But as for you,<n id="1" /> turn back and head for the desert by the way to the Red Sea.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then I sent messengers from the Kedemoth<n id="1" /> Desert to King Sihon of Heshbon with an offer of peace:

They did not see<n id="1" /> what he did to you in the desert before you reached this place,

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> found him<n id="2" /> in a desolate land,p> <p class="poetry">in an empty wasteland where animals howl.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">He continually guarded him<n id="4" /> and taught him;<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">he continually protected him<n id="6" /> like the pupil<n id="7" /> of his eye.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea<n id="1" /> just as the <sc>Lordsc> told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.

<p class="bodytext">So we turned away from our relatives<n id="1" /> the descendants of Esau, the inhabitants of Seir, turning from the desert route,<n id="2" /> from Elat<n id="3" /> and Ezion Geber,<n id="4" /> and traveling the way of the Moab wastelands.

These cities are Bezer, in the desert plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.p>

and who brought you through the great, fearful desert of venomous serpents<n id="1" /> and scorpions, an arid place with no water. He made water flow<n id="2" /> from a flint rock and

fed you in the desert with manna (which your ancestors had never before known) so that he might by humbling you test you<n id="1" /> and eventually bring good to you.

I have led you through the desert for forty years. Your clothing has not worn out<n id="1" /> nor have your sandals<n id="2" /> deteriorated.

<t /><p class="bodytext">This is what<n id="1" /> Moses said to the assembly of Israel<n id="2" /> in the Transjordanian<n id="3" /> wastelands, the arid country opposite<n id="4" /> Suph,<n id="5" /> between<n id="6" /> Paran<n id="7" /> and Tophel,<n id="8" /> Laban,<n id="9" /> Hazeroth,<n id="10" /> and Di Zahab<n id="11" />

Then we left Horeb and passed through all that immense, forbidding wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as the <sc>Lordsc> our God had commanded us to do, finally arriving at Kadesh Barnea.

and in the desert, where you saw him<n id="1" /> carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.&#8221;

All along the way I, the <sc>Lordsc> your God,<n id="1" /> have blessed your every effort.<n id="2" /> I have<n id="3" /> been attentive to<n id="4" /> your travels through this great wasteland. These forty years I have<n id="5" /> been with you; you have lacked for nothing.&#8217;&#8221;p>

Remember the whole way by which he<n id="1" /> has brought you these forty years through the desert<n id="2" /> so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Remember &#8211; don&#8217;t ever forget<n id="1" /> &#8211; how you provoked the <sc>Lordsc> your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him.<n id="2" />

Otherwise the people of the land<n id="1" /> from which you brought us will say, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> was unable to bring them to the land he promised them, and because of his hatred for them he has brought them out to kill them in the desert.&#8221;<n id="2" />

Every place you set your foot<n id="1" /> will be yours; your border will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the River (that is, the Euphrates) as far as the Mediterranean Sea.<n id="2" />

for both of you<n id="1" /> rebelled against me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the desert of Zin when you did not show me proper respect<n id="2" /> among the Israelites.