17aYou shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for bthe judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, cbring to me, and I will hear it.’
18 And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.
Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land
19 “So we departed from Horeb, aand went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded us. Then bwe came to Kadesh Barnea.
20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.
21 Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; ado not fear or be discouraged.’
22 “And every one of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.’
23 “The plan pleased me well; so aI took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.
24aAnd they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.
25 They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘Itis a agood land which the Lord our God is giving us.’
26a“Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God;
27 and you acomplained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lordbhates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
28 Where can we go up? Our brethren have1 discouraged our hearts, saying, a“The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the bAnakim there.” ’
29 “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, aor afraid of them.
30aThe Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
31 and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a aman carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’
32 Yet, for all that, ayou did not believe the Lord your God,
33awho went in the way before you bto search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.
The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion
34 “And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, aand took an oath, saying,
35a‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I1 swore to give to your fathers,
DEUTERONOMY, the second law, a title which plainly shows what is the object of this book, namely, a recapitulation of the law. It was given in the form of public addresses to the people; and as Moses spoke in the prospect of his speedy removal, he enforced obedience to it by many forcible appeals to the Israelites, concerning their long and varied experience both of the mercies and the judgments of God. The minute notices of the heathen people with whom they had come in contact, but who afterward disappeared from the pages of history, as well as the accounts of the fertility and products of Canaan, and the counsels respecting the conquest of that country, fix the date of this book and the time of its composition by the hand of Moses. The close, however, must have been added by another; and, indeed, it is supposed by some to have formed the original preface to the Book of Joshua.
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