Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land

19 “Then we set out from Horeb and ^ywent through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And ^zwe came to Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. 21 See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. ^aDo not fear or be dismayed.’ 22 Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ 23 The thing seemed good to me, and ^bI took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. 24 And ^cthey turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25 And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’

26 “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 And ^dyou murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord ^ehated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, ^fto give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where are we going up? ^gOur brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, ^h“The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen ⁱthe sons of the Anakim there.”’ 29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God who goes before you ^jwill himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God ^kcarried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ 32 Yet in spite of this word ^lyou did not believe the Lord your God, 33 ^mwho went before you in the way ⁿto seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion

34 “And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, 35 ^o‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, 36 ^pexcept Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ 37 Even with me ^qthe Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. 38 ^rJoshua the son of Nun, ^rwho stands before you, he shall enter. ^sEncourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39 And as for ^tyour little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today ^uhave no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. 40 But as for you, ^vturn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’

41 “Then you answered me, ^w‘We have sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. 42 And the Lord said to me, ^x‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, ^yfor I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ 43 So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the Lord and ^zpresumptuously went up into the hill country. 44 ^aThen the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you ^bas bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as ^cHormah. 45 And you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. 46 So ^dyou remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.

The Defeat of King Og

1 “Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And ^eOg the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at ^fEdrei. 2 But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to ^gSihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ 3 So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, ^hand we struck him down until he had no survivor left. 4 And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, ⁱthe whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. 6 And ^jwe devoted them to destruction,¹ as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every ^kcity, men, women, and children. 7 But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder. 8 So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon 9 (the Sidonians call ^lHermon ^mSirion, while the Amorites call it ⁿSenir), 10 all the cities of the ^otableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as ^pSalecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11 (For ^qonly Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of ^rthe Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in ^sRabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits² was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the ^tcommon cubit.³)

Moses Forbidden to Enter the Land

23 “And I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, 24 ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant ⁿyour greatness and your mighty hand. For ^owhat god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? 25 Please let me go over and see ^pthe good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and ^qLebanon.’ 26 But ^rthe Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, ^s‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again. 27 ^tGo up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan. 28 But ^ucharge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see.’ 29 So we remained in ^vthe valley opposite Beth-peor.