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2. Wanderings in the Desert

¹we journeyed back into the wilderness, in the direction of the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me and skirted Mount Seir for many days.²Then the Lord said to me:³“You have been skirting this hill country long enough. Head north,⁴and 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 careful⁵not 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.⁶You 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.⁷Surely 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.”⁸So 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,⁹the 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.”¹⁰(The Emim—a large and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim—had formerly inhabited it.¹¹Like the Anakim, they are usually reckoned as Rephaim, though the Moabites call them Emim.¹²Moreover, 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.)¹³“Now then, proceed to cross over the Wadi Zered.”

So we crossed over the Wadi Zered.¹⁴And 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.¹⁵Indeed, 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,¹⁷the Lord spoke to me, saying,¹⁸“Today you are going to cross the boundary of Moab at Ar.¹⁹When 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.”²⁰(It also is usually reckoned as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly inhabited it, though the Ammonites call them Zamzummim,²¹a strong and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites so that they could dispossess them and settle in their place.²²He did the same for the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, by destroying the Horim before them so that they could dispossess them and settle in their place even to this day.²³As for the Avvim, who had lived in settlements in the vicinity of Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.)²⁴“Proceed on your journey and cross the Wadi Arnon. See, I have handed over to you King Sihon the Amorite of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession by engaging him in battle.²⁵This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under heaven; when they hear report of you, they will tremble and be in anguish because of you.”

Defeat of King Sihon

²⁶ So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with the following terms of peace:²⁷“If you let me pass through your land, I will travel only along the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left.²⁸You shall sell me food for money, so that I may eat, and supply me water for money, so that I may drink. Only allow me to pass through on foot—²⁹just as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir have done for me and likewise the Moabites who live in Ar—until I cross the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving us.”³⁰But King Sihon of Heshbon was not willing to let us pass through, for the Lord your God had hardened his spirit and made his heart defiant in order to hand him over to you, as he has now done.

³¹ The Lord said to me, “See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin now to take possession of his land.”³²So when Sihon came out against us, he and all his people for battle at Jahaz,³³the Lord our God gave him over to us; and we struck him down, along with his offspring and all his people.³⁴At that time we captured all his towns, and in each town we utterly destroyed men, women, and children. We left not a single survivor.³⁵Only the livestock we kept as spoil for ourselves, as well as the plunder of the towns that we had captured.³⁶From Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon (including the town that is in the wadi itself) as far as Gilead, there was no citadel too high for us. The Lord our God gave everything to us.³⁷You did not encroach, however, on the land of the Ammonites, avoiding the whole upper region of the Wadi Jabbok as well as the towns of the hill country, just as the Lord our God had charged.

1. God of All Comfort

The Postponement of Paul’s Visit

¹² Indeed, this is our boast, the testimony of our conscience: we have behaved in the world with frankness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God—and all the more toward you.¹³For we write you nothing other than what you can read and also understand; I hope you will understand until the end—¹⁴as you have already understood us in part—that on the day of the Lord Jesus we are your boast even as you are our boast.

141. Psalm 141

Psalm 141

Prayer for Preservation from Evil

A Psalm of David.

1

I call upon you, O Lord; come quickly to me;

give ear to my voice when I call to you.

2

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,

and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.

3

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;

keep watch over the door of my lips.

4

Do not turn my heart to any evil,

to busy myself with wicked deeds

in company with those who work iniquity;

do not let me eat of their delicacies.

5

Let the righteous strike me;

let the faithful correct me.

Never let the oil of the wicked anoint my head,

for my prayer is continually against their wicked deeds.

6

When they are given over to those who shall condemn them,

then they shall learn that my words were pleasant.

7

Like a rock that one breaks apart and shatters on the land,

so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.

8

But my eyes are turned toward you, O God, my Lord;

in you I seek refuge; do not leave me defenseless.

9

Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me,

and from the snares of evildoers.

10

Let the wicked fall into their own nets,

while I alone escape.