1. THESE ARE the words which Moses spoke to all Israel [still] on the [east] side of the Jordan [River] in the wilderness, in the Arabah [the deep valley running north and south from the eastern arm of the Red Sea to beyond the Dead Sea], over near Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
2. It is [only] eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea [on Canaan's border; yet Israel took forty years to get beyond it].
3. And in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them,
4. After He had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth [and] Edrei.
5. Beyond (east of) the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying,
6. The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have dwelt long enough on this mountain.
7. Turn and take up your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the South (the Negeb), and on the coast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
8. 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.
9. I said to you at that time, I am not able to bear you alone.
10. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day as the stars of the heavens for multitude.
11. 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!
12. How can I bear alone the weariness and pressure and burden of you and your strife?