¹We turned and set out toward the wilderness by the way of the Sea of Reeds, just as Yahweh had spoken to me, and we went around the mountain of Seir many days.

²Yahweh said to me, saying:

³You have gone around this mountain long enough; turn yourselves north.

⁴And command the people, saying: You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the children of Esau, those who dwell in Seir, and they will be afraid of you, so be on your guard exceedingly.

⁵Do not stir up strife with them; for I will not give you any of their land, not even a place to tread for the sole of a foot; for I have given the mountain of Seir to Esau as a possession.

⁶You will buy food from them for silver and you will eat; and also you will purchase water from them for silver and you will drink.

⁷For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; he has known your going through this great wilderness; these forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a word.

⁸We passed on away from our brothers, the children of Esau, those who dwell in Seir, away from the way of the Desert Plain, from Elath and from Ezion Geber; and we turned and passed along the way of the wilderness of Moab.

⁹Yahweh said to me: Do not show hostility to Moab and do not stir up strife with them in battle, for I will not give you any of his land as a possession; for to the children of Lot I have given Ar as a possession.

¹⁰The Emites dwelled in it before, a people great and numerous and tall like the Anakites.

¹¹Rephaites are reckoned, they too, like the Anakites, and the Moabites call them Emites.

¹²And in Seir the Horites dwelled before, and the children of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before their face and dwelled in their place, as Israel did to the land of its possession which Yahweh gave to them.

¹³Now arise, and cross over for yourselves the wadi of Zered; and we passed over the wadi of Zered.

¹⁴And the days that we walked from Kadesh Barnea until we passed over the wadi of Zered were thirty-eight years, until all the generation, the men of war perished from the midst of the camp, as Yahweh had sworn to them.

¹⁵And also the hand of Yahweh was against them, to throw them into confusion from the midst of the camp, until they perished.

¹⁶And it happened, when all the men of war had finished dying from the midst of the people,

¹⁷Yahweh spoke to me, saying:

¹⁸Today you are crossing the boundary of Moab, at Ar.

¹⁹You will come near, opposite the children of Ammon; do not treat them as foes and do not stir up strife with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon as a possession, for to the children of Lot I have given it as a possession.

²⁰It too was reckoned a land of the Rephaim; the Rephaim dwelled in it before, and the Ammonites called them Zamzummites.

²¹A people great and many and high like the Anakites; and Yahweh wiped them out from their face, and they dispossessed them and dwelled in their place.

²²Just as he did for the children of Esau, those who dwell in Seir, when he wiped out the Horites from their face, and they dispossessed them and dwelled in their place until this day.

²³And the Avvites, those who dwell in hamlets as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites, those who came out from Caphtor, wiped them out and dwelled in their place.

²⁴Rise, set out, and cross the wadi of Arnon. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the king of Heshbon, the Amorite, and his land; begin to take possession, and contend with him in war.

²⁵This day I will begin to set your dread and your fear on the face of the peoples under all the skies, who will hear your report and tremble and writhe in anguish before your face.

²⁶I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon with words of wholeness, saying:

²⁷Let me pass through your land; along the road, along the road I will go; I will not turn aside to the right or the left.

²⁸You will sell me food for silver, and I will eat; and you will give me water for silver, and I will drink; only let me pass through on my feet,

²⁹Just as the children of Esau, those who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites, those who dwell in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan into the land that Yahweh our God is giving us.

³⁰But Sihon the king of Heshbon was not willing to let us pass by him, for Yahweh your God had made his breath stubborn and made his heart obstinate, so as to give him into your hand, as at this day.

³¹Yahweh said to me, See, I have begun to set before your face Sihon and his land; begin to take possession, to take possession of his land.

³²Sihon came out to meet us, he and all his people, for battle at Jahaz.

³³Yahweh our God set him before our face, and we struck him down, and his sons, and all his people.

³⁴We captured all his cities at that time, and we devoted to destruction every city: the men, the women, and the little ones; we left no survivor.

³⁵Only the livestock we plundered for ourselves, and the plunder of the cities that we had captured.

³⁶From Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi of Arnon, and the city that is in the wadi, as far as Gilead, there was no town that was too high for us; Yahweh our God set all of it before our face.

³⁷Only to the land of the children of Ammon you did not draw near, the whole side of the wadi of Jabbok, and the cities of the hill country, and all that Yahweh our God had commanded.