Deuteronomy 2:1-21 ▼

1 “Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me, and circled Mount Seir for many days.

2 And Yahweh spoke to me, saying,

3 ‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north,

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

5 do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

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

7 For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.”’

8 “So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road, away from Elath and from Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

9 Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession.’

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

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

12 Now the Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel would do to the land of their possession which Yahweh gave to them.)

13 ‘Now arise and cross over the brook Zered yourselves.’ So we crossed over the brook Zered.

14 Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war came to an end from within the camp, as Yahweh had sworn to them.

15 Moreover the hand of Yahweh was against them, to bring them into confusion from within the camp until they all came to an end.

16 “So it happened when all the men of war had come to an end in death from among the people,

17 that Yahweh spoke to me, saying,

18 ‘Today you are about to cross over Ar, the border of Moab.

19 And you will come opposite the sons of Ammon. Do not harass them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession because I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession.’

20 (It is also regarded as the land of the Rephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin,

21 a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim, but Yahweh destroyed them before them. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place,