Deuteronomy 2
1 “Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea, as the LORD had told me, and for many days we traveled around Mount Seir.
2 The LORD said to me:
3 ‘You have traveled around this mountain long enough. Turn north.
4 Command the people: «You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so be very careful.
5 Do not provoke them, because I will not give you any of their land, not even enough for a foot to stand on. I gave Mount Seir to Esau as his possession.
6 Buy food from them with silver and eat it. Also buy water from them with silver and drink it.
7 For the LORD your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.»’
8 So we passed by our relatives, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, leaving the road through the Arabah that comes from Elath and Ezion-geber. Then we turned and went along the wilderness road toward Moab.
9 The LORD said to me: ‘Do not harass Moab or provoke them to war, because I will not give you any of their land as a possession. I gave Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.’
10 The Emites used to live there, a people great in number and tall as the Anakim.
11 They too were considered Rephaim, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emites.
12 The Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land that became its possession, which the LORD gave them.”
13 “‘Now get up and cross the brook Zered.’ So we crossed the brook Zered.
14 It took us thirty-eight years to travel from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered. By then the whole generation of fighting men had died out from the camp, just as the LORD had sworn to them.
15 The LORD’s hand was against them too, to wipe them out from the camp until they were gone.
16 When all the fighting men among the people had died,
17 the LORD spoke to me:
18 ‘Today you are going to cross the border of Moab at Ar.
19 When you approach the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them, because I will not give you any of the land of the Ammonites as a possession. I gave it to the descendants of Lot as their possession.’
20 That too was considered the land of the Rephaim. The Rephaim used to live there, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummites.
21 They were a people great in number and tall as the Anakim, but the LORD destroyed them before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place.
22 He did the same for the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them. They drove them out and live in their place to this day.
23 As for the Avvim, who lived in settlements as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites who came from Caphtor destroyed them and settled in their place.
24 ‘Get up, set out, and cross the Arnon Valley. Look, I have handed over Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land to you. Begin taking possession of it, and go to war against him.
25 Today I will begin to make every people under heaven dread and fear you. When they hear reports about you, they will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’”
26 “Then from the wilderness of Kedemoth I sent messengers to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with a peaceful offer:
27 ‘Let me pass through your land. I will stay on the road and keep to it; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left.
28 Sell me food for silver so I can eat, and give me water for silver so I can drink. I only want to pass through on foot.
29 The descendants of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did this for me, until I cross the Jordan into the land the LORD our God is giving us.’
30 But Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let us pass through his land, because the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart stubborn, in order to hand him over to you, as is the case today.
31 The LORD said to me: ‘Look, I have begun to hand Sihon and his land over to you. Begin taking possession of it, so you may possess his land.’
32 Then Sihon came out to meet us for battle, he and all his people, at Jahaz.
33 The LORD our God handed him over to us, and we defeated him, his sons, and all his people.
34 At that time we captured all his towns and devoted every town to destruction: the men, the women, and the children. We left no survivors.
35 We took only the livestock for ourselves, along with the plunder from the towns we captured.
36 From Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and from the town in the valley, all the way to Gilead, no fortress was too high for us. The LORD our God handed everything over to us.
37 But you did not approach the land of the Ammonites: the whole bank of the Jabbok River, the towns in the hill country, and everything the LORD our God had commanded.”
Read and listen to this chapter in the Shalem app, free: narration, chapter video and reading progress. Get the app