Yet in spite of all this, you did not trust the Lord your God,

who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to make camp, in the fire by night to show you the way by which you should go, and in the cloud by day.

“Then the Lord heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and swore an oath, saying,

‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers,

except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him I will give the land on which he has set foot, and to his sons, because he has followed the Lord fully.’

The Lord was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there.

Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall himself enter there; encourage him, for he will give it to Israel as an inheritance.

Moreover, your little ones who, you said, would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good and evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall take possession of it.

But as for you, turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.’

“Then you replied to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord; we ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every man of you strapped on his weapons of war, and you viewed it as easy to go up into the hill country.

But the Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; otherwise you will be defeated by your enemies.”’

So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead, you rebelled against the command of the Lord, and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country.

And the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do, and they scattered you from Seir to Hormah.

So you remained at Kadesh for many days, the days that you spent there.

Wanderings in the Wilderness

“Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we circled Mount Seir for many days.

And the Lord spoke to me, saying,

and command the people, saying, “You are going to pass through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful;

do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even as much as a footprint, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

You are to buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also purchase water from them with money so that you may drink.

“So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road, away from Elath and Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not attack Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession.’

The Horites previously lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and settled in their place; just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the Lord gave them.)

‘Now arise and cross over the Wadi Zered yourselves.’ So we crossed over the Wadi Zered.

Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, just as the Lord had sworn to them.

“So it came about, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people,