12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
13 These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them.
14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying:“Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the travail that has happened to us;
15 how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers.
16 When we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice, sent an angel, and brought us out of Egypt. Behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the edge of your border.
17 “Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard, neither will we drink from the water of the wells. We will go along the king’s highway. We will not turn away to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed your border.”
18 Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you.”