40 But you must turn around and follow the desert road toward the Red Sea.”
41 Then you said to me, “We have sinned against the Lord, but now we will go up and fight, as the Lord our God commanded us.” Then all of you put on weapons, thinking it would be easy to go into the mountains.
42 But the Lord said to me, “Tell the people, ‘You must not go up there and fight. I will not be with you, and your enemies will defeat you.’ ”
43 So I told you, but you would not listen. You would not obey the Lord’s command. You were proud, so you went on up into the mountains,
44 and the Amorites who lived in those mountains came out and fought you. They chased you like bees and defeated you from Edom to Hormah.
45 So you came back and cried before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to you; he refused to pay attention to you.
46 So you stayed in Kadesh a long time.