See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which Jehovah swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and to their seed after them.

And I spoke to you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you alone.

Jehovah your God has multiplied you, and now today you are as the stars of heaven in multitude.

Jehovah, the God of your fathers, add to you a thousandfold ones like you and bless you as He has promised you!

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

Choose for yourselves men who are wise and prudent and well attested, according to your tribes, and I will make them your leaders.

And you answered me and said, The thing that you have said to do is good.

So I took the leaders of your tribes, men who were wise and well attested, and I made them leaders over you, captains over thousands and captains over hundreds and captains over fifties and captains over tens and officials for your tribes.

And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the sojourner with him.

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

And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

And we set out from Horeb, and we went through all that great and awesome wilderness, which you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Jehovah our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.

And I said to you, You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Jehovah our God is giving us.

See, Jehovah your God has set the land before you; go up, possess it, as Jehovah the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Do not fear, neither be dismayed.

Then all of you came near to me and said, Let us send men before us that they may search out the land for us and bring back to us word concerning the way by which we should go up and the cities into which we should go.

And the thing pleased me, so I took twelve men from among you, one for each tribe.

And they turned and went up into the hill country, and they came to the Valley of Eshcol; and they spied out the land.

And in their hands they took some of the fruit of the land, and they brought it down to us. And they brought word back to us and said, It is a good land which Jehovah our God is giving us.

Yet you would not go up. Rather you rebelled against the word of Jehovah your God;

And you murmured in your tents and said, Because Jehovah hates us, He has brought us out from the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites in order to destroy us.