Deuteronomy 2:4–19

⁴“Here are the orders I want you to give the people. Tell them, ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives. They are from the family line of Esau. They live in Seir. They will be afraid of you. But be very careful. ⁵Do not make them angry. If you do, they will go to war against you. I will not give you any of their land. You will not have even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. ⁶Pay them with silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’ ”

⁷The Lord your God has blessed you in everything your hands have done. He watched over you when you traveled through that huge desert. For these 40 years the Lord your God has been with you. So you have had everything you need.

⁸We went on past our relatives. They are from the family line of Esau. They live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah Valley road. It comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber. We traveled along the desert road of Moab.

⁹Then the Lord said to me, “Do not attack the Moabites. Do not even make them angry. If you do, they will go to war against you. I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Moab to the people in the family line of Lot. I have given it to them as their own.”

¹⁰The Emites used to live there. They were strong people. There were large numbers of them. They were as tall as the Anakites. ¹¹Like the Anakites, they too were thought of as Rephaites. But the Moabites called them Emites.

¹²The Horites used to live in Seir. But the people of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites to make room for themselves. Then they settled in their territory. They did just as Israel has done in the land the Lord gave them as their own.

¹³The Lord said, “Now get up. Go across the Zered Valley.” So we went across it.

¹⁴Between the time we left Kadesh Barnea and the time we went across the Zered Valley, 38 years passed. By then, all of the fighting men who had been in our camp from the beginning had died. The Lord had warned them with an oath that it would happen. ¹⁵He used his power against them until he had gotten rid of all of them. Not one was left in the camp.

¹⁶Finally, the last of the fighting men among the people died.

¹⁷Then the Lord spoke to me. He said, ¹⁸“Today you must pass near the border of Moab. Moab is also called Ar.

¹⁹“When you come to the Ammonites, do not attack them. Do not make them angry. If you do, they will go to war against you. I will not give you any of their land as your own. I have given it to the people in the family line of Lot. I have given it to them as their own.”