Therefore, you remained at Kadesh for a long time – indeed, for the full time. ¹ 

The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb and said, “You have stayed ¹  in the area of this mountain long enough.

“You have circled around this mountain long enough; now turn north.

(The Emites ¹  used to live there, a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites.

They are a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed the Rephaites ¹  in advance of the Ammonites, ²  so they dispossessed them and settled down in their place.

If you think, “These nations are more numerous than I – how can I dispossess them?”

“You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it.

When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, ¹  Girgashites, ²  Amorites, ³  Canaanites, ⁴  Perizzites, ⁵  Hivites, ⁶  and Jebusites, ⁷  seven ⁸  nations more numerous and powerful than you –

For the Lord your God will bless you just as he has promised; you will lend to many nations but will not borrow from any, and you will rule over many nations but they will not rule over you.

Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea ¹  just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.

But your wives, children, and livestock (of which I know you have many) may remain in the cities I have given you.

Stand aside ¹  and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, ²  and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”

The judge ¹  may sentence him to forty blows, ²  but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite ³  with contempt.

And this is the blessing ¹  to Judah. He said, Listen, O Lord, to Judah’s voice, and bring him to his people. May his power be great, and may you help him against his foes.

But the Lord was angry at me because of you and would not listen to me. Instead, he ¹  said to me, “Enough of that! ²  Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.

When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry ¹  and troops ²  who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, ¹  you must not chop down its trees, ²  for you may eat fruit ³  from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it! ⁴ 

Then you must affirm before the Lord your God, “A wandering ¹  Aramean ²  was my ancestor, ³  and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number, ⁴  but there he became a great, powerful, and numerous people.

The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; ¹  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.

At that time ¹  my anger will erupt against them ²  and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome ³  them ⁴  so that they ⁵  will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters ⁶  overcome us ⁷  because our ⁸  God is not among us ⁹ ?’