17. When you judge, be fair to everyone; don’t act as if one person is more important than another, and don’t be afraid of anyone, because your decision comes from God. Bring the hard cases to me, and I will judge them.”
18. At that time I told you everything you must do.
19. Then, as the Lord our God commanded us, we left Mount Sinai and went toward the mountain country of the Amorite people. We went through that large and terrible desert you saw, and then we came to Kadesh Barnea.
20. I said to you, “You have now come to the mountain country of the Amorites, to the land the Lord our God will give us.
21. Look, here it is! Go up and take it. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you to do this, so don’t be afraid and don’t worry.”
22. Then all of you came to me and said, “Let’s send men before us to spy out the land. They can come back and tell us about the way we should go and the cities we will find.”
23. I thought that was a good idea, so I chose twelve of your men, one for each tribe.
24. They left and went up to the mountains, and when they came to the Valley of Eshcol they explored it.
25. They took some of the fruit from that land and brought it down to us, saying, “It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.”
26. But you refused to go. You would not obey the command of the Lord your God,
27. but grumbled in your tents, saying, “The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to give us to the Amorites, who will destroy us.
28. Where can we go now? The spies we sent have made us afraid, because they said, ‘The people there are stronger and taller than we are. The cities are big, with walls up to the sky. And we saw the Anakites there!’ ”