A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy.

These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness,

and the araba opposite Suf, between Peran and Tofel, Laban, Haziroth, and Dizahab.

It is 11 days journey from Horib by the way of Mount Seer to Kadesh Barnea.

In the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel

according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them, after he had defeated

Sion the king of the Amorites, who lived in Eshban, an Og, the king of Bation, who lived in Astoroth,

and in Adriai. Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law saying,

The Lord our God said to us in Horab, you have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take

your journey and go to the hill country of the Amarites and to all their

neighbors in the Araba, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and in the Negeb, and by the sea coast,

the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon as far as the Great River, the River Euphrates. See, I have

set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your

fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them, and to their offspring after them.

At that time I said to you, I am not able to bear you by myself. The Lord your God has multiplied

you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. 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.

How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? Choose for your tribes,

wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.

And you answered me, the thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.

So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you,

commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of 50s, commanders of tens and officers

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