Deuteronomy 2–4

2“Then we turned and set out toward the wilderness^a in the direction of the Red Sea,^b as Yahweh told me, and we went around Mount Seir for many days. ²Yahweh spoke to me, saying,^{c 3}‘Long enough you have been skirting this mountain; turn yourselves north, ⁴and instruct^d the people, saying,^e “You are about to cross through the territory of your brothers, the descendants^f of Esau, who are living in Seir; they will be afraid of you, and so be very careful. ⁵Do not get involved in battle^g with them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even a foot’s breadth^h of it; since I have given Mount Seir as a possession for Esau. ⁶You shall buy food from them so that you may eat; and also you shall purchase water from them with money so that you may drink. ⁷The fact of the matter is, Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work you have done;ⁱ he knows your travels^j with respect to this great wilderness; forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.” ’ ⁸And so we passed by our brothers, the descendants^k of Esau, who live in Seir, past the road of the Arabah,^l from Elath and Ezion Geber, and we turned and traveled along the route of the desert^m of Moab.

⁹And Yahweh said to me, ‘You shall not attack Moab, and you shall not engage in warⁿ with them, for I will not give you any of his land as a possession; I have given Ar to the descendants^o of Lot as a possession.’ ¹⁰(The Emim previously lived in it, a people large,^p numerous, and tall, like the Anakites. ¹¹They were reckoned also as Rephaim as the Anakites were; but the Moabites called them Emim. ¹²The Horites previously lived in Seir, but the descendants^q of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from among themselves,^r as Israel did with respect to the land of their^s possession that Yahweh gave to them.) ¹³So now arise and cross over the wadi^t of Zered yourselves; and so we crossed the wadi^u of Zered. ¹⁴Now the length of time^v that we had traveled from Kadesh Barnea until the time when we crossed the wadi^w of Zered was thirty-eight years, until the perishing of all of that generation; that is, the men of war from the midst of the camp as Yahweh had sworn to them. ¹⁵The hand of Yahweh was against them to root them out from the midst of the camp until they perished completely.

¹⁶“And then^x when all the men of war^y had died^z from among the people, ¹⁷Yahweh spoke to me, saying,^{a 18}‘You are about to cross over the boundary of Moab today^b at Ar. ¹⁹When you approach the border of^c the Ammonites,^d you shall not harass them, and you shall not get involved in battle with them, for I have not given the land of the Ammonites^e to you as a possession; because I have given it to the descendants^f of Lot as a possession. ²⁰(It is also considered the land of Rephaim; Rephaim lived in it previously,^g and the Ammonites called them Zamzummim, ²¹a people great and numerous and as tall as the Anakites; Yahweh destroyed them from before them,^h and they dispossessed them and settled in place of them, ²²just as he did for the descendantsⁱ of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them^j and dispossessed them, and then they settled in their^k place up to this day. ²³And also the Avvites, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, and the Caphtorim, who came out from Caphtor, destroyed them and then settled in their place. ²⁴Arise,^l set out and cross over the wadi^m of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession of it, and engage with him in battle. ²⁵This day I will begin to place the dread of youⁿ and the fear of you before^o the peoples under all the heavens. They will hear the report about you,^p and so they will shake and tremble because of you.’ ^q

²⁶“So I sent messengers from the wilderness^r of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon; I sent terms of peace, saying,^{s 27}‘Let me cross through your land and only along the road^t I will go; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left. ²⁸Food for money you shall sell me, so that I may eat, and water for money you will give to me, so that I may drink; just let me cross on foot. ²⁹Just as the descendants^u of Esau did for me, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, until I cross the Jordan into the land that Yahweh our God is giving to us.’ ³⁰But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing to let us cross through his territory because Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made him obstinate^v in order to give him^w into your hand, just as he has now done.^{x 31}Yahweh said to me, ‘Look! I have begun to give over to you^y Sihon and his land; begin to take possession of his land.’^{z 32}Then Sihon and all his people came out to meet us for battle at Jahaz. ³³And so Yahweh our God gave him over to us,^a and we struck him down, and his sons^b and all of his people. ³⁴So we captured all of his cities at that time, and we destroyed each town of males and the women and the children; we did not leave behind a survivor. ³⁵We took only the livestock as spoil for ourselves,^c and also the booty of the cities that we had captured. ³⁶From Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi^d of Arnon and the city that was in the wadi^e on up to Gilead, there was not a city that was inaccessible to us; Yahweh our God gave everything^f to us.^{g 37}Only the land of the Ammonites^h you did not approach, all along the whole upper region of the Jabbok Riverⁱ and the towns of the hill country, according to all that Yahweh our God had instructed.

