Deuteronomy 2:1-23

English Standard Version

The Wilderness Years

2 “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, ^(A)as the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. ² Then the Lord said to me, ³ ‘You have been traveling around this mountain country ^(B)long enough. Turn northward ⁴ and command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of ^(C)your brothers, the people of Esau, ^(D)who live in Seir; and ^(E)they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. ⁵ Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because ^(F)I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ^6 (G)You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. ^(H)He knows your going through this great wilderness. ^(I)These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ ⁸ So ^(J)we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from ^(K)the Arabah road from ^(L)Elath and ^(M)Ezion-geber.

“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹ And the Lord said to me, ^(N)‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given ^(O)Ar to ^(P)the people of Lot for a possession.’ ¹⁰ (^(Q)The Emim formerly lived there, ^(R)a people great and many, and tall ^(S)as the Anakim. ¹¹ Like the Anakim they are also counted as ^(T)Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ^12 (U)The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, ^(V)as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.) ¹³ ‘Now rise up and go over ^(W)the brook Zered.’ So we went over ^(X)the brook Zered. ¹⁴ And the time from our leaving ^(Y)Kadesh-barnea until we crossed ^(Z)the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, ^(AA)until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.

¹⁶ “So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, ¹⁷ the Lord said to me, ¹⁸ ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. ¹⁹ And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, ^(AB)do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to ^(AC)the sons of Lot for a possession.’ ²⁰ (It is also counted as a land of ^(AD)Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— ^21 (AE)a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites,^[a] and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, ²² as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed ^(AF)the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. ²³ As for ^(AG)the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as ^(AH)Gaza, ^(AI)the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.)