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we turned back and set out toward the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me, and we travelled around the hill country of Seir for many days.
2 “Then the Lord said to me, 3 ‘You have been travelling around this hill country long enough; turn and head north. 4 Command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but you must be very careful. 5 Do not provoke them to battle, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put a foot on, for I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his possession. 6 You can buy food from them with silver, so that you may eat, and buy water from them to drink’.
7 “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. The Lord your God has been with you these forty years, and you have not lacked anything.
8 “So we went on past our brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah road and from Elath and Ezion-geber, and travelled along the road through the Wilderness of Moab.
9 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or provoke them to battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession’.”
10 (The Emin had lived there previously, a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakim. 11 Like the Anakim, they were also regarded as Rephaim, but the Moabites called them Emim. 12 The Horites previously lived in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them, and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the Lord gave them as their possession.)
13 “The Lord said, ‘Now get up and cross the Zered Brook’. So we crossed the Zered Brook. 14 The length of time we spent travelling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Zered Brook was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. 15 Indeed, the hand of the Lord was against them, to eliminate them from the camp until they had all perished.
16 “Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died, 17 the Lord said to me, 18 ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. 19 When you approach the frontier of the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to battle, for I will not give you possession of any of the land belonging to the Ammonites; I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.”
20 (This too had also been considered as a land of the Rephaim. The Rephaim had formerly inhabited it, though the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, 21 a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakim. The Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place. 22 This is the same as the Lord had done for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them. They drove them out, and have lived in their place until now. 23 And as for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim came from Caphtor and destroyed them and settled in their place.)
24 “ ‘Set out now on your journey and cross the Arnon Valley. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle. 25 This very day I will begin to put the fear and dread of you on all the nations under the whole heaven. They will hear the report about you, and tremble and be in anguish because of you’.
26 “So from the Wilderness of Kedemoth I sent messengers to Sihon king of Heshbon offering these terms of peace:
27 ‘Let us pass through your land. We will keep strictly to the road; we will not turn aside either to the right or to the left. 28 You can sell us food in exchange for silver so we may eat, and supply us with water for silver, so we may drink. Only let us pass through on foot, 29 just as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir did for us, and also the Moabites who live in Ar, until we cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us’.
30 “But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through his land, for the Lord your God had hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate in order to hand him over to you, as He has now done.
31 “The Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land to you. Begin to take possession of it’.
32 “So when Sihon and his whole army came out against us for battle at Jahaz, 33 the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. 34 At that time we captured all his cities and completely destroyed them, along with the men, women, and children. We left no survivors. 35 We took only the livestock and the plunder from the cities we had captured. 36 From Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and from the city in the ravine, even as far as Gilead, there was not one city that was too strong for us. The Lord our God gave us all of them. 37 But you did not encroach on any of the land belonging to the Ammonites, all along the River Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, or any place where the Lord our God had forbidden us.”