14. You answered me: "What you have proposed is a good idea."
15. So I took leading individuals from your tribes, people who were wise and well-regarded, and I set them up as your leaders. There were commanders over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, as well as officials for each of your tribes.
16. At that same time, I commanded your judges: Listen to your fellow tribe members and judge fairly, whether the dispute is between one fellow tribe member or between a tribe member and an immigrant.
17. Don’t show favoritism in a decision. Hear both sides out, whether the person is important or not. Don’t be afraid of anyone because the ruling belongs to God. Any dispute that is too difficult for you to decide, bring to me and I will take care of it.
18. So at that time, I commanded you concerning everything you were to do.
19. We left Horeb and journeyed through that vast and terrifying desert you saw, on the way to the hills of the Amorites, exactly as the Lord our God commanded us. Then we arrived at Kadesh-barnea.
20. I said to you: You have come to the hills of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving to us.
21. Look! The Lord your God has laid out the land before you. Go up and take it, just as the Lord, your ancestors’ God, has promised you. Don’t be afraid! Don’t be frightened!
22. Then all of you approached me, saying, "Let’s send spies ahead of us—they can check out the land for us. Then they can return with word about the route we should use and bring a report about the cities that we’ll be entering."
23. This idea seemed good to me, so I selected twelve men, one from each tribe.
24. These set out and went up into the hills, going as far as the Cluster ravine. They walked all around that area.
25. They took some of the land’s fruit and then came back down to us. They reported to us: "The land that the Lord our God is giving to us is wonderful!"
26. But you weren’t willing to go up. You rejected the Lord your God’s instruction.
27. You complained in your tents, saying things like, "The Lord hates us! That’s why he brought us out of Egypt—to hand us over to the Amorites, to destroy us!
28. What are we doing? Our brothers have made our hearts sick by saying, ‘People far stronger and much taller than we live there, and the cities are huge, with walls sky-high! Worse still, we saw the descendants of the Anakites there!’"