1 “Then we turned around and went through the desert toward the ◄Red Sea/Gulf of Aqaba►, as Yahweh told us to do, and we wandered in the Edom area for many years.

2 Then Yahweh said to me, 3 ‘You have been wandering around this hilly area for a long enough time. Now turn and travel toward the north. 4 And tell the people that they are about to travel near the land that belongs to the descendants of Esau, who are also descendants of Isaac. They live in the hilly Edom region. They will be afraid of you, 5 but do not start to fight against them, because I am not going to give you even a tiny bit [HYP] of their land. I have given that land to the descendants of Esau. 6  When you travel near their land, buy food and water from them.’

7 Do not forget that Yahweh our God has blessed you in everything that you [SYN] have done. He knows what has happened to you while you have wandered in this huge desert. But he has been with you during those 40 years, and as a result you have had everything that you needed [LIT].

8 So we continued to travel. We avoided going through the hilly area where the descendants of Esau live. We stayed away from the road through the Jordan River Valley past Ezion-Geber and Elath towns, and we turned and traveled northeast toward the desert area where the Moab people-group lives.

9 Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not bother/harass the people of Moab, and do not start to fight against them, because I am not going to give you any of their land. Do not forget that they are descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot, and I have given to them Ar city, their capital, and the other areas in that country.’ ”

10 A large group of giants called Emim formerly lived there. They were strong and numerous, and as tall as the giants who were descendants of Anak. 11 They and the descendants of Anak are also called the Repha giants, but the people of Moab call them Emim. 12 The Hor people-group also formerly lived in the Edom area, but the descendants of Esau chased them out. They defeated and killed them and ◄settled in/occupied► their land, just as the Israeli people later expelled their enemies from the land that Yahweh gave to them.

13  I also said to the Israeli people, “Then we crossed the Zered Gorge, as Yahweh told us to do. 14 It had been thirty-eight years from the time we first left Kadesh-Barnea until we crossed the Zered Gorge. During those years, all the Israeli ◄fighting men/soldiers► of that generation had died, as Yahweh had vowed would happen. 15 They died because Yahweh opposed them, until he had gotten rid of all of them.

16 After all the men who had been old enough to fight in wars had died [DOU], 17 Yahweh said to me, 18 ‘Today you all must cross the border into the Moab region, near Ar, their capital city. 19 When you come near the border of the land where the Ammon people-group live, do not bother/harass them or start to fight against them. They are also descendants of Lot, so I am not going to give you any of the land that I have given to them.’ ”

20 That region is also called the land of the Repha giants, who formerly lived there. The Ammon people-group call them the Zamzum group. 21 They were a large and powerful group, who were as tall as the descendants of Anak. But Yahweh got rid of them, and the Ammon people-group expelled them and took their land away from them and started to live there. 22 Yahweh had done the same thing for the descendants of Esau who live in the hilly area of Edom. He got rid of the Hor people-group, with the result that the Edom people-group took their land from them and started to live there. They still live there. 23 People who came from Crete Island got rid of the Av group who previously lived in the land close to the Mediterranean Sea, as far south as Gaza. They took their land from them and started to live there.

24 “After we had gone through the Moab region, Yahweh said to us, ‘Now cross the Arnon River. I will help you to defeat [IDM] the army of Sihon, the king of the Amor people-group, who lives in Heshbon city. So attack their army and start to take their land from them. 25 Today I will begin to cause everyone, everywhere, to be afraid of you. Everyone who hears about you will tremble and be terrified.’

26 Then I sent messengers to go from the desert to King Sihon at Heshbon. I told them to give this peaceful message to the king: 27 ‘Please allow us to travel through your land. We promise that we will stay on the road; we will not turn off to the right or to the left. 28 We will pay for any food or water that you allow us to buy. We want only to walk through your country, 29 until we cross the Jordan River into the land that Yahweh our God is giving to us. Do for us just as the descendants of Esau who live in the Edom area and the Moab people-group did for us when they allowed us to go through their areas.’ 30 But King Sihon would not allow us to go through his country. That was because Yahweh our God caused him to be stubborn [IDM]. The result was that Yahweh enabled us to defeat his army and take his land [IDM], which we still live in.

31 Yahweh said to me, ‘Listen! I am about to allow you to defeat Sihon’s army and to take the people’s land from them. So start to occupy it!’

32 Then Sihon came out of the city with all his army to fight against us at Jahaz town. 33 But God enabled us to defeat [DOU] them, and we killed Sihon and his sons and all his soldiers. 34 We captured all their cities and destroyed them all. We killed all the men and women and children; we did not allow any of them to remain alive. 35 We took the valuable things that were in the cities that we captured and also their cattle. 36 Yahweh our God enabled us to capture [IDM] all their towns from Aroer in the south, which is at the edge of the Arnon River Valley, to the Gilead region in the north. Some of their cities had walls around them, but we were able to climb over them. 37 But we did not go near the area where the Ammon people-group live, or the banks of the Jabbok riverbed, or the towns in the hilly area, or any other place where Yahweh our God told us not to go.”