Deuteronomy 2:24–4:46

²⁴‘Rise up, set out on your journey and ^lgo over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of ^mHeshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and ⁿcontend with him in battle. ²⁵This day I will begin to put ^othe dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

The Defeat of King Sihon

²⁶“So I sent messengers from the wilderness of ^pKedemoth to Sihon the king of ^mHeshbon, ^qwith words of peace, saying, ^27r‘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. ^28sYou shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, ^29tas the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’ ³⁰But ^uSihon the king of ^mHeshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God ^vhardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day. ³¹And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ ³²Then ^wSihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. ³³And ^xthe Lord our God gave him over to us, and ^ywe defeated him and his sons and all his people. ³⁴And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction² every ^zcity, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. ³⁵Only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities that we captured. ^36aFrom Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and from ^bthe city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. ^cThe Lord our God gave all into our hands. ³⁷Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river ^dJabbok and the cities of the hill country, whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

The Defeat of King Og

3“Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And ^eOg the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at ^fEdrei. ²But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to ^gSihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ ³So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, ^hand we struck him down until he had no survivor left. ⁴And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, ⁱthe whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. ⁶And ^jwe devoted them to destruction,¹ as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every ^kcity, men, women, and children. ⁷But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder. ⁸So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁹(the Sidonians call ^lHermon ^mSirion, while the Amorites call it ⁿSenir), ¹⁰all the cities of the ^otableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as ^pSalecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹(For ^qonly Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of ^rthe Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in ^sRabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits² was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the ^tcommon cubit.³)

¹²“When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory beginning ^uat Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with ^vits cities. ^13wThe rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, that is, ^xall the region of Argob, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (All that portion of Bashan is called the land of ^rRephaim. ^14yJair the Manassite took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of ^zthe Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called the villages ^aafter his own name, Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.) ¹⁵To Machir ^bI gave Gilead, ¹⁶and to the Reubenites ^cand the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the Valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a border, as far over as the river Jabbok, ^dthe border of the Ammonites; ¹⁷the Arabah also, with the Jordan as the border, from ^eChinnereth as far as ^fthe Sea of the Arabah, ^gthe Salt Sea, under ^hthe slopes of Pisgah on the east.

¹⁸“And I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. ⁱAll your men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the people of Israel. ¹⁹Only your wives, your little ones, and your livestock ^j(I know that you have much livestock) shall remain in the cities that I have given you, ^20kuntil the Lord gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also occupy the land that the Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.’ ²¹And I commanded ^lJoshua at that time, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. ²²You shall not fear them, for it is ^mthe Lord your God who fights for you.’

Moses Forbidden to Enter the Land

²³“And I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, ²⁴‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant ⁿyour greatness and your mighty hand. For ^owhat god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? ²⁵Please let me go over and see ^pthe good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and ^qLebanon.’ ²⁶But ^rthe Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, ^s‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again. ^27tGo up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan. ²⁸But ^ucharge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see.’ ²⁹So we remained in ^vthe valley opposite Beth-peor.

Moses Commands Obedience

4“And now, O Israel, listen to ^wthe statutes and the rules¹ that I am teaching you, and do them, ^xthat you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ^2yYou shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. ³Your eyes have seen what the Lord did ^zat Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. ⁴But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. ⁵See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. ^6aKeep them and do them, for ^bthat will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷For ^cwhat great nation is there that has ^da god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? ⁸And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so ^erighteous as all this law that I set before you today?

^9f“Only take care, and ^gkeep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. ^hMake them known to your children and your children’s children— ¹⁰how on ⁱthe day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ^j‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, ^kso that they may learn to fear ^lme all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ ¹¹And ^myou came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while ⁿthe mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. ¹²Then ^othe Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, ^pbut saw no form; ^qthere was only a voice. ^13rAnd he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, ^sthe Ten Commandments,^{2 t}and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴And ^uthe Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.

Idolatry Forbidden

^15v“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since ^wyou saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶beware ^xlest you act corruptly ^yby making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, ^zthe likeness of male or female, ¹⁷the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. ¹⁹And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see ^athe sun and the moon and the stars, ^ball the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰But the Lord has taken you and ^cbrought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, ^dto be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. ²¹Furthermore, ^ethe Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is…