Deuteronomy

¹Then we turned and headed back into the wilderness toward the Red Sea, as the LORD had directed. We wandered around the hill country of Seir for a long time.

²Then the LORD said to me,

³'You have been wandering around this hill country long enough. Turn north.

⁴Give the people these orders: You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so be very careful.

⁵Do not provoke them, because I will not give you any of their land — not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau's descendants the hill country of Seir as their own.

⁶You may buy food from them with silver to eat, and you may also buy water from them with silver to drink.

⁷The LORD your God has blessed everything you have done and watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.'

⁸So we passed by our relatives, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah road, which goes through Elath and Ezion-geber, and traveled along the desert road of Moab.

⁹The LORD said to me, 'Do not harass Moab or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.'

¹⁰(The Emites used to live there — a large, powerful, and tall people, like the Anakites.

¹¹They were also considered Rephaites, like the Anakites, but the Moabites called them Emites.

¹²Horites also used to live in Seir, but Esau's descendants drove them out and took over the land, just as Israel did in the land the LORD gave them.)

¹³'Now get up and cross the Zered Valley.' So we crossed it.

¹⁴Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then the entire generation of fighting men had died, as the LORD had sworn to them.

¹⁵The LORD's hand was against them to destroy them from the camp until they were all gone.

¹⁶When the last of the fighting men had died,

¹⁷the LORD said to me,

¹⁸'Today you are passing through the territory of Moab, through the area of Ar.

¹⁹When you come close to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession.'

²⁰(That land was also considered Rephaite territory. Rephaites used to live there; the Ammonites called them Zamzummites.

²¹They were a large, powerful, and tall people, like the Anakites, but the LORD destroyed them before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place.

²²The LORD had done the same for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them — they drove them out and have lived there to this day.

²³As for the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.)

²⁴'Set out now and cross the Arnon Valley. I have handed over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, along with his land. Begin the conquest — engage him in battle.

²⁵This very day I will begin to put fear and dread of you on all the nations under heaven. When they hear reports about you, they will tremble and writhe in anguish because of you.'

²⁶From the wilderness of Kedemoth I sent messengers to Sihon king of Heshbon with this offer of peace:

²⁷'Let us pass through your land. We will travel only on the main road and won't turn to the right or left.

²⁸Sell us food for silver so we can eat, and sell us water for silver so we can drink. Just let us walk through —

²⁹as the descendants of Esau living in Seir did for us, and as the Moabites in Ar did — until we cross the Jordan into the land the LORD our God is giving us.'

³⁰But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. The LORD your God had made him stubborn and obstinate so that he could hand him over to you, as he has now done.

³¹The LORD said to me, 'See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land over to you. Now begin to conquer and possess his land.'

³²When Sihon and all his army came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz,

³³the LORD our God delivered him over to us, and we struck him down — him, his sons, and his whole army.

³⁴We captured all his towns at that time and completely destroyed every town — men, women, and children. We left no survivors.

³⁵We kept only the livestock and the plunder from the towns we had captured.

³⁶From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley and the town in the valley itself, all the way to Gilead, no town was too strong for us. The LORD our God gave them all to us.

³⁷But as the LORD our God had commanded, you did not encroach on the Ammonite territory — not the land along the Jabbok River or the towns in the hill country.