fathers did, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to inspect the land.'

Then the people came near to him and said, 'We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle and cities for our little ones, but we ourselves will be armed and ready to go before the Israelites until we have brought them to their place, while our little ones remain in the fortified cities, because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until every Israelite has entered into possession of his inheritance. For we will have no inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has fallen to us on this, the eastern side of the Jordan.'

Then Moses said to them, 'If you will do this, if you will arm yourselves to go to battle before Jehovah and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before Jehovah until he has driven out his enemies before him and the land is subdued before him, then afterwards you may return and in the judgment both of Jehovah and of Israel be free from all obligation; and this land shall be yours as a possession before Jehovah. But if you will not do so, then you have sinned against Jehovah, and know that your sin will find you out. Build cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do that which you have promised.' Then the Gadites and the Reubenites said to Moses, 'Your servants will do as our lord commands. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle shall remain there in the cities of Gilead, but your servants will pass over, every man armed for war to battle before Jehovah, as my lord says.'

DEUTERONOMY

THE FOUNDATIONS OF A STABLE NATIONAL LIFE

54. THE MEANING OF ISRAEL'S EXPERIENCES

These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan: 'You shall remember all the experiences through which Jehovah your God led you during these forty years in the wilderness, that he might make you humble and that he might test you and know what is in your heart, and whether you would keep his commands or not. He made you humble and let you feel hunger and then fed you with manna with which neither you nor your forefathers were familiar, that he might make you know that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of Jehovah.

"The clothing that you wore did not wear out, neither did your feet blister these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Jehovah your God is disciplining you.

'Keep the commands of Jehovah your God, to live in the ways which he approves and to revere him. For Jehovah your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams of water, with fountains and deep springs gushing forth on vale and hill, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates, a land of olive-trees and honey, a land where you may eat food in abundance and lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you

may dig copper. You shall eat and be satisfied and give praise to Jehovah your God for the good land which he has given you.

"Take care that you do not forget Jehovah your God, and fail to observe his commands, his ordinances, and his statutes which I command you this day. And, when you have food enough to eat and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks, your silver and your gold and all that you have increase, take care that you are not filled with pride and forget Jehovah your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness in which there were venomous serpents and scorpions and the desert where there was no water, and who brought you water out of the flinty rock. Take care that you do not say in your heart: "My power and the might of my hand have won this wealth for me.' But you shall remember Jehovah your God, for it is he who gives you power to win wealth, that he may carry out, as he is doing this day, the solemn agreement which he swore to your forefathers to fulfil.

'But if you forget Jehovah your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them, I warn you this day that you will surely perish. You shall perish like the nations that Jehovah destroyed before you, because you will not listen to the voice of Jehovah your God.

'But if you will listen attentively to the voice of Jehovah your God, to observe and do all his commands which I command you this day, your God will set you far above all the nations of the earth. You shall be blessed in the city and in the field. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the fruit of your lands and the offspring of your cattle, the increase of your

herd, and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough. Blessed shall you be when you go out, and blessed shall you be when you return from your toil.

'Jehovah will cause your enemies that attack you to be vanquished before you; they shall come out against you one way, but shall flee before you seven ways. Jehovah will command his blessing upon you in your harvest and in all that you undertake, and he will bless you in the land which he gives you. Jehovah will make you a people consecrated to himself, as he has solemnly promised you, provided that you keep the commands of Jehovah your God and live in accordance with his laws.

'All the peoples of the earth shall see that you bear the name of Jehovah, and shall stand in awe of you. Jehovah will give you abounding prosperity in the offspring of your body and of your cattle, and in the fruit of your land, in the land which Jehovah swore to your fathers to give you. Jehovah will open to you his good treasure in the heavens to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. Jehovah will make you the head, not the tail, and you shall always tend upward rather than downward, if you will heed the commands of Jehovah your God, which I command you this day, to observe and do them.

'For the land of which you are going to take possession is not like the land of Egypt, from whence you came, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it as you do a vegetable garden. The land of which you are going to take possession is a land of hills and valleys and drinks water as the rain of heaven comes down. It is a land for which Jehovah your God cares,

for he is ever watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year.'

55. MOSES' FINAL CHARGE TO HIS PEOPLE

Then Moses said to all the Israelites, 'I am a hundred and twenty years old this day. I can no longer go out and come in, and Jehovah has said to me, “You shall not go over this Jordan." Jehovah your God is going over before you; he will destroy these nations before you, and you shall drive them out; and Joshua is going over to lead you as Jehovah has commanded. Jehovah will do to them and to their land as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites whom he destroyed. He will deliver them up before you and you shall do to them exactly as I have commanded you. Be courageous and strong, fear not, neither be terrified before them, for Jehovah your God is leading you; he will not fail you nor forsake you.'

Moses also called Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, 'Be courageous and strong, for you shall bring this people into the land which Jehovah has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it. Jehovah is going before you; he will be with you, he will not fail nor forsake you; fear not, nor be dismayed.'

Then Moses went up on the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the summit of Pisgah opposite Jericho. And Jehovah showed him all the land, even Gilead as far as Dan, and all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean, and the South Country and the circular basin that includes the valley about Jericho, the City of Palms, and extends as far as Zoar. Jehovah said to him, 'This is the land which I have promised