The Israelites were in the desert for 40 years
1Moses said: ‘We went into the desert as the Lord told me. First we went to the Red Sea and then we walked around the Seir Mountains for a very long time. 2One day the Lord said to me: 3“You have walked around these mountains long enough. Now you must turn_around and go north. 4You must tell the people: You are now going to walk through the land and the people who are your family. They are the descendants of Esau. They live in the land of Seir. They are afraid of you, so be very careful. 5Don't go to war_against them because I will not give you any of their land, not even a small part of it. I gave Esau the mountains of Seir. 6You must pay them for the food that you eat in their land and for the water that you drink.”
7The Lord your God has helped you with everything that you have done. He has cared for you in this big desert. The Lord your God has always been with you during these 40 years and you have had enough food to eat and enough of everything.
8Then we went past our family, past the descendants of Esau, into the land of Seir. We came to the towns of Elath and Ezion-Geber. We went through the Jordan Valley and through the desert into the land of Moab.’
The Israelites could not attack the Moabites
9Moses said: ‘Then the Lord said to me: “Do not attack the people of Moab. Do not go to war_against them because I will give none of their land to you. I have given the land of Ar to Lot's descendants.” ’
The people who had lived before in the lands of the Moabites and the Emites
10‘The Emite people had lived in the land of Moab before. They were a big and strong nation and the men were as big as the Anakite people. 11Some people said that those people were Rephaite people, like the Anakite people, but the Moabites named them the Emite people. 12The Horite people had lived in the land of Seir before, but the descendants of Esau defeated and killed them and they went to live in their land. The Israelites did the same to their enemies in the land that the Lord gave them.’
The Israelites had to go through the Zered Valley
13Moses said: ‘The Lord told us: “You must now go through the Zered Valley,” and we went through the valley. 14That was 38 years after we had gone away from the town of Kadesh-Barnea. One generation of men who could go to war had already died. It happened as the Lord had told them. 15The Lord became their enemy until all of them had died.’
The Israelites could not attack the Ammonites
16‘When all the men who could have gone to war had died, 17the Lord said to me: 18“When you go into the land of Moab at the town of Ar, 19you will come near the Ammonites. But you must not attack them and go to war_against them, because I will not give you any part of the land of the Ammonites. I gave that land to the descendants of Lot.” ’
The people who had lived in the land before the Ammonites
20‘Everyone knows that the land of the Ammonites had belonged to the Rephaite people before. The Ammonites gave them a new name and said they were the Zamzummites. 21The Rephaites were big and strong. They were very big, as big as the Anakite people, but the Lord helped the Ammonites and they killed the Rephaites. The Ammonites took their land and started living there.
22The Lord did the same for the descendants of Esau and He helped them kill the Horite people, then the Edomites took the land and they started to live there, and they are still living there now.
23The same happened with the Avvite people. Long ago they lived in small towns near the town of Gaza. The Caphtor people came from the Island of Caphtor and they killed the Avvites and went to live in their towns.’
The Israelites had to go through the Arnon Valley
24‘Then the Lord said: “You must get up and go. Walk through the Arnon Valley and remember that I gave King Sihon to you, the king of the Amorites in the town of Heshbon, and his land. You must go to war_against him and take his land. 25From today I will make all the nations of the world afraid of you. When people tell them about you, they will fear you and tremble.” ’
The Israelites defeated King Sihon of Heshbon
26Moses said: ‘I sent messengers from the Kedemoth Desert to King Sihon in Heshbon to make peace with him. 27I said: “We want to go through your land. We will stay on the road, and we will not turn right or left. 28-29You can sell us food and water to eat and drink, and we will pay for it. Please let us go through your land so that we can go through the Jordan River into the land that the Lord our God has given us. The descendants of Esau, who live in the land of Seir, and the Moabites, who live in the land of Ar, said we could go through their lands.”
30But King Sihon of Heshbon said we could not go through his land, because the Lord our God made him stubborn. The Lord wanted you to make war_against Sihon and to win against him. And you are still living in his land today.
31The Lord said to me: “Remember, I am giving Sihon and his land to you now. You must take his land for yourselves.”
32Sihon and all his men came to attack us and fight against us in the town of Jahaz. 33The Lord our God helped us defeat Sihon. We defeated him, his son and all his people. 34We then took all his towns and killed all the people in the towns, all the men, women and children. No one was left_alive. 35We took only the cows for ourselves and all the things in the towns where we defeated the people. 36No town was too strong for us. The Lord our God gave us everything, from the town of Aroer on the side of the Arnon Valley to the land of Gilead. 37But we did not go near the land of the Ammonites, or the land next to the Jabbok River and the towns in the mountains, or the land that the Lord said we could not take.’
