“Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the roadway. ¹  I will not turn aside to the right or the left.

Sell me food for cash ¹  so that I can eat and sell me water to drink. ²  Just allow me to go through on foot,

Then the Israelites said to him, “We will go along the highway, and if we ¹  or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else.”

“Let us ¹  pass through your land; ²  we will not turn aside into the fields or into the vineyards, nor will we drink water from any well, but we will go along the King’s Highway until we pass your borders.”

Let me please cross over to see the good land on the other side of the Jordan River – this good hill country and the Lebanon!” ¹ 

Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please allow us ¹  to pass through your land.” But the king of Edom rejected the request. ²  Israel sent the same request to the king of Moab, but he was unwilling to cooperate. ³  So Israel stayed at Kadesh.

The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River ¹  opposite Ephraim. ²  Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive ³  said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked ⁴  him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head!”