and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because Yahweh hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.

Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And moreover, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.”’

Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread, nor fear them.

Yahweh your God, who goes before you, will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

and in the wilderness where you saw how Yahweh your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’

But for all this, you did not believe Yahweh your God,

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

‘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 and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed Yahweh fully.’

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

Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; strengthen him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it.

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

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

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

And Yahweh said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up and do not fight—for I am not among you—so that you are not defeated before your enemies.”’

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

And the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out to meet you and pursued you as bees do and crushed you from Seir to Hormah.

Then you returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.

Wanderings in the Wilderness

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

‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north,

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, even as little as a footstep because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

You shall buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also bargain with them for water with money so that you may drink.

For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.”’

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