Deuteronomy 2:4–19

⁴Give the people these orders:^z ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives the descendants of Esau,^a who live in Seir.^b They will be afraid^c of you, but be very careful. ⁵Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own.^{d 6}You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’ ”

⁷The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched^e over your journey through this vast wilderness.^f These forty years^g the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.^h

⁸So we went on past our relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned fromⁱ the Arabah^j road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber,^k and traveled along the desert road of Moab.^l

⁹Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar^m to the descendants of Lotⁿ as a possession.”

¹⁰(The Emites^o used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites.^{p 11}Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites,^q but the Moabites called them Emites. ¹²Horites^r used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did^s in the land the Lord gave them as their possession.)

¹³And the Lord said, “Now get up and cross the Zered Valley.^t” So we crossed the valley.

¹⁴Thirty-eight years^u passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea^v until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation^w of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.^{x 15}The Lord’s hand was against them until he had completely eliminated^y them from the camp.

¹⁶Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died, ¹⁷the Lord said to me, ¹⁸“Today you are to pass by the region of Moab at Ar.^{z 19}When you come to the Ammonites,^a do not harass them or provoke them to war,^b for I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.^c”