13. Now, get up and cross the Wadi Zered.” So we did so.
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.
15. Indeed, it was the very hand of the Lord that eliminated them from within the camp until they were all gone.
16. So it was that after all the military men had been eliminated from the community,
17. the Lord said to me,
18. “Today you are going to cross the border of Moab, that is, of Ar.
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 as their possession.
20. (That also is considered to be a land of the Rephaites. The Rephaites lived there originally; the Ammonites call them Zamzummites.
21. They are a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed the Rephaites in advance of the Ammonites, so they dispossessed them and settled down in their place.
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.
23. As for the Avvites who lived in settlements as far west as Gaza, Caphtorites who came from Crete destroyed them and settled down in their place.)
24. Get up, make your way across Wadi Arnon. Look! I have already delivered over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Go ahead! Take it! Engage him in war!
25. This very day I will begin to fill all the people of the earth with dread and to terrify them when they hear about you. They will shiver and shake in anticipation of your approach.”
26. Then I sent messengers from the Kedemoth Desert to King Sihon of Heshbon with an offer of peace:
27. “Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the roadway. I will not turn aside to the right or the left.