Amorite Kings Defeated

²¹ Israel sent messengers to say to King Sihon^(A) of the Amorites, ²² “Let us travel through your land. We won’t go into the fields or vineyards. We won’t drink any well water. We will travel the King’s Highway until we have traveled through your territory.”^{(B) 23} But Sihon would not let Israel travel through his territory. Instead, he gathered his whole army and went out to confront Israel in the wilderness. When he came to Jahaz,^(C) he fought against Israel. ²⁴ Israel struck him with the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok,^(D) but only up to the Ammonite border, because it was fortified.^[a]

²⁵ Israel took all the cities and lived in all these Amorite cities, including Heshbon and all its surrounding villages. ²⁶ Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken control of all his land as far as the Arnon. ²⁷ Therefore the poets^[b] say:

³¹ So Israel lived in the Amorites’ land. ³² After Moses sent spies to Jazer, Israel captured its surrounding villages and drove out the Amorites who were there.

³³ Then they turned and went up the road to Bashan, and King Og of Bashan^(H) came out against them with his whole army to do battle at Edrei.^{(I) 34} But the Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you along with his whole army and his land. Do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”^{(J) 35} So they struck him, his sons, and his whole army until no one was left,^[d] and they took possession of his land.^(K)

³³ So Moses gave them—the Gadites, Reubenites, and half the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph—the kingdom of King Sihon of the Amorites and the kingdom of King Og of Bashan, the land including its cities with the territories surrounding them.^(A)

Defeat of Sihon the Amorite

²⁴ “The Lord also said, ‘Get up, move out, and cross the Arnon Valley. See, I have handed the Amorites’ King Sihon of Heshbon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession of it; engage^[a] him in battle.^{(A) 25} Today I will begin to put the fear and dread of you on the peoples everywhere under heaven. They will hear the report about you, tremble, and be in anguish because of you.’^(B)

²⁶ “So I sent messengers with an offer of peace^(C) to King Sihon of Heshbon from the Wilderness of Kedemoth, saying, ²⁷ ‘Let us travel through your land; we will keep strictly to the highway. We will not turn to the right or the left.^{(D) 28} You can sell us food in exchange for silver so we may eat, and give us water for silver so we may drink. Only let us travel through on foot, ²⁹ just as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir did for us, and the Moabites who live in Ar, until we cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.’ ³⁰ But King Sihon of Heshbon would not let us travel through his land, for the Lord your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to hand him over to you, as has now taken place.^(E)

³¹ “Then the Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land to you. Begin to take possession of it.’ ³² So Sihon and his whole army came out against us for battle at Jahaz. ³³ The Lord our God handed him over to us,^(F) and we defeated him, his sons, and his whole army. ³⁴ At that time we captured all his cities and completely destroyed the people of every city, including the women and children. We left no survivors.^{(G) 35} We took only the livestock and the spoil from the cities we captured as plunder for ourselves. ³⁶ There was no city that was inaccessible to^[b](H) us, from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead.^(I) The Lord our God gave everything to us. ³⁷ But you did not go near the Ammonites’ land, all along the bank of the Jabbok River,^(J) the cities of the hill country, or any place that the Lord our God had forbidden.^(K)

Defeat of Og of Bashan

3 “Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and King Og of Bashan^(L) came out against us with his whole army to do battle at Edrei.^{(M) 2} But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you along with his whole army and his land. Do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites,^(N) who lived in Heshbon.’ ³ So the Lord our God also handed over King Og of Bashan and his whole army to us. We struck him until there was no survivor left.^{(O) 4} We captured all his cities at that time. There wasn’t a city that we didn’t take from them: sixty cities, the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵ All these were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a large number of rural villages. ⁶ We completely destroyed them, as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon, destroying the men, women, and children of every city. ⁷ But we took all the livestock and the spoil from the cities as plunder for ourselves.^(P)

The Land of the Transjordan Tribes

⁸ “At that time we took the land from the two Amorite kings across the Jordan,^(Q) from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon, ⁹ which the Sidonians call Sirion, but the Amorites call Senir, ¹⁰ all the cities of the plateau, Gilead, and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of Og’s kingdom in Bashan.^{(R) 11} (Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim.^(S) His bed^[c] was made of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the Ammonites?^(T) It is 13½ feet long and 6 feet wide by a standard measure.^[d])^(U)

⁷ When you reached this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them.^(A)

⁴ The Lord will deal with them as he did Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and their land when he destroyed them.^(A)

¹⁰ For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt,^(A) and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed^(B) across the Jordan.

¹⁰ and all that he did to the two Amorite kings beyond the Jordan—King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan, who was in Ashtaroth.

Territory East of the Jordan

12 The Israelites struck down the following kings of the land and took possession of their land beyond the Jordan to the east and from the Arnon River to Mount Hermon, including all the Arabah eastward:^(A)

² King Sihon of the Amorites lived in Heshbon. He ruled from Aroer^(B) on the rim of the Arnon River, along the middle of the valley, and half of Gilead up to the Jabbok River (the border of the Ammonites^(C)), ³ the Arabah east of the Sea of Chinnereth^[a] to the Sea of Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea), eastward through Beth-jeshimoth^(D) and southward^[b] below the slopes of Pisgah.^(E)

⁴ King Og^[c] of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei.^{(F) 5} He ruled over Mount Hermon, Salecah, all Bashan up to the Geshurite and Maacathite border, and half of Gilead to the border of King Sihon of Heshbon.^(G)

¹⁹ “Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon.^(A) Israel said to him, ‘Please let us travel through your land to our country,’ ²⁰ but Sihon would not trust Israel to pass through his territory. Instead, Sihon gathered all his troops, camped at Jahaz, and fought with Israel. ²¹ Then the Lord God of Israel handed over Sihon and all his troops to Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession^(B) of the entire land of the Amorites who lived in that country.