2 Then we turned and traveled toward the wilderness on the road to the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me, and we traveled for many days to get around the area of Mount Seir.^[a]

The Journey Past Edom

² Then the Lord said to me, ³ “You have been traveling around this mountainous region long enough. Turn north ⁴ and command the people, ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who are living in Seir, and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. ⁵ Do not wage war against them because I am not going to give you any of their land, not even an area the size of a footprint, because I have given the Mount Seir region to Esau as a possession. ⁶ You may buy food from them with money so you can eat, and you may purchase water from them with money so you can drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your trek through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have not lacked anything.’” ⁸ So we passed by the territory of our brothers, the people of Esau, who were living in Seir. After leaving the Arabah Road, Elat, and Ezion Geber behind us, we turned and we traveled along the road of the Wilderness of Moab.

The Journey Past Moab

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, “Do not be hostile toward Moab and do not wage war against them in battle, because I am not going to give you any of their land as a possession, since I have given Ar to the people of Lot as a possession.”

¹⁰ (The Emites formerly lived in it, a strong, numerous people and tall like the Anakites. ¹¹ They, like the Anakites, are also considered to be Rephaim,^[b] but the Moabites call them Emites. ¹² The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau took possession of their land and destroyed them from their midst. They settled there in their place, just as Israel did in the land that the Lord gave to them as their possession.)

¹³ Then the Lord told us:^[c] “Now get ready and cross the Zered Canyon.” So we crossed over the Zered Canyon. ¹⁴ The time that we traveled from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Zered Canyon was thirty-eight years, until that whole generation of fighting men were eliminated from the camp, just as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ Yes indeed, the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from the camp until they were eliminated.

The Journey Past Ammon

¹⁶ Just as soon as all those fighting men were eliminated from the people by their death, ¹⁷ the Lord spoke to me: ¹⁸ “Today you are going to cross the border of Moab at Ar. ¹⁹ When you come near the people of Ammon, do not be hostile toward them and do not wage war against them, because I am not going to give any of the land of the people of Ammon to you as a possession, since I have given it to the people of Lot as a possession.”

²⁰ (It also is considered to be the land of the Rephaim. The Rephaim lived in it formerly, but the Ammonites call them Zamzumites. ²¹ They are a strong and numerous people and as tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed the Rephaim from among the Ammonites. The Ammonites took possession of their land and lived there in their place. ²² The Lord had done the same things for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them, and they took possession of their land and settled there in their place and remain there to this day. ²³ Now the Caphtorites, who came out of Caphtor,^[d] destroyed the Avvites who were living in villages as far as Gaza and settled in their place.)

Confrontation With the Amorites

²⁴ Then the Lord told us:^[e] “Get ready to travel and cross over the Arnon Canyon. See, I have given into your hands Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Start to take possession of it and wage war against him. ²⁵ This very day I will begin to put dread and fear of you on the faces of the people everywhere under heaven, so that they will hear reports about you and they will tremble, and they will be shaking because of you.”

²⁶ So I sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedmoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with an offer of peace. I said, ²⁷ “Let us pass through your land. We will proceed only on the road. We will not turn aside to the right or to the left. ²⁸ You can sell us food in exchange for money so we can eat, and you can give us water in exchange for money so we can drink. Only let us pass through on foot, ²⁹ as did the people of Esau living in Seir and the Moabites living in Ar, until we can cross over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving us.”

³⁰ But Sihon king of the Amorites was not willing to let us pass through on the road, because the Lord your God gave him a stubborn attitude by making his heart obstinate, in order to give him over into your hands, as is now the case today. ³¹ Then the Lord said to me, “Look now, I have begun to give you Sihon and his land. Start taking action to take possession of his land.”

³² Then Sihon and all of his people went out to meet us in battle at Jahaz. ³³ The Lord our God gave him to us, and we struck him down, as well as his sons and all his people. ³⁴ So we captured each of his cities at that time. We devoted each city to destruction, with the men, women, and children. We did not leave a survivor. ³⁵ We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, as well as the spoils of war from the cities that we captured. ³⁶ From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Arnon Canyon, from the city that is in the canyon, all the way up to Gilead, there was not a city that was out of reach for us. The Lord our God gave us everything. ³⁷ But it was only the land of the people of Ammon that you did not approach: the land along both sides of the Jabbok Canyon, the cities of the hill country, and everything that the Lord our God had forbidden us to take.