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¹ THEN we turned, and journeyed into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to me; and we circled mount Seir for many days.² And the LORD spoke to me, saying,³ You have circled this mountain long enough; turn northward.⁴ And command the people, saying, You are going to pass through the territory of your brethren the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you; take heed to yourselves therefore;⁵ Do not provoke them; for I will not give you a possession of their land, no, not so much as the breadth of a foot to tread on, because I have given mount Seir to Esau for a possession.⁶ You may buy grain from them for money, that you may eat; and you may also buy water from them for money, that you may drink.⁷ For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; he knows how to lead you through this great wilderness; behold, these forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.

⁸ And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, who dwelt in Seir, and from the way of the desert plain, from Elath and from Ezion-gaber we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.⁹ And the LORD said to me, Do not distress the Moabites, neither provoke them to battle; for I will not give you of their land for a possession; because I have given it to the children of Lot for an inheritance.¹⁰ The Amney dwelt in it formerly, a people great and many and tall, like giants;¹¹ For they were giants, and also were accounted as giants; but the Moabites call them Amney.¹² The Horites also dwelt formerly in Seir; but the children of Esau possessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their land, as Israel did to the land of his possession, which the LORD gave to them.¹³ Now rise up and go over the brook Zered. So we went over the brook Zered.¹⁴ And the time in which we journeyed from Rakim-gia until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years; until all the generation of the men of war had perished from the midst of the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the LORD was also against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed.¹⁶ So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people,¹⁷ The LORD spoke to me, saying,¹⁸ You are to pass over through the border of Moab and Ad this day;¹⁹ And when you come near the territory of the children of Ammon, do not oppress them nor provoke them; for I will not give you of the land of the children of Ammon any possession, because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.²⁰ (That also was accounted a land of giants; giants dwelt in it formerly; and the Ammonites call them Zamzumins;²¹ A people great and many and tall, like giants; but the LORD destroyed them from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their land,²² As the children of Esau did, who dwelt in Seir when they destroyed the Horites from before them, and they succeeded them and settled in their land even to this day;²³ And the Avites who dwelt in Hazerim, as far as Azzah, the Caphedokian, who came out of Caphedoki, destroyed them and dwelt in their land.)

²⁴ Rise up, take your journey, and cross over the river Arnon; behold, I have delivered into your hand Sihon the king of Heshbon, the Amorite, and his land; begin to destroy him, and provoke him to battle.²⁵ This day I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you upon the peoples that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.²⁶ And I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kermoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,²⁷ Let me pass through your land; I will go along by the highway; I will neither turn to the right hand nor to the left.²⁸ You shall sell me grain for money, that I may eat; and sell me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on foot;²⁹ Just as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ad did for me; until I shall cross the Jordan into the land which the LORD our God gives us.³⁰ But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through his territory; for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hands, as it is this day.³¹ And the LORD said to me, Behold, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land into your hands; begin to destroy him, and to possess his land.³² Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz.³³ And the LORD our God delivered him to us; and we smote him and his sons and all his people.³⁴ And we conquered all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed all the towns; even the women and the little ones, we left none to remain;³⁵ Only the cattle we took for a prey to ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we conquered.³⁶ From Adoer, which is by the brink of the river Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us; the LORD our God delivered all to us;³⁷ Only to the land of the children of Ammon we did not draw near, nor to all that is by the river Jabbok, nor to the cities that are in the mountains, nor to whatever the LORD our God forbade us.