Deuteronomy 2–4

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. ²The 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. ⁵Don’t provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even a foot of it,^B 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. ⁹The 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

¹⁰The Emim, a great and numerous people as tall as the Anakim,^t had previously lived there. ¹¹They were also regarded as Rephaim,^u like the Anakim, though the Moabites called them Emim.^{v 12}The Horites^w had previously lived in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out, destroying them completely^C 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. ¹⁵Indeed, the Lord’s hand was against them, to eliminate^y them from the camp until they had all perished.^z

JOURNEY PAST AMMON

¹⁶“When all the fighting men had died among the people, ¹⁷the Lord spoke to me, ¹⁸‘Today you are going to cross the border of Moab at Ar. ¹⁹When 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

²⁰This 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. ²²This 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. ²³The Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor,^Ac destroyed the Avvites, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, and settled in their place.

DEFEAT OF SIHON THE AMORITE

²⁴“The Lord also said, ‘Get up, move out, and cross the Arnon Valley. See, I have handed the Amorites’ King Sihon of Heshbon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession of it; engage^B him in battle.^{d 25}Today I will begin to put the fear and dread of you on the peoples everywhere under heaven. They will hear the report about you, tremble, and be in anguish because of you.’^e

²⁶“So I sent messengers with an offer of peace^f to King Sihon of Heshbon from the Wilderness of Kedemoth, saying, ²⁷‘Let us travel through your land; we will keep strictly to the highway. We will not turn to the right or the left.^{g 28}You can sell us food in exchange for silver so we may eat, and give us water for silver so we may drink. Only let us travel through on foot, ²⁹just as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir did for us, and the Moabites who live in Ar, until we cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.’ ³⁰But King Sihon of Heshbon would not let us travel through his land, for the Lord your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to hand him over to you, as has now taken place.^h

³¹“Then the Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land to you. Begin to take possession of it.’ ³²So Sihon and his whole army came out against us for battle at Jahaz. ³³The Lord our God handed him over to us,ⁱ and we defeated him, his sons, and his whole army. ³⁴At that time we captured all his cities and completely destroyed the people of every city, including the women and children. We left no survivors.^{j 35}We took only the livestock and the spoil from the cities we captured as plunder for ourselves. ³⁶There was no city that was inaccessible to^Ck us, from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead.^l The Lord our God gave everything to us. ³⁷But you did not go near the Ammonites’ land, all along the bank of the Jabbok River,^m the cities of the hill country, or any place that the Lord our God had forbidden.ⁿ

DEFEAT OF OG OF BASHAN

3“Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and King Og of Bashan^o came out against us with his whole army to do battle at Edrei.^{p 2}But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you along with his whole army and his land. Do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites,^q who lived in Heshbon.’ ³So the Lord our God also handed over King Og of Bashan and his whole army to us. We struck him until there was no survivor left.^{r 4}We captured all his cities at that time. There wasn’t a city that we didn’t take from them: sixty cities, the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵All these were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a large number of rural villages. ⁶We completely destroyed them, as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon, destroying the men, women, and children of every city. ⁷But we took all the livestock and the spoil from the cities as plunder for ourselves.^s

THE LAND OF THE TRANSJORDAN TRIBES

⁸“At that time we took the land from the two Amorite kings across the Jordan,^t from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon, ⁹which the Sidonians call Sirion, but the Amorites call Senir, ¹⁰all the cities of the plateau, Gilead, and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of Og’s kingdom in Bashan.^{u 11}(Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim.^v His bed^A was made of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the Ammonites?^a It is 13½ feet long and 6 feet wide by a standard measure.^B)^b

¹²“At that time we took possession of this land.^c I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites the area extending from Aroer by the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead along with its cities. ¹³I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh the rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og. The entire region of Argob, the whole territory of Bashan, used to be called the land of the Rephaim. ¹⁴Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took over the entire region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. He called Bashan by his own name, Jair’s Villages,^C as it is today. ¹⁵I gave Gilead to Machir, ¹⁶and I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites the area extending from Gilead to the Arnon Valley (the middle of the valley was the border) and up to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites. ¹⁷The Arabah and Jordan are also borders from Chinnereth as far as the Sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah on the east.^d

¹⁸“I commanded you at that time: The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All your valiant men will cross over in battle formation ahead of your brothers the Israelites. ¹⁹But your wives, dependents, and livestock—I know that you have a lot of livestock—will remain in the cities I have given you^{e 20}until the Lord gives rest^f to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession that I have given you.^g

THE TRANSFER OF ISRAEL’S LEADERSHIP

²¹“I commanded Joshua at that time: Your own eyes have seen everything the Lord your God has done to these two kings. The Lord will do the same to all the kingdoms you are about to enter. ²²Don’t be afraid of them, for the Lord your God fights for you.

²³“At that time I begged the Lord: ²⁴Lord God, you have begun to show your greatness and your strong hand to your servant, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can perform deeds and mighty acts like yours? ²⁵Please let me cross over and see the beautiful land^h on the other side of the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.

²⁶“But the Lord was angry with me because of you^A and would not listen to me. The Lord said to me, ‘That’s enough! Do not speak to me again about this matter. ²⁷Go to the top of Pisgah and look to the west, north, south, and east, and see it with your own eyes, for you will not cross the Jordan.^{i 28}But commission Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he will cross over ahead of the people and enable them to inherit this land that you will see.’^{j 29}So we stayed in the valley facing Beth-peor.

CALL TO OBEDIENCE

4“Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances^k I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live,^l enter, and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors,^m is giving you. ²You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it,ⁿ so that you may keep the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you. ³Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed every one of you who followed Baal of Peor.^{o 4}But you who have remained faithful^B to the Lord your God are all alive today. ⁵…