1. These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab.
2. (It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.)
3. In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them.
4. It was after he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived at Ashtaroth in Edrei.
5. Across the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying:
6. The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, “You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.
7. Turn, and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors, in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the Negev and by the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates.
8. See, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.”
9. I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you by myself.
10. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and surely you are this day as numerous as the stars of heaven.
11. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times more numerous and bless you, just as He has promised you!
12. How can I myself bear your load and your burden and your strife?
13. Choose wise, discerning, and knowing men, among your tribes, and I will appoint them as leaders over you.”
14. You answered me, and said, “The thing which you have said is good for us to do.”
15. So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and well-known men, and appointed them as leaders over you, leaders over thousands, and leaders over hundreds, and leaders over fifties, and leaders over tens, and officers among your tribes.
16. I charged your judges at that time, saying, “Hear the issues between your countrymen, and judge righteously between every man and his fellow countryman, and the foreigner that is with him.
17. You shall not show partiality in judgment, but you shallhear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring it to me, and I will hear it.”