CHAPTER 2
1 And we went forth from thence, and came into the wilderness that leadeth to the Red Sea, as the Lord said to me; and we compassed the hill of Seir in long time.
2 And the Lord said to me,
3 It sufficeth to you to compass this hill; go ye against the north.
4 And command thou to the people, and say, Ye shall pass by the terms of your brethren, the sons of Esau, that dwell in Seir, and they shall dread you. Therefore see ye diligently,
5 that ye be not moved against them; for I shall not give to you of their land as much as the step of one foot may tread, for I have given the hill of Seir into the possession of Esau.
6 Ye shall buy of them meats for money, and ye shall eat; and ye shall draw, and drink water bought.
7 Thy Lord God hath blessed thee in all the works of thine hands; he hath known thy way, how thou hast passed through this most wilderness, by forty years; and thy Lord God dwelled with thee, and nothing failed to thee.
8 And when we had passed by our brethren, the sons of Esau, that dwelled in Seir, by the way of the field of Elath, and of Eziongaber, we came to the way that leadeth into the desert of Moab.
9 And the Lord said to me, Fight thou not against Moabites, neither begin thou battle against them; for I shall not give to thee anything of their land, for I have given Ar into possession to the sons of Lot.
10 Emim were the first dwellers thereof, a great people, and strong, and so high,
11 that they were believed to be as giants, of the generation of Anakim, and they were like the sons of Anakim; forsooth Moabites call them Emim.
12 Soothly Horims dwelled before in Seir, and when they were put out, and were done away, the sons of Esau dwelled there, as Israel did in the land of his possession, which the Lord gave to him.
13 Therefore we rose up, that we should pass over the strand [or stream] of Zered, and we came to it.
14 Soothly the time in which we went from Kadeshbarnea till to the passing over of the strand [or stream] of Zered, was of eight and thirty years, till all the generation of fighting men was wasted from their tents, as the Lord had sworn;
15 whose hand was against them, that they should perish from the midst of their tents.
16 Soothly after that all the fighters had fallen down,
17 the Lord spake to me, and said,
18 Thou shalt pass by today the coasts of Moab, the city, Ar by name,
19 and thou shalt nigh into the coasts of the sons of Ammon; be thou ware that thou fight not against them, nor be moved to battle; for I shall not give to thee of the land of the sons of Ammon, for I have given it to the sons of Lot into possession.
20 It is reckoned the land of giants, and giants inhabited therein sometime, which giants Ammonites call Zamzum-mims;
21 a much people, and great, and of noble length, as Anakim, which the Lord did away from the face of them, and made them to dwell for those giants,
22 as he did to the sons of Esau, that dwelled in Seir, and did away Horims, and gave to them the land of Horims, which the sons of Esau wield till into present time.
23 Also men of Cappadocia putted out Avims, that dwelled in Hazerim, till to Gaza; which went out from Cappadocia, and did away Avims, and dwelled there for them.
24 Rise ye, and pass ye over the strand [or the stream] of Arnon; lo! I have betaken in thine hand Sihon, king of Heshbon, of Amorites; and his land begin thou to wield, and smite thou battle against him.
25 Today I shall begin to send thy dread, and thy fear into the peoples that dwell under all heaven, that when thy name is heard, they dread, and tremble, by the manner of women travailing of child, and be holden with sorrow.
26 Therefore I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon, king of Heshbon; and I said with peaceable words,
27 We shall pass through thy land, we shall go in the common way; we shall not bow neither to the right side, nor to the left side.
28 Sell thou us meats for price, that we eat; give thou us water for money, and so we shall drink. Only it is that we ask of thee that thou grant passage to us,
29 as the sons of Esau did, that dwell in Seir, and the Moabites, that dwell in Ar, till we come to Jordan, and pass over to the land which our Lord God shall give to us.
30 And Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not give passage to us; for thy Lord God made hard his spirit, and made firm in evil the heart of him, that he should be betaken into thine hands, as thou seest now.
31 And the Lord said to me, Lo, I have begun to betake to thee Sihon, and his land; begin thou to wield it.
32 And Sihon went out against us with all his people, to battle in Jahaz.
33 And our Lord God betook him to us, and we have smitten him, with his sons, and all his people.
34 And we took in that time all the cities, when the dwellers of those cities, men, and women, and children, were slain; we left not in them any-thing,
35 except beasts that fell into the part of men taking prey, and except spoils of the cities which we took.
36 From Aroer, which is on the brink of the strand [or the stream] of Arnon, from the town which is set in the valley, unto Gilead, no town was, nor city, that escaped our hands. Our Lord God betook all to us;
37 except the land of the sons of Ammon, to which land we nighed not, and all things that lie to the strand [or the stream] of Jabbok, and except the cities of the mountains, and all the places from which our Lord God forbade us.