Deuteronomy 2

Then we turned around and went through the desert toward the Sea of Reeds as God told us to do. We wandered near Mount Seir for a long time.

Then God said to me,

‘You have been wandering around this hilly area for a long enough time. Now turn and travel toward the north. \*

And tell the people that they are about to travel near the land that belongs to the descendants of Esau, {who are also descendants of Isaac}, as you are. They live in the hilly area near Mount Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful.

Do not start to fight against them, because I am not going to give you even a tiny bit of their land. That is because I have given Mount Seir to the descendants of Esau. \*

{When you travel near their land}, buy food and water from them.’

Remember that God our God has blessed you in everything that you have done. He knows {what has happened to you} while you have wandered in this huge desert. God our God has protected you during those 40 years, and as a result you have had everything that you needed. \*

So we continued to travel. We avoided going through the hilly area of Seir where the descendants of Esau, who are also descendants of Isaac, live. We turned from the road {that goes along} the plain of the Jordan valley, and {comes up} from the city of Elath and the city of Ezion Geber. We traveled along the wilderness road of the kingdom of Moab. \*

God said to me, ‘Do not bother the people of Moab by starting to fight against them, because I am not going to give you any of their land. The reason is that they are descendants of Lot. I gave them the city of Ar, {their capital, and the other areas in that country}.’” \*

(There were people called the Emites that formerly lived there. They were as populous and tall as the descendants of Anak.

People also call both the Emites and the Anakites, Raphaites. The people of Moab call them Emites. \*

The Horite people also formerly lived in the area of Seir, but the descendants of Esau expelled them. They killed them and settled in their land, just as the Israelite people later expelled their enemies from the land that God gave to them.) \*

“Then we crossed Zered Gorge, as God told us to do.

It had been 38 years from the time we first left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed Zered Gorge. During those years, all the fighting men of that generation of Israelites died, as God had solemnly said would happen.

Furthermore, God opposed them, so he caused them to die. \*

After all the men who had been old enough to fight had died,

God said to me,

‘Today you must travel through the region of Moab, near Ar, their city.

When you come near the border of the land where the descendants of Ammon live, do not bother them or start to fight against them. The reason is that they are also descendants of Lot, so I am not going to give you any of the land that I have given to them.’” \*

(People also call that region the land of the Raphaites, who formerly lived there. The Ammonite people call them the Zamzummites.

They were as populous and tall as the Anakite people. But God caused them to die when the Ammonite people expelled them and settled in their land.

God had done the same thing for the descendants of Esau living in the hilly area of Seir. God eliminated the Horite people on behalf of the descendants of Esau who took over their land and who still live there. \*

As for the Avvite people, they lived in towns as far {south} as Gaza. The Caphtorite people from the island of Caphtor killed the Avvite people and settled in their land.) \*

“After we had gone through the region of Moab, God said to us, ‘Now cross the Arnon River valley. Know that I will help you to defeat the army of Sihon. Sihon is the king of the Amorites who live in the city of Heshbon. So attack their army and start to take their land from them.

Today I will begin to cause everyone, everywhere to be afraid of you. Everyone who hears about you will be very afraid of you.’ \*

Then I sent messengers to go from where we were in the Desert of Kedemoth to King Sihon at Heshbon. {I told them to give him} this peaceful message,

‘Please allow us to travel through your land. {We promise that} we will stay on the road. We will not turn off to the right or to the left. \*

We will pay you for food and water. We want only to walk through your land

until we cross the Jordan River into the land that God our God is giving to us. Do for us just as the descendants of Esau who live in the area of Seir and the Moabite people who live in the city of Ar did {for us when they allowed us to go through their land.}’ \*

But King Sihon of Heshbon would not allow us to go through his country. That is because God our God caused him to be stubborn so that God could cause us to defeat his army and take his land, in which we still live.

God said to me, ‘Know that I am starting to allow you to defeat Sihon’s army and to take the people’s land from them. So enter it now until you occupy it fully!’ \*

Then Sihon and his soldiers marched out to fight against us at the town of Jahaz.

But God our God caused us to defeat them. We killed Sihon, his son, and all his soldiers. \*

We captured and destroyed all of King Sihon’s cities. {We killed} the men, women, and children. We did not allow any of them to remain alive.

However, we did take the livestock and valuable things from the cities that we captured. \*

God our God enabled us to capture all their towns from the city of Aroer in the south, which is at the edge of the Arnon River valley, to the region of Gilead in the north. Some of their cities had walls around them, but we were still able to capture them.

But we did not go near the area where the descendants of Ammon live, the banks of the Jabbok River, the towns of the hilly area, or any other place where God our God told us not to go. \*