Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 287
1:34–2:8
D e u teronom y
275
“When the Lord heard your complaining, he became very angry. So
he solemnly swore, ‘Not one of you from this wicked generation will live
to see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, except Caleb son of
Jephunneh. He will see this land because he has followed the Lord completely. I will give to him and his descendants some of the very land he
explored during his scouting mission.’
“And the Lord was also angry with me because of you. He said to me,
‘Moses, not even you will enter the Promised Land! Instead, your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will lead the people into the land. Encourage him,
for he will lead Israel as they take possession of it. I will give the land to
your little ones—your innocent children. You were afraid they would be
captured, but they will be the ones who occupy it. As for you, turn around
now and go on back through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.’
“Then you confessed, ‘We have sinned against the Lord! We will go
into the land and fight for it, as the Lord our God has commanded us.’ So
your men strapped on their weapons, thinking it would be easy to attack
the hill country.
“But the Lord told me to tell you, ‘Do not attack, for I am not with you.
If you go ahead on your own, you will be crushed by your enemies.’
“This is what I told you, but you would not listen. Instead, you again
rebelled against the Lord’s command and arrogantly went into the hill
country to fight. But the Amorites who lived there came out against you
like a swarm of bees. They chased and battered you all the way from Seir
to Hormah. Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but he refused
to listen. So you stayed there at Kadesh for a long time.
“Then we turned around and headed back across the wilderness toward
the Red Sea, just as the Lord had instructed me, and we wandered around
in the region of Mount Seir for a long time.
“Then at last the Lord said to me, ‘You have been wandering around in
this hill country long enough; turn to the north. Give these orders to the
people: “You will pass through the country belonging to your relatives the
Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. The Edomites will feel
threatened, so be careful. Do not bother them, for I have given them all the
hill country around Mount Seir as their property, and I will not give you
even one square foot of their land. If you need food to eat or water to drink,
pay them for it. For the Lord your God has blessed you in everything you
have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness.
During these forty years, the Lord your God has been with you, and you
have lacked nothing.”’
“So we bypassed the territory of our relatives, the descendants of Esau,
