all the Israelis, and he appointed them as heads over the people: leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, and leaders of tens of households. 26 They became the ones who settled most disputes for the people. They brought the difficult cases to Mosheh, but they judged each minor situation themselves.

27 Then Mosheh bid farewell to Yetro and he returned to his own home.

13 Then Yahweh told Mosheh (Moses), 2 “Send some men in to explore Kanaan—the land that I’m giving to the Israelis. Send one man from each ancestral tribe—a leader within that tribe.” 3 Then at Yahweh’s command, Mosheh sent them off from the Paran wilderness. They were all Israeli leaders 4 and their names were:

• Shammua (Zakkur’s son) from Reuven tribe,
• 5 Shafat (Hori’s son) from Shimeon tribe,
• 6 Kalev (Caleb—Yefunneh’s son) from Yehudah (Judah) tribe,
• 7 Yigal (Yosef’s son) from Yissakar tribe,
• 8 Hoshea (Nun’s son) from Efrayim tribe,
• 9 Palti (Rafu’s son) from Binyamin tribe,
• 10 Gaddiyel (Sodi’s son) from Zevulun tribe,
• 11 Gaddi (Susi’s son) from Yosef tribe,
• 12 Ammiyel (Gemalli’s son) from Dan tribe,
• 13 Setur (Mikael’s son) from Asher tribe,
• 14 Nahbi (Vofsi’s son) from Naftali tribe, and
• 15 Geuel (Maki’s son) from Gad tribe.

16 Mosheh called (Nun’s son) Hoshea, ‘Yehoshua’ (Joshua). Those were the names of the men that Mosheh sent out to explore Kanaan.

17 So Mosheh sent them to explore Kanaan, telling them, “Go through the Negev and then up into the hill country. 18 Find out what the land’s like, and whether the people living there are militarily strong or weak, and if they’re many or few. 19 Find out whether the land is good or bad, what cities they live in, and how fortified they are. 20 Find out whether the soil is fertile or not, whether or not there’s trees there. Be courageous and bring back some of the produce from that land.” (He said that because it was the time of the year when grapes were starting to ripen.)

21 So the twelve men went and explored the region from the Tsin wilderness in the south, all the way up to Rehob at Levo-Hamat in the north. 22 They started in the Negev, and went as far as Hevron where some of Anak’s descendents lived: Ahiman, Sheshay, Talmai. Hevron had been built seven years before Tsoan in Egypt (Heb. Mitsrayim). 23 When they got to the Eshkol riverbed, they cut off a branch with a cluster of grapes, and carried it on a pole between two of them, along with some pomegranates and figs. 24 (That place was then called Eshkol, meaning ‘cluster’, because of the cluster of grapes they’d taken from there.)

25 Forty days later, they returned from exploring that land 26 and went to Kadash in the Paran wilderness. There they reported back to Mosheh and Aharon and all the assembled people, and showed them the fruit from the land, 27 and told them, “We went to the land where you sent us, and it is indeed flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people living in that land are powerful, and the cities are very well fortified. Also, some of the Anak people group live there. 29 The Amalekite people live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Yebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country, and the Kanaanites live along the coast and along the Yordan river.”

30 Then Kalev (Caleb) raised an arm to quieten the people in front of Mosheh and stated, “We’ll certainly go in there and take it over, because we’re capable of going against them.”

31 But the men who’d gone in with him argued, “No,, we’re not able to battle against them because they’re stronger than us.” 32 Then they went on to bring out a bad report to the Israelis about the land that they’d explored, saying, “The land that we passed to explore is a land that devours those who live in it. In addition, all the people we saw in there were tall and powerful, 33 plus we saw the Nefilim (descendants of Anak), and we felt as small as grasshoppers compared to them, and that’s how they saw us as well.”[ref]

26 Then Yahweh said to Mosheh and Aharon, 27 “How much longer do I have to put up with this evil gathering that grumble against me? I’ve heard the complaints that the Israelis are making against me. 28 Tell them this, ‘Yahweh declares that as I live, your own words that I heard are exactly what I’ll do to you all. 29 Indeed you’ll die there in the wilderness—all those men who were listed as being twenty years old and older that complained against me. 30 You all won’t enter that land that I would have used my power to settle you into. The only exceptions are Yefunneh’s son Kalev (Caleb) and Nun’s son Yehoshua (Joshua). 31 The children of you all that you said would be taken as plunder, I take them in and they’ll experience the land that you all have rejected, 32 but your bodies will remain in this wilderness. 33 Your sons will become shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until you yourselves all become corpses in the wilderness. 34 For each day that you explored the land, you’ll all bear your disobedience for one year, so forty days will be forty years of experiencing my displeasure. 35 I, Yahweh, have spoken that I’ll certainly do that to this evil community that joined together against me. They’ll meet their end and die there in the wilderness.’ ”

36 Now those ten men who Mosheh had sent in to explore the land, and who’d returned and the made the whole assembly grumble against him because of their evil report about the land, 37 they died of a plague in front of Yahweh after producing that evil report. 38 However, Yehoshua (Joshua—Nun’s son) and Kalev (Caleb—Yefunneh’s son) who had also explored that land, continue to live on.

39 So Mosheh passed on to the Israelis what Yahweh had said, and the people were extremely sad. 40 Early the next morning, they went up towards the hilltops, saying, “Look at us all here! Yes, we sinned yesterday, but today we’ll go up to the place that Yahweh said.”

41 “What’s that?” Mosheh responded. “Don’t go against Yahweh’s instructions because your plan won’t succeed. 42 Don’t continue onwards because Yahweh isn’t with you and for sure you’ll all be defeated by your enemies 43 because you’ll all be facing the Amalekites and the Kanaanites and you’ll die by the sword. Yes, you’ve turned away from following Yahweh so he won’t be with you all.”

44 Nevertheless, they dared to continue up to the tops of the hills, but neither Mosheh nor the box containing the agreement with Yahweh, left the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and Kanaanites that lived in that part of the hill country attacked them and killed them as far down as Hormah.