4
And why have they alone, of all who live in the west, refused to come out and meet me?"
5
Then Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites, said to him, "May my lord please listen to a report from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people that lives in the mountain district near you. No falsehood shall come from your servant's mouth.
6
These people are descended from the Chaldeans.
7
At one time they lived in Mesopotamia, because they did not wish to follow the gods of their ancestors who were in Chaldea.
8
Since they had abandoned the ways of their ancestors, and worshiped the God of heaven, the God they had come to know, their ancestors drove them out from the presence of their gods. So they fled to Mesopotamia, and lived there for a long time.
9
Then their God commanded them to leave the place where they were living and go to the land of Canaan. There they settled, and grew very prosperous in gold and silver and very much livestock.
10
When a famine spread over the land of Canaan they went down to Egypt and lived there as long as they had food. There they became so great a multitude that their race could not be counted.
11
So the king of Egypt became hostile to them; he exploited them and forced them to make bricks.
12
They cried out to their God, and he afflicted the whole land of Egypt with incurable plagues. So the Egyptians drove them out of their sight.
13
Then God dried up the Red Sea before them,
14
and he led them by the way of Sinai and Kadesh-barnea. They drove out all the people of the desert,