1. These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan River, in the desert, on the plain across from Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab. (
2. It is eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea along the Mount Seir route.)
3. It was in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moses spoke to the Israelites precisely what the Lord had commanded him for them. (
4. This was after the defeat of Sihon, the Amorite king who ruled in Heshbon, and Og, Bashan’s king, who ruled in Ashtaroth and Edrei.)
5. Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this Instruction. He said the following:
6. At Horeb, the Lord our God told us: You’ve been at this mountain long enough.
7. Get going! Enter the hills of the Amorites and the surrounding areas in the desert, the highlands, the lowlands, the arid southern region, and the seacoast—the land of the Canaanites—and the Lebanon range, all the way to the great Euphrates River.
8. Look, I have laid the land before you. Go and possess the land that I promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as to their descendants after them.
9. At that same time, I told you: I can’t handle all of you by myself.