1   So we turned and set out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea as the Lord had told me we must do, and we spent many days marching round the hill-country of Seir. 2    3   Then the Lord said to me, ‘You have been long enough marching round these hills; turn towards the north. 4   And give the people this charge: “You are about to go through the territory of your kinsmen the descendants of Esau who live in Seir. 5   Although they are afraid of you, be on your guard and do not provoke them; for I shall not give you any of their land, not so much as a foot's-breadth: I have given the hill-country of Seir to Esau as a possession. 6   You may purchase food from them for silver, and eat it, and you may buy ^note water to drink.”’ 7   The Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have undertaken; he has watched your journey through this great wilderness; these forty years the Lord your God has been with you and you have gone short of nothing. 8   So we went on past our kinsmen, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, and along ^note the road of the Arabah which comes from Elath and Ezion-geber, and we turned and followed the road to the wilderness of Moab. 9   There the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass the Moabites nor provoke them to battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a Possession.’ 10   (The Emim once lived there— a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. 11   The Rephaim also were reckoned as Anakim; but the Moabites called them Emim. 12   The Horites lived in Seir at one time, but the descendants of Esau occupied their territory: they destroyed them as they advanced and then settled in the land instead of them, just as Israel did in their own territory which the Lord gave them.) 13   ‘Come now, cross the gorge of the Zared.’ 14   So we went across. The journey from Kadesh-barnea to the crossing

Primary charge of Moses to the people of the Zared took us thirty-eight years, until the whole generation of fighting men had passed away as the Lord had sworn that they would. 15   The Lord's hand was raised against them, and he rooted them out of the camp to the last man.

16    17   When the last of the fighting men among the people had died, the Lord spoke to me, 18   ‘Today’, he said, ‘you are to cross by Ar ^note which lies on the frontier of Moab, 19   and when you reach the territory of the Ammonites, you must not harass them or provoke them to battle, for I will not give you any Ammonite land as a possession; I have assigned it to the descendants of Lot.’ 20   (This also is reckoned as the territory of the Rephaim, who lived there at one time; but the Ammonites called them Zamzummim. 21   They were a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim, but the Lord destroyed them as the Ammonites advanced and occupied their territory instead of them, 22   just as he had done for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir. As they advanced, he destroyed the Horites so that they occupied their territory and took possession instead of them: so it is to this day. 23   It was Caphtorites from Caphtor who destroyed the Avvim who lived in the hamlets near Gaza, and settled in the land instead of them.) 24   ‘Come, set out on your journey and cross the gorge of the Arnon, for I have put Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his territory into your hands. Begin to occupy it and provoke him to battle. 25   Today I will begin to put the fear and dread of you upon all the peoples under heaven; if they so much as hear a rumour of you, they will quake and tremble before you.’

26   Then I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with these peaceful overtures: 27   ‘Grant us passage through your country by the highway: we will keep to the highway, trespassing neither to right nor to left, 28   and we will pay you the full price for the food we eat and the water we drink. 29   The descendants of Esau who live in Seir granted us passage, and so did the Moabites who live in Ar. We will simply pass through your land on foot, until we cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord our God is giving us.’ 30   But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to grant us passage; for the Lord your God had made him stubborn and obstinate, in order that he and his land might become subject to you, as it still is. 31   So the Lord said to me, ‘Come, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his territory into your hands. 32   Begin now to occupy his land.’ Then Sihon with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz, 33   and the Lord our God delivered him into our hands; we killed him with his sons and all his people. 34   We captured all his cities at that time and put to death everyone in the cities, men, women, and dependants; we left no survivor. 35   We took the cattle as booty and plundered the cities we captured. 36   From Aroer on the edge

Primary charge of Moses to the people of the gorge of the Arnon and the level land of the gorge, as far as Gilead, no city walls were too lofty for us; the Lord our God laid them all open to us. 37   But you avoided the territory of the Ammonites, both the parts along the gorge of the Jabbok and their cities in the hills, thus fulfilling all ^note that the Lord our God had commanded.

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