6. The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb and said, “You have stayed in the area of this mountain long enough.
7. Get up now, resume your journey, heading for the Amorite hill country, to all its areas including the arid country, the highlands, the Shephelah, the Negev, and the coastal plain – all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates.
8. Look! I have already given the land to you. Go, occupy the territory that I, the Lord, promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants.”
9. I also said to you at that time, “I am no longer able to sustain you by myself.
10. The Lord your God has increased your population to the point that you are now as numerous as the very stars of the sky.
11. Indeed, may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are now, blessing you just as he said he would!
12. But how can I alone bear up under the burden of your hardship and strife?
13. Select wise and practical men, those known among your tribes, whom I may appoint as your leaders.”
14. You replied to me that what I had said to you was good.
15. So I chose as your tribal leaders wise and well-known men, placing them over you as administrators of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and also as other tribal officials.
16. I furthermore admonished your judges at that time that they should pay attention to issues among your fellow citizens and judge fairly, whether between one citizen and another or a citizen and a resident foreigner.
17. They must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly and the great alike. Nor should they be intimidated by human beings, for judgment belongs to God. If the matter being adjudicated is too difficult for them, they should bring it before me for a hearing.
18. So I instructed you at that time regarding everything you should do.
19. Then we left Horeb and passed through all that immense, forbidding wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as the Lord our God had commanded us to do, finally arriving at Kadesh Barnea.
20. Then I said to you, “You have come to the Amorite hill country which the Lord our God is about to give us.
21. Look, he has placed the land in front of you! Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!”
22. So all of you approached me and said, “Let’s send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.”
23. I thought this was a good idea, so I sent twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.