Hello, this is Father Paul and I'm glad we're taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year.
Today we're beginning the book of Deuteronomy, the last of the five books of the Pentateuch
and the fifth book of the Old Testament.
Today's reading is from Deuteronomy chapters 1 and 2.
Chapter 1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all
Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite souf between Paran,
Kofil, Laban, Hazarat, and Dizahab.
It is eleven days journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.
Now came to pass in the fortieth year in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month
that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him
as commandments to them, after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites who dwelt in Hezbon
and Og king of Bashan who dwelt in Ashtaroth in Idre.
On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law saying,
The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb saying, You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.
Turn and take your journey and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places
in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the south and on the sea coast,
to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
See I have set the land before you.
Go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, to give them and their descendants after them.
And I spoke to you at that time saying, I alone am not able to bear you.
The Lord your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of heaven
in multitude.
May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are,
and bless you as he has promised you.
How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints?
Use wise, understanding and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make
them heads over you.
And you answered me and said, The thing which you have told us to do is good.
So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over
you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers
for your tribes.
Then I commanded your judges at that time saying, Hear the cases between your brethren,
and judge righteously between a man and his brother, or the stranger who is with him.
You shall not show partiality in judgment, you shall hear 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 bring to me and I will hear it.
And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.
So we departed from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which
you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded
us.
Then I came to Kaddish Barnea, and I said to you, You have come to the mountains of
the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.
Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you, go up and possess it, as the Lord God
of your fathers has spoken to you, do not fear or be discouraged.
And every one of you came near to me and said, Let us send men before us, and let them search
out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and
of the cities into which we shall come.
The plan pleased me well, so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.
And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the valley of Eshkol, and spied
it out.
They also took some of the fruits of the land in their hands and brought it down to us.
And they brought back word to us, saying, It is a good land which the Lord our God is
giving us.
Nevertheless, you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.
And you complained in your tents and said, Because the Lord hates us, he has brought
us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.
Where can we go up?
Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, The people are greater and taller
than we.
The cities are great and fortified up to heaven.
Moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.
Then I said to you, Do not be terrified or afraid of them.
The Lord your God, who goes before you, he will fight for you, according to all he did
for you in Egypt before your eyes.
And in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries
his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.
Yet for all that you did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you to
search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the
fire by night and in the cloud by day.
And the Lord heard the sound of your words and was angry and took an oath, saying, Surely
not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore
to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
He shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because
he wholly followed the Lord.
The Lord was also angry with me for your sake, saying, Even you shall not go in there.
Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there.
Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
Moreover over your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have
no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there.
To them I will give it, and they shall possess it.
But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red
Sea.
Then you answered and said to me, We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and
fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.
And when every one of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into
the mountain.
And the Lord said to me, Tell them, Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you, lest
you be defeated before your enemies.
So I spoke to you, yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the command of the Lord,
and presumptuously went up into the mountain.
And Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you as bees do,
and drove you back from Seir to Hormah.
Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not listen to your voice
nor give ear to you.
So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spent there.
Chapter 2 Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness
of the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many
days.
And the Lord spoke to me, saying, You have skirted this mountain long enough, turn northward,
and command the people, saying, You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren,
the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, and they will be afraid of you.
Therefore watch yourselves carefully, do not meddle with them, for I will not give you
any of their land.
No, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as his possession.
You shall buy food from them with money that you may eat, and you shall also buy water
from them with money that you may drink.
For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand.
He knows you are trudging through this great wilderness.
These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, you have lacked nothing.
And when we passed beyond our brethren, the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir, away
from the road of the plain, away from Elath and Ezion-gibber, we turned and passed by
way of the wilderness of Moab.
Then the Lord said to me, Do not harass Moab, nor contend with them in battle, for I will
not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given our to the descendants
of Lot as a possession.
The Imim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the
Anakim.
They were also regarded as giants like the Anakim, but the Moabites called them Imim.
The Horites formally dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and
destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their place just as Israel did to the land
of their possession which the Lord gave them.
Now rise and cross over the valley of the Zared.
So we crossed over the valley of the Zared, and the time we took to come from Kadesh-Barnia
until we crossed over the valley of the Zared was thirty-eight years, until all the generation
of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp, just as the Lord had sworn to
them.
For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from the midst of the
camp until they were consumed.
So it was, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people, that the Lord
spoke to me, saying, This day you are to cross over at Ar, the boundary of Moab.
And when you come near the people of Amon, do not harass them or meddle with them, for
I will not give you any of the land of the people of Amon as a possession, because I
have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession.
That was also regarded as a land of giants.
Giants formally dwelt there, but the Amonites called them the Zamzumim, a people as great
and numerous and tall as the Anakim.
But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their
place, just as He had done for the descendants of Esau who dwelt in Seir when He destroyed
the Horites from before them.
They dispossessed them and dwelt in their place even to this day.
And Avim who dwelt in the villages as far as Gaza, the Kafturim who came from Kaftur,
destroyed them and dwelt in their place.
Rise, take your journey and cross over the river Arnon.
Look, I have given into your hand Sehon the Amorite, king of Hezbon, and his land.
Begin to possess it and engage him in battle.
This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole
heaven who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of
you.
And I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sehon king of Hezbon with words
of peace saying, Let me pass through your land.
I will keep strictly to the road and I will turn neither to the right nor to the left.
You shall send me food for money that I may eat and give me water for money that I may
drink.
Only let me pass through on foot.
Just as the descendants of Esau who dwelt in Seir and the Moabites who dwelt in Ar did
for me until I crossed the Jordan to the land which the Lord our God is giving us.
But Sehon king of Hezbon would not let us pass through for the Lord our God hardened
his spirit and made his heart obstinate that he might deliver him into your hand as it
is this day.
And the Lord said to me, See I have begun to give Sehon and his land over to you.
Begin to possess it that you may inherit his land.
Then Sehon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jihaz.
And the Lord our God delivered him over to us.
So we defeated him, his sons and all his people.
We took all his cities at that time and we utterly destroyed the men, women and little
ones of every city.
We left none remaining.
We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves with the spoil of the cities which
we took.
From Erwar which is on the bank of the river Arnon and from the city that is in the ravine
as far as Gilead.
There was not one city too strong for us.
The Lord our God delivered all to us.
Only you did not go near the land of the people of Ammon, anywhere along the river Jabak or
to the cities of the mountains or wherever the Lord our God had forbidden us.
I hope you enjoyed today's reading as much as I did and I look forward to seeing you
again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.