I said to you, “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us.
See, the LORD your God has given the land to you; go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you; do not fear or be dismayed.”
22 All of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead of us to explore the land for us and bring back a report to us regarding the route by which we should go up and the cities we will come to.”
The plan seemed good to me, and I selected twelve of you, one from each tribe.
They set out and went up into the hill country, and when they reached the Valley of Eshcol they spied it out
and gathered some of the land’s produce, which they brought down to us. They brought back a report to us, and said, “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”
26 But you were unwilling to go up. You rebelled against the command of the LORD your God;
you grumbled in your tents and said, “It is because the LORD hates us that he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us.
Where are we headed? Our kindred have made our hearts melt by reporting, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified up to heaven! We actually saw there the offspring of the Anakim!’”
I said to you, “Have no dread or fear of them.
The LORD your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes,
and in the wilderness, where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you traveled until you reached this place.
But in spite of this, you have no trust in the LORD your God,
who goes before you on the way to seek out a place for you to camp, in fire by night, and in the cloud by day, to show you the route you should take.”
34 When the LORD heard your words, he was wrathful and swore:
“Not one of these—not one of this evil generation—shall see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors,
except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his descendants I will give the land on which he set foot, because of his complete fidelity to the LORD.”
Even with me the LORD was angry on your account, saying, “You also shall not enter there.
Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, shall enter there; encourage him, for he is the one who will secure Israel’s possession of it.
And as for your little ones, who you thought would become booty, your children, who today do not yet know right from wrong, they shall enter there; to them I will give it, and they shall take possession of it.
But as for you, journey back into the wilderness, in the direction of the Red Sea.”[3 (#ulink_c435ac29-6346-5439-a0ea-9a0a4e3e5918)]
41 You answered me, “We have sinned against the LORD! We are ready to go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.” So all of you strapped on your battle gear, and thought it easy to go up into the hill country.
The LORD said to me, “Say to them, ‘Do not go up and do not fight, for I am not in the midst of you; otherwise you will be defeated by your enemies.’”
Although I told you, you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the LORD and presumptuously went up into the hill country.
The Amorites who lived in that hill country then came out against you and chased you as bees do. They beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.
When you returned and wept before the LORD, the LORD would neither heed your voice nor pay you any attention.
46 After you had stayed at Kadesh as many
2 days as you did,
we journeyed back into the wilderness, in the direction of the Red Sea,[3 (#ulink_c435ac29-6346-5439-a0ea-9a0a4e3e5918)] as the LORD had told me and skirted Mount Seir for many days.
Then the LORD said to me:
“You have been skirting this hill country long enough. Head north,
and charge the people as follows: You are about to pass through the territory of your kindred, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so, be very careful
not to engage in battle with them, for I will not give you even so much as a foot’s length of their land, since I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.
You shall purchase food from them for money, so that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them for money, so that you may drink.
Surely the LORD your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.”
So we passed by our kin, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, leaving behind the route of the Arabah, and leaving behind Elath and Ezion-geber.
When we had headed out along the route of the wilderness of Moab,
the LORD said to me: “Do not harass Moab or engage them in battle, for I will not give you any of its land as a possession, since I have given Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.”
(The Emim—a large and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim—had formerly inhabited it.
Like the Anakim, they are usually reckoned as Rephaim, though the Moabites call them Emim.
Moreover, the Horim had formerly inhabited Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, destroying them and settling in their place, as Israel has done in the land that the LORD gave them as a possession.)
“Now then, proceed to cross over the Wadi Zered.”
So we crossed over the Wadi Zered.
And the length of time we had traveled from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation of warriors had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn concerning them.
Indeed, the LORD’s own hand was against them, to root them out from the camp, until all had perished.
16 Just as soon as all the warriors had died off from among the people,
the LORD spoke to me, saying,
“Today you are going to cross the boundary of Moab at Ar.
When you approach the frontier of the Ammonites, do not harass them or engage them in battle, for I will not give the land of the Ammonites to you as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot.”
(It also is usually reckoned as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly inhabited it, though the Ammonites call them Zamzummim,
