27‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road;I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left.
The message that the ambassadors were to communicate to Sihon should make clear the peaceful intent of the Israelites: they would make safe passage, keeping to the highway, not ravaging the land.
27 ‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left.