Deuteronomy 2–4

Chapter 2

Wanderings in the Wilderness

¹“^aThen we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way to the ¹Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and circled ^bMount Seir for many days.

²“And the Lord spoke to me, saying,

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

^4aand command the people, saying, “You will pass through the ^bterritory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and ^cthey will be afraid of you. So be very careful;

⁵do not ¹provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a ²footstep ^abecause 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 purchase water from them with money so that you may drink.

⁷“For the Lord your God has blessed you in all ¹that you have done; He has known your ²wanderings through this ^agreat wilderness. These ^bforty years the Lord 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 ^aArabah road, away from Elath and ^bfrom Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

⁹“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of ¹their land as a possession, because I have given ^aAr to ^bthe sons of Lot as a possession.

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

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

^12aThe Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, ^bjust as Israel did to the land of ¹their possession which the Lord gave to them.)

¹³‘Now arise and cross over the ¹brook Zered yourselves.’ So we crossed over the brook Zered.

¹⁴“Now the ¹time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the ²brook Zered was ^athirty-eight years, until ^ball the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, as ^cthe Lord had sworn to them.

¹⁵“^aMoreover the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from within the camp until they all perished.

¹⁶“So it came about when ^aall the men of war had finally perished from among the people,

¹⁷that the Lord spoke to me, saying,

¹⁸‘Today you shall cross over ^aAr, the border of Moab.

¹⁹‘When you come opposite the ^asons 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 ^bthe sons of Lot as a possession.’

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

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

²²just as He did for the sons of Esau, who ^alive in Seir, when He destroyed ^bthe Horites from before them; they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day.

²³And the ^aAvvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the ^1bCaphtorim who came from ^2cCaphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.)

²⁴‘Arise, set out, and pass through the ^1avalley of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession and contend with him in battle.

²⁵‘This day I will begin to put ^athe dread and fear of you ¹upon the peoples ²everywhere under the heavens, who, when they hear the report of you, ^bwill tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

²⁶“^aSo I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,

²⁷‘Let me pass through your land, I will ¹travel only on the highway; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left.

²⁸‘You will sell me food for money so that I may eat, and give me water for money so that I may drink, ^aonly let me pass through on ¹foot,

²⁹just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in ^aAr did for me, until I cross over the Jordan into the land which the Lord our God is giving to us.’

³⁰“But ^aSihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass ¹through his land; for the ^bLord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to deliver him into your hand, as he is today.

³¹“The Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land ¹over to you. Begin to ²occupy, that you may possess his land.’

³²“Then Sihon ¹with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz.

³³“^aThe Lord our God delivered him ¹over to us, and we ^2bdefeated him with his sons and all his people.

³⁴“So we captured all his cities at that time and ^1autterly destroyed ²the men, women and children of every city. We left no survivor.

³⁵“We took ^aonly the animals as our booty and the spoil of the cities which we had captured.

³⁶“From ^aAroer which is on the edge of the ¹valley of Arnon and from the city which is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was no city that was too high for us; the Lord our God delivered all ²over to us.

³⁷“^aOnly you did not go near to the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the ¹river ^bJabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever the Lord our God had commanded us.

Chapter 3

Conquests Recounted

¹“^aThen we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og, king of Bashan, ¹with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Edrei.

²“But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand; and you shall do to him just as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’

³“So the Lord our God delivered Og also, king of Bashan, with all his people into our hand, and we smote ¹them until no survivor was ²left.

⁴“We captured all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of ^aArgob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

⁵“All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates and bars, besides a great many ¹unwalled towns.

⁶“We ¹utterly destroyed them, as we did to ^aSihon king of Heshbon, ^2butterly destroying ³the men, women and children of every city.

⁷“^aBut all the animals and the spoil of the cities we took as our booty.

⁸“^aThus we took the land at that time from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the ¹valley of Arnon to Mount Hermon

⁹(Sidonians ^acall Hermon ^bSirion, and the Amorites call it ^cSenir):

¹⁰all the cities of the plateau and all Gilead and ^aall Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

¹¹(For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the ^aRephaim. Behold, his ¹bedstead was an iron bedstead; it is in ^bRabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was nine cubits and its width four cubits ²by ordinary cubit.)

¹²“So we took possession of this land at that time. From ^aAroer, which is by the ¹valley of Arnon, and half the hill country of ^bGilead and its cities I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites.

¹³“The rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, all the region of Argob (concerning all Bashan, it is called the land of Rephaim.

^14aJair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called ¹it, that is, Bashan, after his own name, ²Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.)

¹⁵“^aTo Machir I gave Gilead.

¹⁶“To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even as far as the ¹valley of Arnon, the middle of the valley ²as a border and as far as the river ^aJabbok, the border of the sons of Ammon;

¹⁷the Arabah also, with the Jordan ¹as a border, from ^2aChinnereth ^beven as far as the sea of the Arabah, ^cthe Salt Sea, ³at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

¹⁸“Then I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘^aThe Lord your God has given you this land to possess it; ^ball you valiant men shall cross over armed before your brothers, the sons of Israel.

¹⁹‘^aBut your wives and your little ones and your livestock (I know that you have ^bmuch livestock) shall remain in your cities which I have given you,

^20auntil the Lord gives rest to your fellow countrymen as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God will give them beyond the Jordan. ^bThen you may return every man to his possession which I have given you.’

²¹“I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so the Lord shall do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross.

²²‘Do not fear them, for the Lord your God ^ais the one fighting for you.’

²³“I also pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying,

²⁴‘O Lord ¹God, You have begun to show Your servant ^aYour greatness and Your strong hand; for what ^bgod is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Yours?

²⁵‘Let me, I pray, cross over and see the ^afair land that is beyond the Jordan, ¹that good hill country and Lebanon.’

²⁶“But ^athe Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me; and the Lord said to me, ‘¹Enough! Speak to Me no more of this matter.

²⁷‘Go up to the top of ^aPisgah and lift up your eyes to the west and north and south and east, and see it with your eyes, ^bfor you shall not cross over this Jordan.

²⁸‘^aBut charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, ^bfor he shall go across ¹at the head of this people, and he will give them as an inheritance the land which you will see.’

²⁹“So we remained in the valley opposite ^aBeth-peor.

Chapter 4

Israel Urged to Obey God’s Law

¹“Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which ^aI am teaching you to perform, so that ^byou may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

²“^aYou shall not add to the word which ^bI am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command…