Deuteronomy 2:1-37
2 “Then we turned and departed for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, just as Jehovah had told me,+ and we traveled for many days around Mount Seʹir.
2 Finally Jehovah said to me,
3 ‘You have gone around this mountain long enough. Now turn north.
4 And give this command to the people: “You will pass by the border of your brothers, the descendants of Eʹsau,+ who are dwelling in Seʹir,+ and they will be afraid of you,+ and you must be very careful.
5 Do not engage in hostilities with* them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even the space of a footprint, because I have given Mount Seʹir to Eʹsau as his possession.+
6 You should give them money for the food you will eat, and you should pay for the water you will drink.+
7 For Jehovah your God has blessed you in all that you have done. He is fully aware of your walking through this great wilderness. These 40 years Jehovah your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.”’+
8 So we passed by our brothers, the descendants of Eʹsau,+ who are dwelling in Seʹir, keeping away from the way of the Arʹa·bah, from Eʹlath and from Eʹzi·on-geʹber.+
“Next we turned and traveled by the way of the wilderness of Moʹab.+
9 Jehovah then said to me, ‘Do not engage in hostilities or in war with Moʹab, for I will not give you any of his land as a possession because I have given Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.+
10 (The Eʹmim+ formerly lived there, a people great and numerous and tall like the Anʹa·kim.
11 The Rephʹa·im+ were also considered like the Anʹa·kim,+ and the Moʹab·ites used to call them Eʹmim.
12 Previously, the Horʹites+ were living in Seʹir, but the descendants of Eʹsau dispossessed and annihilated them and settled in their place,+ just as Israel will do to the land that is their possession, which Jehovah will certainly give to them.)
13 Now go and cross over the Valley* of Zeʹred.’ So we crossed over the Valley* of Zeʹred.+
14 The time it took us to walk from Kaʹdesh-barʹne·a until we crossed the Valley* of Zeʹred was 38 years, until the entire generation of the men of war had perished from the camp, just as Jehovah had sworn to them.+
15 Jehovah’s hand was against them to eliminate them from the camp until they had perished.+
16 “As soon as all the men of war had died off from among the people,+
17 Jehovah spoke to me again, saying,
18 ‘Today you are to pass by the territory of Moʹab, that is, Ar.
19 When you come near to the Amʹmon·ites, do not harass or provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the Amʹmon·ites as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their possession.+
20 This too used to be considered the land of the Rephʹa·im.+ (The Rephʹa·im formerly lived there, and the Amʹmon·ites used to call them Zam·zumʹmim.
21 They were a great and numerous and tall people like the Anʹa·kim;+ but Jehovah annihilated them before the Amʹmon·ites, and these drove them out and settled in their place.
22 That is what he did for the descendants of Eʹsau, who now dwell in Seʹir,+ when he annihilated the Horʹites+ from before them, so that they could dispossess them and dwell in their place to this very day.
23 As for the Avʹvim, they had dwelled in settlements as far as Gazʹa+ until the Caphʹto·rim,+ who came out from Caphʹtor,* annihilated them and settled in their place.)
24 “‘Get up, and make your way across the Arʹnon Valley.*+ See, I have given into your hand Siʹhon+ the Amʹor·ite, king of Heshʹbon. So begin taking possession of his land, and engage him in war.
25 This day I will start to put the dread and the fear of you upon all the people under the heavens who hear the report about you. They will be disturbed and will tremble* because of you.’+
26 “Then I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedʹe·moth+ to King Siʹhon of Heshʹbon, with these peaceful words,+
27 ‘Let me pass through your land. I will remain on the road and not turn to the right or to the left.+
28 I will eat only the food and drink only the water that you will sell to me. Just allow me to pass through on foot
29 —that is what the descendants of Eʹsau dwelling in Seʹir and the Moʹab·ites dwelling in Ar did for me—until I pass over the Jordan into the land that Jehovah our God is giving to us.’
30 But King Siʹhon of Heshʹbon did not let us pass through, because Jehovah your God allowed his spirit to become obstinate+ and his heart to become hard, in order to give him into your hand as is now the case.+
31 “Then Jehovah said to me, ‘See, I have already begun to give Siʹhon and his land over to you. Start to take possession of his land.’+
32 When Siʹhon came out along with all his people to meet us in battle at Jaʹhaz,+
33 Jehovah our God handed him over to us, so that we defeated him, his sons, and all his people.
34 We captured all his cities at that time and devoted every city to destruction, including men, women, and children. We left no survivor.+
35 We plundered only the livestock for ourselves along with the spoils from the cities that we had captured.
36 From A·roʹer,+ which is on the rim of the Arʹnon Valley* (including the city that is in the valley), as far as Gilʹe·ad, no town was beyond our reach. Jehovah our God handed them all over to us.+
37 However, you did not approach the land of the Amʹmon·ites,+ the whole bank of the Valley* of Jabʹbok+ and the cities of the mountainous region, or any other place forbidden by Jehovah our God.
Footnotes
^ Or “Do not provoke.”
^ Or “Wadi.”
^ Or “Wadi.”
^ Or “Wadi.”
^ That is, Crete.
^ Or “Wadi Arnon.”
^ Or “have pains like those of childbirth.”
^ Or “Wadi Arnon.”
^ Or “Wadi.”