The Journey from Kadesh Barnea to Moab

2:1 Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea1 just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time. 2:2 At this point the Lord said to me, 2:3 “You have circled around this mountain long enough; now turn north. 2:4 Instruct2 these people as follows: ‘You are about to cross the border of your relatives3 the descendants of Esau,4 who inhabit Seir. They will be afraid of you, so watch yourselves carefully. 2:5 Do not be hostile toward them, because I am not giving you any of their land, not even a footprint, for I have given Mount Seir5 as an inheritance for Esau. 2:6 You may purchase6 food to eat and water to drink from them. 2:7 All along the way I, the Lord your God,7 have blessed your every effort.8 I have9 been attentive to10 your travels through this great wasteland. These forty years I have11 been with you; you have lacked for nothing.’ ”

2:8 So we turned away from our relatives12 the descendants of Esau, the inhabitants of Seir, turning from the desert route,13 from Elat14 and Ezion Geber,15 and traveling the way of the Moab wastelands. 2:9 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass Moab and provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as your territory. This is because I have given Ar16 to the descendants of Lot17 as their possession. 2:10 (The Emites18 used to live there, a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. 2:11 These people, as well as the Anakites, are also considered Rephaites;19 the Moabites call them Emites. 2:12 Previously the Horites20 lived in Seir but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land it came to possess, the land the Lord gave them.)21 2:13 Now, get up and cross the Wadi Zered.”22 So we did so.23 2:14 Now the length of time it took for us to go from Kadesh Barnea to the crossing of Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, time for all the military men of that generation to die, just as the Lord had vowed to them. 2:15 Indeed, it was the very hand of the Lord that eliminated them from within24 the camp until they were all gone.