Deuteronomy 2:24–4:46

²⁴Rise up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon. Behold, I have given into thy hand Sihon the king of Heshbon, the Amorite, and his land: begin, take possession, and engage with him in battle. ²⁵This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the peoples under the whole heaven; who will hear report of thee, and will tremble, and quake because of thee. ²⁶And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon the king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, ²⁷Let me pass through thy land: by the highway alone will I go; I will neither turn to the right hand nor to the left. ²⁸Thou shalt sell me food for money that I may eat; and thou shalt give me water for money that I may drink; I will only pass through on my feet, ²⁹—as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me, —until I shall pass over the Jordan into the land which Jehovah our God giveth us. ³⁰But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Jehovah thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obdurate, that he might give him into thy hand, as it is this day. ³¹And Jehovah said to me, Behold, I begin to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin, take possession, that thou mayest possess his land. ³²And Sihon came out against us for battle, he and all his people, to Jahaz. ³³But Jehovah our God gave him up before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and his whole people. ³⁴And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every city, men, and women, and little ones: we let none escape. ³⁵Only the cattle we took as booty for ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took. ³⁶From Aroer, which is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the ravine even to Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: Jehovah our God delivered all before us. ³⁷Only thou didst not approach the land of the children of Ammon, the whole border of the river Jabbok, nor the cities of the mountain, nor to whatsoever Jehovah our God had forbidden us.

Chapter 3

¹And we turned, and went up the way to Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, for battle at Edrei. ²And Jehovah said to me, Fear him not; for into thy hand have I given him, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon. ³And Jehovah our God gave into our hand Og the king of Bashan also, and all his people; and we smote him until none was left to him remaining. ⁴And we took all his cities at that time: there was not a town which we took not from them, sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides unwalled towns very many. ⁶And we utterly destroyed them, as we had done to Sihon the king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every city, men, women and little ones. ⁷But all the cattle and the spoil of the cities we took as booty for ourselves. ⁸And we took at that time the land out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites, that were on this side the Jordan, from the river Arnon to mount Hermon ⁹(the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir): ¹⁰all the cities of the plateau, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salchah and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹For only Og the king of Bashan remained of the residue of giants: behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? its length was nine cubits, and its breadth four cubits, after the cubit of a man.

¹²And this land we took in possession at that time. From Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and the half of mount Gilead, and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites; ¹³and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. (The whole region of Argob, even all Bashan, is called a land of giants. ¹⁴Jair the son of Manasseh took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maachathites, and called Bashan after his own name, Havoth-Jair, to this day.) ¹⁵And I gave Gilead to Machir. ¹⁶And to the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the river Arnon, the middle of the ravine and its border, as far as the river Jabbok, the border of the children of Ammon; ¹⁷the plain also, and the Jordan, and its border from Chinnereth as far as the sea of the plain, the salt sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward. ¹⁸And I commanded you at that time, saying, Jehovah your God hath given you this land to take possession of it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all who are combatants. ¹⁹Only your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle, —I know that ye have much cattle, —shall abide in your cities which I have given you, ²⁰until Jehovah give rest to your brethren, as well as to you, and they also take possession of the land that Jehovah your God giveth them beyond the Jordan; then shall ye return, each man to his possession, which I have given you.

²¹And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that Jehovah your God hath done to these two kings: so will Jehovah do to all the kingdoms to which thou shalt go. ²²Ye shall not fear them; for Jehovah your God, he will fight for you. ²³And I besought Jehovah at that time, saying, ²⁴Lord Jehovah, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy powerful hand; for what •God is in the heavens or in the earth that can do like to thy works, and like to thy might? ²⁵Let me go over, I pray thee, and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. ²⁶But Jehovah was wroth with me on your account, and did not hear me; and Jehovah said to me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter! ²⁷Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes; for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. ²⁸But charge Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land which thou shalt see. ²⁹And we abode in the valley opposite to Beth-Peor.

Chapter 4

¹And now, Israel, hearken to the statutes and to the ordinances which I teach you, to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which Jehovah the God of your fathers giveth you. ²Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall ye take from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God which I command you. ³Your eyes have seen what Jehovah did because of Baal-Peor; for all the men that followed Baal-Peor, Jehovah thy God hath destroyed them from among you; ⁴but ye that did cleave to Jehovah your God are alive every one of you this day. ⁵See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Jehovah my God commanded me, that ye may do so in the land into which ye enter to possess it. ⁶And ye shall keep and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding before the eyes of the peoples that shall hear all these statutes, and say, Verily this great nation is a wise and understanding people. ⁷For what great nation is there that hath God near to them as Jehovah our God is in everything we call upon him for? ⁸And what great nation is there that hath righteous statutes and ordinances, as all this law which I set before you this day? ⁹Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things that thine eyes have seen (and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but thou shalt make them known to thy sons and to thy sons’ sons), ¹⁰the day that thou stoodest before Jehovah thy God in Horeb, when Jehovah said to me, Gather me the people together, that I may cause them to hear my words, that they may learn them, and fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and teach them to their children. ¹¹And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and obscurity. ¹²And Jehovah spoke to you from the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but ye saw no form; only ye heard a voice. ¹³And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, the ten words; and he wrote them on two tables of stone. ¹⁴And Jehovah commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that ye might do them in the land whither ye are passing over to possess it. ¹⁵And take great heed to your souls (for ye saw no form on the day that Jehovah spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire), ¹⁶lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the form of any figure, the pattern of male or female, ¹⁷the pattern of any beast that is on the earth, the pattern of any winged fowl that flieth in the heaven, ¹⁸the pattern of anything that creepeth on the ground, the pattern of any fish that is in the waters under the earth; ¹⁹and lest thou lift up thine eyes to the heavens, and see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, the whole host of heaven, and be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, which Jehovah thy God hath assigned unto all peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰But you hath Jehovah taken, and hath brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, that ye might be to him a people of inheritance, as it is this day. ²¹And Jehovah was angry with me on your account, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not enter in to that good land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance; ²²for I shall die in this land, I shall not go over the Jordan; but ye shall go over, and possess this good land. ²³Take heed to yourselves lest ye forget the covenant of Jehovah your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a graven image, the form of anything…