Deuteronomy 1:19-40

Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land

19“Then we set out from Horeb and awent 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 bwe came to Kadesh-barnea. 20And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. 21See, 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. cDo not fear or be dismayed.’ 22Then 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.’ 23The thing seemed good to me, and dI took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. 24And ethey turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25And 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.’

26Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27And fyou murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord ghated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, hto give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28Where are we going up? iOur brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, j“The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen kthe sons of the Anakim there.”’ 29Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30The Lord your God who goes before you lwill himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God mcarried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ 32Yet in spite of this word nyou did not believe the Lord your God, 33 owho went before you in the way pto 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 qNot one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, 36 rexcept 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!’ 37Even with me sthe Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. 38 tJoshua the son of Nun, uwho stands before you, he shall enter. vEncourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39And as for wyour little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today xhave no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. 40But as for you, yturn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’

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