Wanderings in the Wilderness

1And we turned and departed into the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we compassed mount Seir many days. 2And the Lord said to me, 3Ye have compassed this mount long enough; turn therefore toward the north. 4And charge the people, saying, Ye are going through the borders of your brethren the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they shall fear you, and dread you greatly. 5Do not engage in war against them, for I will not give you of their land even enough to set your foot upon, for I have given mount Seir to the children of Esau as an inheritance. 6Buy food of them for money and eat, and ye shall receive water of them by measure for money, and drink. 7For the Lord our God has blessed thee in every work of thy hands. Consider how thou wentest through that great and terrible wilderness: behold, the Lord thy God has been with thee forty years; thou didst not lack any thing.

8And we passed by our brethren the children of Esau, who dwelt in Seir, by the way of Araba from Aelon and from Gesion Gaber; and we turned and passed by the way of the desert of Moab. 9And the Lord said to me, Do not ye quarrel with the Moabites, and do not engage in war with them; for I will not give you of their land for an inheritance, for I have given Aroer to the children of Lot to inherit. 10Formerly the Ommin dwelt in it, a great and numerous nation and powerful, like the Enakim. 11These also shall be accounted Raphain like the Enakim; and the Moabites call them Ommin. 12And the Chorrhite dwelt in Seir before, and the sons of Esau destroyed them, and utterly consumed them from before them; and they dwelt in their place, as Israel did to the land of his inheritance, which the Lord gave to them. 13Now then, arise ye, said I, and depart, and cross the valley of Zaret. 14And the days in which we traveled from Cades Barne till we crossed the valley of Zaret, were thirty and eight years, until the whole generation of the men of war failed, dying out of the camp, as the Lord God sware to them. 15And the hand of the Lord was upon them to destroy them out of the midst of the camp, until they were consumed.

16And it came to pass when all the men of war dying out of the midst of the people had fallen, 17that the Lord spoke to me, saying, 18Thou shalt pass over this day the borders of Moab to Aroer; 19and ye shall draw nigh to the children of Amman: do not quarrel with them, nor wage war with them; for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Amman for an inheritance, because I have given it to the children of Lot for an inheritance. 20It shall be accounted a land of Raphain, for the Raphain dwelt there before, and the Ammanites call them Zochommin. 21A great nation and populous, and mightier than you, as also the Enakim: yet the Lord destroyed them from before them, and they inherited their land, and they dwelt there instead of them until this day. 22As they did to the children of Esau that dwell in Seir, even as they destroyed the Chorrhite from before them, and inherited their country, and dwelt therein instead of them until this day. 23And the Evites who dwell in Asedoth to Gaza, and the Cappadocians who came out of Cappadocia, destroyed them, and dwelt in their room.

The Defeat of Sihon

24Now then arise and depart, and pass over the valley of Arnon: behold, I have delivered into thy hands Seon the king of Esebon the Amorite, and his land: begin to inherit it: engage in war with him this day. 25Begin to put thy terror and thy fear on the face of all the nations under heaven, who shall be troubled when they have heard thy name, and shall be in anguish before thee.

26And I sent ambassadors from the wilderness of Kedamoth to Seon king of Esebon with peaceable words, saying, 27I will pass through thy land: I will go by the road, I will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 28Thou shalt give me food for money, and I will eat; and thou shalt give me water for money, and I will drink; I will only go through on my feet: 29as the sons of Esau did to me, who dwelt in Seir, and the Moabites who dwelt in Aroer, until I shall have passed Jordan into the land which the Lord our God gives us. 30And Seon king of Esebon would not that we should pass by him, because the Lord our God hardened his spirit, and made his heart stubborn, that he might be delivered into thy hands, as on this day. 31And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have begun to deliver before thee Seon the king of Esebon the Amorite, and his land, and do thou begin to inherit his land.

32And Seon the king of Esebon came forth to meet us, he and all his people to war at Jassa. 33And the Lord our God delivered him before our face, and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. 34And we took possession of all his cities at that time, and we utterly destroyed every city in succession, and their wives, and their children; we left no living prey. 35Only we took the cattle captive, and took the spoil of the cities. 36From Aroer, which is by the brink of the brook of Arnon, and the city which is in the valley, and as far as the mount of Galaad; there was not a city which escaped us: the Lord our God delivered all of them into our hands. 37Only we did not draw near to the children of Amman, even all the parts bordering on the brook Jaboc, and the cities in the mountain country, as the Lord our God charged us.