JOURNEY PAST SEIR

2 “Then we turned back and headed for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea,l as the Lord had told me, and we traveled around the hill country of Seir for many days. 2 The Lord then said to me, 3 ‘You’ve been traveling around this hill country long enough; turn north.m 4 Command the people: You are about to travel through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so be very careful. 5 Don’t provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even a foot of it,D because I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his possession.n 6 You may purchase food from them, so that you may eat, and buy water from them to drink.o 7 For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands.p He has watched over your journey through this immense wilderness. The Lord your God has been with you these past forty years, and you have lacked nothing.’q

JOURNEY PAST MOAB

8 “So we bypassed our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah road and from Elath and Ezion-geber.r We traveled along the road to the Wilderness of Moab. 9 The Lord said to me, ‘Show no hostility toward Moab, and do not provoke them to battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, since I have given Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.’ ”s

10 The Emim, a great and numerous people as tall as the Anakim,t had previously lived there. 11 They were also regarded as Rephaim,u like the Anakim, though the Moabites called them Emim.v 12 The Horitesw had previously lived in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out, destroying them completelyE and settling in their place, just as Israel did in the land of its possession the Lord gave them.

13 “The Lord said, ‘Now get up and cross the Zered Valley.’ So we crossed the Zered Valley.x 14 The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley was thirty-eight years until the entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. 15 Indeed, the Lord’s hand was against them, to eliminatey them from the camp until they had all perished.z

JOURNEY PAST AMMON

16 “When all the fighting men had died among the people, 17 the Lord spoke to me, 18 ‘Today you are going to cross the border of Moab at Ar. 19 When you get close to the Ammonites, don’t show any hostility to them or provoke them, for I will not give you any of the Ammonites’ land as a possession; I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.’ ”a

20 This too used to be regarded as the land of the Rephaim. The Rephaim lived there previously, though the Ammonites called them Zamzummim,b 21 a great and numerous people, tall as the Anakim. The Lord destroyed the Rephaim at the advance of the Ammonites, so that they drove them out and settled in their place. 22 This was just as he had done for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them; they drove them out and have lived in their place until now. 23 The Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor,A,c destroyed the Avvites, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, and settled in their place.