Lands Not Given to You
1 Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me; and we encircled Mount Seir many days. 2 Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 3 “You have encircled this mountain long enough. Turn northward. 4 Command the people, saying, ‘You are to pass through the border of your brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore be careful. 5 Don’t contend with them; for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession. 6 You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat. You shall also buy water from them for money, that you may drink.’” 7 For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has known your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years, Yahweh your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing. 8 So we passed by from our brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion Geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9 Yahweh said to me, “Don’t bother Moab, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give you any of his land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession.” 10 (The Emim lived there before, a great and numerous people, and tall as the Anakim. 11 These also are considered to be Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim. 12 The Horites also lived in Seir in the past, but the children of Esau succeeded them. They destroyed them from before them, and lived in their place, as Israel did to the land of his possession, which Yahweh gave to them.) 13 “Now rise up and cross over the brook Zered.” We went over the brook Zered. 14 The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea until we had come over the brook Zered were thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the middle of the camp, as Yahweh swore to them. 15 Moreover Yahweh’s hand was against them, to destroy them from the middle of the camp, until they were consumed. 16 So, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, 17 Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 18 “You are to pass over Ar, the border of Moab, today. 19 When you come near the border of the children of Ammon, don’t bother them, nor contend with them; for I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession, because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.” 20 (That also is considered a land of Rephaim. Rephaim lived there in the past, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, 21 a great people, many, and tall, as the Anakim; but Yahweh destroyed them from before Israel, and they succeeded them, and lived in their place, 22 as he did for the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place even to this day. 23 Then the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza: the Caphtorim, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.) 24 “Rise up, take your journey, and pass over the valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. 25 Today I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.”
Three neighboring countries are placed off limits because God gave them to somebody else, and Israel is told to buy its food.
Thirty-eight years pass in a single verse Deuteronomy 2:14, and the chapter that contains them is mostly about restraint.
Three times a border is approached and three times the answer is no. EDOM first: don't contend with them; for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession Deuteronomy 2:5. Then Moab, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot Deuteronomy 2:9. Then AMMON, on the same ground Deuteronomy 2:19.
The reasoning is identical each time and it is the reasoning that matters. These lands are not spared because the peoples are innocent or because Israel is weak. They are spared because God has already assigned them. The same authority that is about to hand over Canaan has handed these to Esau and Lot, and the assignment is binding on the people who benefit from the other one.
That is worth stating plainly. A nation being given territory by God is told, in the same breath, exactly where the gift stops, and the stopping points are other nations' gifts from the same source. Nothing in the conquest that follows can be read as a general licence.
The instruction that goes with it is more remarkable still. You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat. You shall also buy water from them for money Deuteronomy 2:6. An army of several hundred thousand is told to pay retail, for water, in a desert, to a nation that would not have been able to refuse.
And the reason they can afford it is given at once: Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands... These forty years, Yahweh your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing Deuteronomy 2:7. Forty years described as a period of provision rather than of punishment — which is a striking way to sum up a sentence being served.
The parenthetical notes about earlier inhabitants Deuteronomy 2:10–12 Deuteronomy 2:20–23 look like antiquarian padding and are doing something. Each records a people displaced by another people, in Seir, in Ammon, and on the coast — and one of them says so directly: it happened as Israel did to the land of his possession, which Yahweh gave to them Deuteronomy 2:12.
The point is that this is not unique. Populations have been moved before, by the same God, on behalf of nations with no covenant at all. Israel's case is not a special exemption from history; it is an instance of something God has been doing everywhere, and the notes are placed here so nobody can mistake the gift for a favoritism.
Only at the end does the restraint lift, and the wording changes completely: I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite... begin to possess it Deuteronomy 2:24.
settled What this mark means