Deuteronomy 2:1-15

Evangelical Heritage Version

2 Then we turned and traveled toward the wilderness on the road to the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me, and we traveled for many days to get around the area of Mount Seir.^[a]

The Journey Past Edom

² Then the Lord said to me, ³ “You have been traveling around this mountainous region long enough. Turn north ⁴ and command the people, ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who are living in Seir, and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. ⁵ Do not wage war against them because I am not going to give you any of their land, not even an area the size of a footprint, because I have given the Mount Seir region to Esau as a possession. ⁶ You may buy food from them with money so you can eat, and you may purchase water from them with money so you can drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your trek through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have not lacked anything.’” ⁸ So we passed by the territory of our brothers, the people of Esau, who were living in Seir. After leaving the Arabah Road, Elat, and Ezion Geber behind us, we turned and we traveled along the road of the Wilderness of Moab.

The Journey Past Moab

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, “Do not be hostile toward Moab and do not wage war against them in battle, because I am not going to give you any of their land as a possession, since I have given Ar to the people of Lot as a possession.”

¹⁰ (The Emites formerly lived in it, a strong, numerous people and tall like the Anakites. ¹¹ They, like the Anakites, are also considered to be Rephaim,^[b] but the Moabites call them Emites. ¹² The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau took possession of their land and destroyed them from their midst. They settled there in their place, just as Israel did in the land that the Lord gave to them as their possession.)

¹³ Then the Lord told us:^[c] “Now get ready and cross the Zered Canyon.” So we crossed over the Zered Canyon. ¹⁴ The time that we traveled from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Zered Canyon was thirty-eight years, until that whole generation of fighting men were eliminated from the camp, just as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ Yes indeed, the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from the camp until they were eliminated.