38 Joshua, the son of Nun, your assistant, will go there; encourage him because he will cause Israel to inherit it.
39 And your little children, who you thought shall become plunder, and your sons, who do not today know good or bad, shall themselves go there, and I will give it to them, and they shall take possession of it.
40 But you turn and set out in the direction of the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.’
41 “You replied and said to me, ‘We have sinned against Yahweh, and now we will go up and fight according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us’; and so each man fastened on his battle gear, and you regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country.
42 So Yahweh said to me, ‘Say to them, “You shall not go up, and you shall not fight because I am not in your midst; you will be defeated before your enemies.” ’
43 So I spoke to you, but you did not listen; you rebelled against the command of Yahweh; you behaved presumptuously, and you went up into the hill country.
44 The Amorites living in the hill country went out to oppose you and chased you as a swarm of wild honey bees do; and so they beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.