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Deuteronomy 2

1“We turned and set out into the wilderness by the Sea of Reeds route, as Yahweh had told me, and we went around Mount Seir for many days. 2Then Yahweh told me, 3‘You have gone around this mountain long enough. Turn north. 4Command the people: You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the sons of Esau who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so be very careful. 5Do not provoke them, because I will not give you any of their land, not even a foot's breadth, for I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6You must buy food from them with silver and eat it; you must also buy water from them with silver and drink it. 7For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He has known your journey through this great wilderness. These forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.’ 8So we passed by our brothers, the sons of Esau who live in Seir, away from the Arabah route, from Elath and Ezion-geber. We turned and passed along the wilderness route of Moab.

9“Yahweh told me, ‘Do not harass Moab or provoke them to war, because I will not give you any of its land as a possession, for I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession.’ 10The Emim formerly lived there, a great and numerous people, tall like the Anakim. 11They too were reckoned as Rephaim, like the Anakim, but the Moabites called them Emim. 12The Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them, destroyed them from before them, and settled in their place, as Israel did to the land of its possession that Yahweh gave them. 13‘Now get up and cross the Wadi Zered.’ So we crossed the Wadi Zered. 14The time we traveled from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, until that whole generation of fighting men had come to an end from the camp, as Yahweh had sworn to them. 15Yahweh's hand was also against them to throw them into confusion and bring them to an end from the camp, until they were gone.

16“When all the fighting men had finished dying from among the people, 17Yahweh spoke to me: 18‘Today you are about to pass through Moab's territory, at Ar. 19When you come near the sons of Ammon, do not harass them or provoke them, because I will not give you any of the sons of Ammon's land as a possession, for I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession.’ 20That too was reckoned as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there, but the Ammonites called them Zamzummim, 21a great and numerous people, tall like the Anakim. Yahweh destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who dispossessed them and settled in their place, 22just as he did for the sons of Esau who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them. They dispossessed them and have lived in their place to this day. 23As for the Avvim who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim who came from Caphtor destroyed them and settled in their place.

24“‘Get up, set out, and cross the Wadi Arnon. Look, I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand. Begin taking possession, and provoke him to war. 25This very day I will begin putting dread and fear of you upon the peoples under all the heavens. They will hear reports about you and tremble and writhe before you.’

26“I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace: 27‘Let me pass through your land. I will stay on the road, the road alone; I will not turn to the right or the left. 28Sell me food for silver so that I may eat, and give me water for silver so that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, 29as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan into the land Yahweh our God is giving us.’ 30But Sihon king of Heshbon was unwilling to let us pass through his land, because Yahweh your God had hardened his spirit and made his heart firm, so as to give him into your hand, as is the case today. 31Yahweh told me, ‘Look, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin taking possession, so that you may possess his land.’ 32Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, for battle at Jahaz. 33Yahweh our God gave him over to us, and we struck him, his sons, and all his people. 34At that time we captured all his towns and devoted every town to destruction—men, women, and little ones. We left no survivor. 35Only the livestock we took as plunder for ourselves, along with the spoil of the towns we captured. 36From Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, and the town in the wadi, as far as Gilead, there was no town too high for us. Yahweh our God gave everything over to us. 37But you did not approach the land of the sons of Ammon—all along the Wadi Jabbok, the towns of the hill country, and all that Yahweh our God had forbidden.”

Translation notes 6

2:4–9, 19 — Brothers; other peoples' possessions. The sons of Esau are called Israel's brothers. The text also attributes possession of land to Moab and Ammon through the sons of Lot. The commands not to attack those peoples stand alongside the later command to fight Sihon; they are not merged into one rule for every neighbor.

2:7, 15 — Known; hand. God's knowing the journey includes his attention to it, without supplying a new object such as every secret thought. The hand against the dying generation depicts active divine opposition. The forty years in verse 7 and thirty-eight in verse 14 describe different spans as the text gives them.

2:10–12, 20–23 — Earlier inhabitants. Rephaim, Emim, Anakim, Horites, Zamzummim, Avvim, and Caphtorim remain distinct names. The historical explanations describe earlier displacements, including Israel's, without identifying a single modern population or turning every name into the same word for giants. The precise boundaries of these explanatory asides within Moses' speech are editorial.

2:26–30 — Peace; refusal; hardening. The request includes buying provisions and passing through on the road. The comparison with Esau and Moab does not itself spell out whether every detail of the request was previously granted. Yahweh explicitly hardens Sihon's spirit and makes his heart firm; the draft retains that agency rather than adding “allowed him to harden himself.”

2:33–35 — Sons; devoted to destruction. Verse 33 follows the Masoretic reading instruction “his sons”; the unpointed written form can be read as “his son” or as a defective plural. Devoting to destruction here includes the stated killing of men, women, and little ones, with no survivor. The livestock and spoil are treated separately. The draft does not replace this severe claim with a general description of military victory.

2:36–37 — Heights; territory. A town's being too high concerns its defensive inaccessibility. The final clause supplies “forbidden” as the contextual sense of what Yahweh commanded concerning Ammon's territory; Hebrew does not repeat a negative command there.