16. Then I told your judges, “Listen to the arguments between your people. Judge fairly between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner.
17. When you judge, be fair to everyone. Don’t act as if one person is more important than another. Don’t be afraid of anyone, because your decision comes from God. Bring the hard cases to me. 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. We went toward the mountain country of the Amorite people. We went through that large and terrible desert you saw. Then we came to Kadesh Barnea.
20. Then I said to you, “You have now come to the mountain country of the Amorites. The Lord our God will give us this land.
21. Look, there it is! Go up. Take it. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you to do this. So don’t be afraid. Don’t worry.”
22. Then all of you came to me. You said, “Let’s send men before us to spy out the land. They can come back and tell us the way we should go. They can tell us about the cities we will find.”
23. I thought that was a good idea. So I chose 12 of your men, 1 for each tribe.
24. They left and went up to the mountains. They came to the Valley of Eshcol and explored it.
25. They took some of the fruit from that land. And they brought it down to us. They said, “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. You grumbled in your tents. You said, “The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to give us to the Amorites. They will destroy us.
28. Where can we go now? The spies we sent have made us afraid. They said, ‘The people there are bigger and taller than we are. The cities are big. They have walls up to the sky. And we saw the Anakites there!’”
29. Then I said to you, “Don’t be frightened. Don’t be afraid of those people.
30. The Lord your God will go ahead of you. He will fight for you as he did in Egypt. You saw him do it.
31. And in the desert you saw how the Lord your God carried you. He was like a man carrying his son. And he has brought you safely all the way to this place.”