3“Then we turned, and we went up the road to Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us, he and all of his army for the battle at Edrei. ²And Yahweh said to me, ‘You should not fear him, for I have given him and all of his army^a and his land into your hand. And so you will do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites,^b who was reigning in Heshbon.’ ³And so Yahweh our God also gave Og the king of Bashan, and all of his army^c into our hand, and we struck him down until not a survivor remained to^d him. ⁴And we captured all of his towns^e at that time; there was not a city that we did not take from them. ⁵All of these were fortified towns with high walls, gates, and bars,^f apart from^g very many of the villages of the open country. ⁶And so we destroyed them just as we had done to Sihon the king of Heshbon; we destroyed utterly each town of males, the women, and the little children. ⁷But all of the livestock and the booty of the towns we kept as spoil for ourselves.^h

⁸“And so we took at that time the land from the control ofⁱ the two kings of the Amorites^j who were on the other side of the Jordan,^k from the wadi^l of Arnon up to Mount Hermon.^{m 9}(The Sidonians called Hermon ‘Sirion,’ and the Amorites called it ‘Senir.’) ¹⁰All of the towns of the plateau and the whole of Gilead and all of Bashan up to Salecah and Edrei, the towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹(For only Og, king of Bashan, was left from the remnant of the Rephaim. Indeed, his bedstead—it was a bedstead of iron. It is in Rabbah of the Ammonites.ⁿ Nine cubits is its length, and four cubits is its width according to the cubit of a man.)

¹²And so we took possession of this land at that time, from Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi^o of Arnon, and also half of the hill country of Gilead and its towns I gave to the Reubenites^p and to the Gadites.^{q 13}And the remainder of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the whole region of Argob. All of that area of Bashan was called the land of the Rephaim. ¹⁴Jair the descendant^r of Manasseh acquired the whole region of Argob, up to the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and he called it,^s that is Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, as it still is today.^{t 15}And also I gave Gilead to Makir. ¹⁶And to the Reubenites^u and to the Gadites^v I gave, from Gilead up to the wadi^w of Arnon, the middle of the wadi^x as a boundary and up to the Jabbok River,^y the boundary of the Ammonites.^{z 17}And the Jordan Valley^a with the Jordan River as its boundary, from Kinnereth^b up to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea,^c with the slopes of Pisgah toward the east.

¹⁸“And I charged you all at that time when I said, “Yahweh has given you—to all of you—this land to possess. All the warriors^d shall cross over, ready to fight, before your brothers, the Israelites.^{e 19}Only your wives and your little children and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock)^f must stay in your towns that I have given you, ²⁰until Yahweh shall give rest to your brothers as he did to you, and also they take possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving to them beyond the Jordan; then they may return, each one to his possession that I have given to them. ²¹And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes see all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings; so Yahweh will do to all of the kingdoms where you are about to cross over to. ²²You shall not fear them, for Yahweh your God is the one fighting for you.

²³“And I pleaded with Yahweh at that time, saying, ²⁴‘Lord Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand, for what^g god is there in the heaven or on the earth who can do according to your works and according to your mighty deeds? ²⁵Let me cross over, please, and let me see the good land that is beyond the Jordan,^h this good hill country and Lebanon.’ ²⁶But Yahweh was very angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me, and Yahweh said, ‘Enough of that from you!ⁱ You shall not speak to me any longer about this matter! ²⁷Go up to the top of Pisgah and look around you^j toward the west, toward the north, and toward the east, and view^k the land with your eyes, for you will not cross this Jordan. ²⁸Now instruct Joshua and support him and encourage him because he himself^l will cross over before this people and enable them to inherit the land that you will…