The Wilderness Years

¹“Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, eas the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. ²Then the Lord said to me, ³‘You have been traveling around this mountain country flong enough. Turn northward ⁴and command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of gyour brothers, the people of Esau, hwho live in Seir; and ithey will be afraid of you. So be very careful. ⁵Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because hI have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ⁶jYou shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink. ⁷For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. kHe knows your going through this great wilderness. lThese forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ ⁸So mwe went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from nthe Arabah road from oElath and pEzion-geber.

“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹And the Lord said to me, q‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given rAr to sthe people of Lot for a possession.’ ¹⁰(tThe Emim formerly lived there, ua people great and many, and tall vas the Anakim. ¹¹Like the Anakim they are also counted as wRephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ¹²xThe Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, yas Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.) ¹³‘Now rise up and go over zthe brook Zered.’ So we went over zthe brook Zered. ¹⁴And the time from our leaving aKadesh-barnea until we crossed bthe brook Zered was thirty-eight years, cuntil the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.

¹⁶“So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, ¹⁷the Lord said to me, ¹⁸‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. ¹⁹And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, ddo not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to ethe sons of Lot for a possession.’ ²⁰(It is also counted as a land of fRephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— ²¹ga people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites,1 and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, ²²as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed hthe Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. ²³As for ithe Avvim, who lived in villages as far as jGaza, kthe Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) ²⁴‘Rise up, set out on your journey and lgo over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of mHeshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and ncontend with him in battle. ²⁵This day I will begin to put othe dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

The Defeat of King Sihon

²⁶“So I sent messengers from the wilderness of pKedemoth to Sihon the king of mHeshbon, qwith words of peace, saying, ²⁷r‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. ²⁸sYou shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, ²⁹tas the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’ ³⁰But uSihon the king of mHeshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God vhardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day. ³¹And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ ³²Then wSihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. ³³And xthe Lord our God gave him over to us, and ywe defeated him and his sons and all his people. ³⁴And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction2 every zcity, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. ³⁵Only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities that we captured. ³⁶aFrom Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and from bthe city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. cThe Lord our God gave all into our hands. ³⁷Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river dJabbok and the cities of the hill country, whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us.