Deuteronomy 2
Roads Not to Be Taken, and One That Was
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Journey Past Seir
2:1We turned and set out into the wilderness by the road to the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me, and circled Mount Seir for many days.
2:2Then the Lord said to me:
2:3Let your circling of this mountain be sufficient. Therefore turn northward.
2:4Command the people: You are passing through the territory of your brothers, Esau's descendants, who live in Seir. They will fear you and be exceedingly wary of you.
2:5Do not join battle with them, for I will give you none of their land, not even a footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau's descendants as an allotted possession.
2:6Buy food from them with silver and eat; take water from them by measure for silver and drink.
2:7For the Lord our God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. Consider how you crossed that great and fearsome wilderness. Look, for forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.
Journey Past Moab
2:8We passed by our brothers, Esau's descendants who live in Seir, along the Arabah road, from Ailon and Ezion-geber. Then we turned and took the wilderness road of Moab.
2:9The Lord said to me: Do not act with hostility toward the Moabites or join battle with them, for I will give you none of their land as an allotted possession, because I have given Seir to Lot's descendants to inherit.
2:10The Emim formerly lived there, a nation great and numerous and as strong as the Anakim.
2:11They too are reckoned as Rephaim, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim.
2:12The Horites formerly lived in Seir, but Esau's descendants destroyed them, wiped them out, and settled in their place, as Israel did in the land of its inheritance, which the Lord gave them.
2:13Now therefore arise, set out, and pass through the Ravine Zered. So we passed through the Ravine Zered.
2:14The time from our journey out of Kadesh-barnea until we passed through the Ravine Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation of fighting men had fallen, dying out from the camp, as God had sworn to them.
2:15God's hand was upon them, to consume them from the camp until they had fallen.
Journey Past Ammon
2:16When all the fighting men had fallen, dying out from among the people,
2:17The Lord spoke to me:
2:18Today you will pass through Moab's territory, Seir.
2:19You will approach the Ammonites. Do not act with hostility toward them or join battle with them, for I will give you none of the Ammonites' land as an allotted possession, because I have given it to Lot's descendants as an allotted possession.
2:20It is reckoned a land of Rephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived there, and the Ammonites call them Zamzummim,
2:21a nation great and numerous and stronger than you, like the Anakim. The Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites, who inherited the land and settled in their place to this day,
2:22just as they did for Esau's descendants living in Seir, when they wiped out the Horites before them, inherited the land, and settled in their place to this day.
2:23As for the Hivites living in settlements as far as Gaza, the Cappadocians who came from Cappadocia wiped them out and settled in their place.
Defeat of Sihon the Amorite
2:24Now therefore arise, set out, and pass through the Ravine Arnon. See, I have handed Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land over to you. Begin inheriting it; join battle with him.
2:25This day begin to put dread and fear of you upon all the nations under heaven. When they hear your name, they will be troubled and suffer pangs because of you.
2:26I sent envoys from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with peaceful words:
2:27I will pass through your land. I will keep to the road and turn neither right nor left.
2:28Sell me food for silver so I may eat, and sell me water for silver so I may drink. I will only pass through on foot,
2:29as Esau's descendants living in Seir and the Moabites living in Aroer did for me, until I cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.
2:30But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through, for the Lord our God had hardened his spirit and strengthened his heart, so that he would be handed over to you, as is the case today.
2:31The Lord said to me: See, I have begun to hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land over to you. Begin inheriting his land.
2:32Sihon king of Heshbon and all his people came out to meet us for battle at Jahaz.
2:33The Lord our God handed him over to us, and we struck him down, his sons, and all his people.
2:34At that time we captured all his cities and destroyed every city in succession, with their women and children. We left no one alive as a captive.
2:35We plundered only the livestock and took the spoil of the cities.
2:36From Aroer on the edge of the Arnon torrent, including the city in the ravine, as far as the hill country of Gilead, no city escaped us. The Lord our God handed them all over to us.
2:37But we did not approach the Ammonites' land, everything adjoining the Jabbok torrent and the hill-country cities, just as the Lord our God commanded us.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.