2:1 Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea ¹  just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time. 2:2 At this point the Lord said to me, 2:3 “You have circled around this mountain long enough; now turn north. 2:4 Instruct ²  these people as follows: ‘You are about to cross the border of your relatives ³  the descendants of Esau, ⁴  who inhabit Seir. They will be afraid of you, so watch yourselves carefully. 2:5 Do not be hostile toward them, because I am not giving you any of their land, not even a footprint, for I have given Mount Seir ⁵  as an inheritance for Esau. 2:6 You may purchase ⁶  food to eat and water to drink from them. 2:7 All along the way I, the Lord your God, ⁷  have blessed your every effort. ⁸  I have ⁹  been attentive to ¹⁰  your travels through this great wasteland. These forty years I have ¹¹  been with you; you have lacked for nothing.’”

2:8 So we turned away from our relatives ¹²  the descendants of Esau, the inhabitants of Seir, turning from the desert route, ¹³  from Elat ¹⁴  and Ezion Geber, ¹⁵  and traveling the way of the Moab wastelands. 2:9 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass Moab and provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as your territory. This is because I have given Ar ¹⁶  to the descendants of Lot ¹⁷  as their possession. 2:10 (The Emites ¹⁸  used to live there, a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. 2:11 These people, as well as the Anakites, are also considered Rephaites; ¹⁹  the Moabites call them Emites. 2:12 Previously the Horites ²⁰  lived in Seir but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land it came to possess, the land the Lord gave them.) ²¹  2:13 Now, get up and cross the Wadi Zered.” ²²  So we did so. ²³  2:14 Now the length of time it took for us to go from Kadesh Barnea to the crossing of Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, time for all the military men of that generation to die, just as the Lord had vowed to them. 2:15 Indeed, it was the very hand of the Lord that eliminated them from within ²⁴  the camp until they were all gone.

2:16 So it was that after all the military men had been eliminated from the community, ²⁵  2:17 the Lord said to me, 2:18 “Today you are going to cross the border of Moab, that is, of Ar. ²⁶  2:19 But when you come close to the Ammonites, do not harass or provoke them because I am not giving you any of the Ammonites’ land as your possession; I have already given it to Lot’s descendants ²⁷  as their possession.

2:20 (That also is considered to be a land of the Rephaites. ²⁸  The Rephaites lived there originally; the Ammonites call them Zamzummites. ²⁹  2:21 They are a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed the Rephaites ³⁰  in advance of the Ammonites, ³¹  so they dispossessed them and settled down in their place. 2:22 This is exactly what he did for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir when he destroyed the Horites before them so that they could dispossess them and settle in their area to this very day. 2:23 As for the Avvites ³²  who lived in settlements as far west as Gaza, Caphtorites ³³  who came from Crete ³⁴  destroyed them and settled down in their place.)