Deuteronomy 2

¹Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea , as the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir .

²Then the Lord said to me,

³You have been traveling around this mountain country long enough . Turn northward

⁴and command the people , You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers , the people of Esau , who live in Seir ; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful .

⁵Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land , no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on , because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession .

⁶You shall purchase food from them with money , that you may eat , and you shall also buy water from them with money , that you may drink .

⁷For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands . He knows your going through this great wilderness . These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing .

⁸So we went on , away from our brothers , the people of Esau , who live in Seir , away from the Arabah road from Elath and Ezion-geber . And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab .

⁹And the Lord said to me, Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle , for I will not give you any of their land for a possession , because I have given Ar to the people of Lot for a possession .

¹⁰( The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many , and tall as the Anakim .

¹¹Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim , but the Moabites call them Emim .

¹²The Horites also lived in Seir formerly , but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place , as Israel did to the land of their possession , which the Lord gave to them.)

¹³Now rise up and go over the brook Zered . So we went over the brook Zered .

¹⁴And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years , until the entire generation , that is, the men of war , had perished from the camp , as the Lord had sworn to them.

¹⁵For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp , until they had perished .

¹⁶So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people ,

¹⁷the Lord said to me,

¹⁸Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar .

¹⁹And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon , do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession , because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession .

²⁰(It is also counted as a land of Rephaim . Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim —

²¹a people great and many , and tall as the Anakim ; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they dispossessed them and settled in their place ,

²²as he did for the people of Esau , who live in Seir , when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day .

²³As for the Avvim , who lived in villages as far as Gaza , the Caphtorim , who came from Caphtor , destroyed them and settled in their place .)

²⁴Rise up , set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon . Behold , I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite , king of Heshbon , and his land . Begin to take possession , and contend with him in battle .

²⁵This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven , who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you .

²⁶So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon , with words of peace , saying ,

²⁷Let me pass through your land . I will go only by the road ; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left .

²⁸You shall sell me food for money , that I may eat , and give me water for money , that I may drink . Only let me pass through on foot ,

²⁹as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.

³⁰But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate , that he might give him into your hand , as he is this day .

³¹And the Lord said to me, Behold , I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession , that you may occupy his land .

³²Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people , to battle at Jahaz .

³³And the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people .

³⁴And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction every city , men , women , and children . We left no survivors .

³⁵Only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities that we captured .

³⁶From Aroer , which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon , and from the city that is in the valley , as far as Gilead , there was not a city too high for us. The Lord our God gave all into our hands .

³⁷Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near , that is, to all the banks of the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country , whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us .