Moses speaks to the people
1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all the Israelites. They were together in the desert on the east side of the Jordan River. This is in the Jordan Valley near Suph. It is between the towns called Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 (It is a journey of 11 days from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea, along the road past Mount Seir.) 3 Moses spoke to the Israelites on the first day of the 11th month, in the 40th year of their journey. He told the Israelites the message that the Lord had commanded him to speak.
1:1These people are the children of the Israelites who left Egypt. They were born while their parents travelled in the desert.
1:2The journey from Sinai should only have been 11 days. The Israelites had travelled through the desert for 40 years because they did not trust God.
1:3When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as ‘Yahweh’, or as ‘Jehovah’. It is his own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there. 4 This happened after Moses and the Israelites had won against Sihon, king of the Amorites. Sihon ruled in Heshbon. They had also won against Og, the king of Bashan, who ruled in Ashtaroth. The Israelites fought against him at Edrei. 5 Moses began to speak the Lord's message on the east side of the Jordan River, in Moab's country. This is what he said:
1:4The Amorites were a group of people who lived in Canaan before the Israelites lived there. They lived on both sides of the Jordan River. They were enemies of the Israelites.
6 The Lord our God said to us at Sinai, ‘You have stayed for a long time near this mountain. 7 Now you must continue your journey. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the regions near there. Go to the Jordan Valley and the mountains and the low hills in the west. Go to the Negev in the south, and to the Mediterranean coast. Go to the land of Canaan and to Lebanon, even as far as the great Euphrates river. 8 Look! I have given you all this land. Go there and take it for yourselves. I, the Lord, promised to give this land to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their descendants.’