37The Lord was angry with me too because of you. He said, “You also will not enter there. 38Joshua son of Nun, who is standing before you, will enter there. Strengthen him, because he will lead Israel to possess it. 39Your toddlers, whom you said would become plunder of war, and your children, who today do not yet know good and evil, will enter there. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. 40But you, turn around and travel into the wilderness toward the Red Sea.”[] 41Then you answered me, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us to do.” So each man among you strapped on his weapons of war, and you thought it would be easy to go up to the hill country.
42But the Lord instructed me: “Say to them, ‘Do not go up and fight, because I will not be among you to keep you from being struck down by your enemies.’” 43So I spoke to you, but you did not listen. You rebelled against the command of the Lord and acted presumptuously by going up to the hill country anyway. 44Then the Amorites living in the hill country went out to meet you. They pursued you like bees, and they struck you down in Seir all the way to Hormah. 45Then you returned and you cried out before the Lord, but the Lord did not pay attention to the noise you made. He did not listen to you. 46So you stayed in Kadesh many days—those well-known days that you stayed there.
21Then we turned and traveled toward the wilderness on the road to the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me, and we traveled for many days to get around the area of Mount Seir.[] The Journey Past Edom
2Then the Lord said to me, 3“You have been traveling around this mountainous region long enough. Turn north 4and command the people, ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who are living in Seir, and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. 5Do not wage war against them because I am not going to give you any of their land, not even an area the size of a footprint, because I have given the Mount Seir region to Esau as a possession. 6You may buy food from them with money so you can eat, and you may purchase water from them with money so you can drink. 7For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your trek through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have not lacked anything.’” 8So we passed by the territory of our brothers, the people of Esau, who were living in Seir. After leaving the Arabah Road, Elat, and Ezion Geber behind us, we turned and we traveled along the road to the Wilderness of Moab.
The Journey Past Moab
9Then the Lord said to me, “Do not be hostile toward Moab and do not wage war against them in battle, because I am not going to give you any of their land as a possession, since I have given Ar to the people of Lot as a possession.”
10(The Emites formerly lived in it, a strong, numerous people and tall like the Anakites. 11They, like the Anakites, are also considered to be Rephaim,[] but the Moabites call them Emites. 12The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau took possession of their land and destroyed them from their midst. They settled there in their place, just as Israel did in the land that the Lord gave to them as their possession.) 13Then the Lord told us:[] “Now get ready and cross the Zered Canyon.” So we crossed over the Zered Canyon. 14The time that we traveled from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Zered Canyon was thirty-eight years, until that whole generation of fighting men were eliminated from the camp, just as the Lord had sworn to them. 15Yes indeed, the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from the camp until they were eliminated. 