Deuteronomy (The Fifth Book of Moses, Commonly Called )

These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di'zahab.

It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadeshbarnea.

And in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them,

after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei.

Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying,

"The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain;

turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland, and in the Negeb, and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.'

"At that time I said to you, 'I am not able alone to bear you;

the LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.

May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!

How can I bear alone the weight and burden of you and your strife?

Choose wise, understanding, and experienced men, according to your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.'

And you answered me, 'The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.'

So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes.

And I charged your judges at that time, 'Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien that is with him.

You shall not be partial in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's; and the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.'