Instruct<n id="1" /> these people as follows: &#8216;You are about to cross the border of your relatives<n id="2" /> the descendants of Esau,<n id="3" /> who inhabit Seir. They will be afraid of you, so watch yourselves carefully.

<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.

This is exactly what he did for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir when he destroyed the Horites before them so that they could dispossess them and settle in their area to this very day.

However, you did not approach the land of the Ammonites, the Wadi Jabbok,<n id="1" /> the cities of the hill country, or any place else forbidden by the <sc>Lordsc> our God.p>

To the Reubenites and Gadites I allocated the territory extending from Gilead as far as Wadi Arnon (the exact middle of the wadi was a boundary) all the way to the Wadi Jabbok, the Ammonite border.

<t /><p class="bodytext">When your children<n id="1" /> ask you later on, &#8220;What are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that the <sc>Lordsc> our God commanded you?&#8221;

for they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the <sc>Lordsc> will erupt against you and he will quickly destroy you.

so that your days and those of your descendants may be extended in the land which the <sc>Lordsc> promised to give to your ancestors, like the days of heaven itself.<n id="1" />

You shall rejoice in the presence of the <sc>Lordsc> your God, along with your sons, daughters, male and female servants, and the Levites in your villages<n id="1" /> (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).<n id="2" />

some evil people<n id="1" /> have departed from among you to entice the inhabitants of their cities,<n id="2" /> saying, &#8220;Let&#8217;s go and serve other gods&#8221; (whom you have not known before).<n id="3" />

You are to rejoice in your festival, you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows who are in your villages.<n id="1" />

For the <sc>Lordsc> your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand<n id="1" /> and serve in his name<n id="2" /> permanently.

<p class="bodytext">If a person has a stubborn, rebellious son who pays no attention to his father or mother, and they discipline him to no avail,<n id="1" />

They must declare to the elders<n id="1" /> of his city, &#8220;Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say &#8211; he is a glutton and drunkard.&#8221;

You must be sure<n id="1" /> to let the mother go, but you may take the young for yourself. Do this so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.p>

<p class="bodytext">If a man is found kidnapping a person from among his fellow Israelites,<n id="1" /> and regards him as mere property<n id="2" /> and sells him, that kidnapper<n id="3" /> must die. In this way you will purge<n id="4" /> evil from among you.p>

Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it.<n id="1" />

You will then eat your own offspring,<n id="1" /> the flesh of the sons and daughters the <sc>Lordsc> your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege<n id="2" /> by which your enemies will constrict you.

The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children.

Secret things belong to the <sc>Lordsc> our God, but those that are revealed belong to us and our descendants<n id="1" /> forever, so that we might obey all the words of this law.p>