1 “Then we turned and set out toward the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as Yahweh told me, and we went around Mount Seir for many days.
2 Yahweh spoke to me, saying,
3 ‘Long enough you have been skirting this mountain; turn yourselves north,
4 and instruct the people, saying, “You are about to cross through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who are living in Seir; they will be afraid of you, and so be very careful.
5 Do not get involved in battle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even a foot’s breadth of it; since I have given Mount Seir as a possession for Esau.
6 You shall buy food from them so that you may eat; and also you shall purchase water from them with money so that you may drink.
7 The fact of the matter is, Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work you have done; he knows your travels with respect to this great wilderness; forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.” ’
8 And so we passed by our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, past the road of the Arabah, from Elath and Ezion Geber, and we turned and traveled along the route of the desert of Moab.
9 And Yahweh said to me, ‘You shall not attack Moab, and you shall not engage in war with them, for I will not give you any of his land as a possession; I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.’
10 (The Emim previously lived in it, a people large, numerous, and tall, like the Anakites.
11 They were reckoned also as Rephaim as the Anakites were; but the Moabites called them Emim.
12 The Horites previously lived in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from among themselves, as Israel did with respect to the land of their possession that Yahweh gave to them.)
13 So now arise and cross over the wadi of Zered yourselves; and so we crossed the wadi of Zered.
14 Now the length of time that we had traveled from Kadesh Barnea until the time when we crossed the wadi of Zered was thirty-eight years, until the perishing of all of that generation; that is, the men of war from the midst of the camp as Yahweh had sworn to them.
15 The hand of Yahweh was against them to root them out from the midst of the camp until they perished completely.
16 “And then when all the men of war had died from among the people,
17 Yahweh spoke to me, saying,
18 ‘You are about to cross over the boundary of Moab today at Ar.
19 When you approach the border of the Ammonites, you shall not harass them, and you shall not get involved in battle with them, for I have not given the land of the Ammonites to you as a possession; because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession.
20 (It is also considered the land of Rephaim; Rephaim lived in it previously, and the Ammonites called them Zamzummim,
21 a people great and numerous and as tall as the Anakites; Yahweh destroyed them from before them, and they dispossessed them and settled in place of them,
22 just as he did for the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them and dispossessed them, and then they settled in their place up to this day.
23 And also the Avvites, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, and the Caphtorim, who came out from Caphtor, destroyed them and then settled in their place.
24 Arise, set out and cross over the wadi of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession of it, and engage with him in battle.
25 This day I will begin to place the dread of you and the fear of you before the peoples under all the heavens. They will hear the report about you, and so they will shake and tremble because of you.’
26 “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon; I sent terms of peace, saying,
27 ‘Let me cross through your land and only along the road I will go; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left.
28 Food for money you shall sell me, so that I may eat, and water for money you will give to me, so that I may drink; just let me cross on foot.
29 Just as the descendants of Esau did for me, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, until I cross the Jordan into the land that Yahweh our God is giving to us.’
30 But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing to let us cross through his territory because Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made him obstinate in order to give him into your hand, just as he has now done.
31 Yahweh said to me, ‘Look! I have begun to give over to you Sihon and his land; begin to take possession of his land.’
32 Then Sihon and all his people came out to meet us for battle at Jahaz.
33 And so Yahweh our God gave him over to us, and we struck him down, and his sons and all of his people.
34 So we captured all of his cities at that time, and we destroyed each town of males and the women and the children; we did not leave behind a survivor.
35 We took only the livestock as spoil for ourselves, and also the booty of the cities that we had captured.
36 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi of Arnon and the city that was in the wadi on up to Gilead, there was not a city that was inaccessible to us; Yahweh our God gave everything to us.
37 Only the land of the Ammonites you did not approach, all along the whole upper region of the Jabbok River and the towns of the hill country, according to all that Yahweh our God had instructed.