39 “Then the Lord said to all of us, ‘Your children, who are still too young to know right from wrong, will enter the land—the children you said would be seized by your enemies. I will give the land to them, and they will occupy it.
40 But as for you people, turn around and go back into the desert on the road to the Gulf of Aqaba.’
41 “You replied, ‘Moses, we have sinned against the Lord. But now we will attack, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ Then each one of you got ready to fight, thinking it would be easy to invade the hill country.
42 “But the Lord said to me, ‘Warn them not to attack, for I will not be with them, and their enemies will defeat them.’
43 I told you what the Lord had said, but you paid no attention. You rebelled against him, and in your pride you marched into the hill country.
44 Then the Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you like a swarm of bees. They chased you as far as Hormah and defeated you there in the hill country of Edom.
45 So you cried out to the Lord for help, but he would not listen to you or pay any attention to you.