Deuteronomy 2–4

2^*we finally turned and went into the desert, along the road to the Gulf of Aqaba, as the Lord had commanded, and we spent a long time wandering about in the hill country of Edom. ²“Then the Lord told me ³that we had spent enough time wandering about in those hills and that we should go north. ^4*He told me to give you the following instructions: ‘You are about to go through the hill country of Edom, the territory of your distant relatives, the descendants of Esau. They will be afraid of you, ⁵but you must not start a war with them, because I am not going to give you so much as a square metre of their land. I have given Edom to Esau’s descendants. ⁶You may buy food and water from them.’

⁷“Remember how the Lord your God has blessed you in everything that you have done. He has taken care of you as you wandered through this vast desert. He has been with you these forty years, and you have had everything you needed.

⁸“So we moved on and left the road that goes from the towns of Elath and Eziongeber to the Dead Sea, and we turned north-east towards Moab. ^9*The Lord said to me, ‘Don’t trouble the people of Moab, the descendants of Lot, or start a war against them. I have given them the city of Ar, and I am not going to give you any of their land.’ ”

¹⁰(A mighty race of giants called the Emim used to live in Ar. They were as tall as the Anakim, another race of giants. ¹¹Like the Anakim they were also known as Rephaim; but the Moabites called them Emim. ¹²The Horites used to live in Edom, but the descendants of Esau chased them out, destroyed their nation, and settled there themselves, just as the Israelites later chased their enemies out of the land that the Lord gave them.)

¹³“Then we crossed the River Zered as the Lord told us to do. ^14*This was 38 years after we had left Kadesh Barnea. All the fighting men of that generation had died, as the Lord had said they would. ¹⁵The Lord kept on opposing them until he had destroyed them all.

¹⁶“After they had all died, ¹⁷the Lord said to us, ¹⁸‘Today you are to pass through the territory of Moab by way of Ar. ^19*You will then be near the land of the Ammonites, the descendants of Lot. Don’t trouble them or start a war against them, because I am not going to give you any of the land that I have given them.’ ”

²⁰(This territory is also known as the land of the Rephaim, the name of the people who used to live there; the Ammonites called them Zamzummim. ²¹They were as tall as the Anakim. There were many of them, and they were a mighty race. But the Lord destroyed them, so that the Ammonites took over their land and settled there. ²²The Lord had done the same thing for the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who live in the hill country of Edom. He destroyed the Horites, so that the Edomites took over their land and settled there, where they still live. ²³The land along the Mediterranean coast had been settled by people from the island of Crete. They had destroyed the Avvim, the original inhabitants, and had taken over all their land as far south as the city of Gaza.)

²⁴“After we had passed through Moab, the Lord said to us, ‘Now, start out and cross the River Arnon. I am placing in your power Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, along with his land. Attack him, and begin occupying his land. ²⁵From today on I will make people everywhere afraid of you. Everyone will tremble with fear at the mention of your name.’

Israel Defeats King Sihon

²⁶“Then I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with the following offer of peace: ²⁷‘Let us pass through your country. We will go straight through and not leave the road. ²⁸We will pay for the food we eat and the water we drink. All we want to do is to pass through your country, ²⁹until we cross the River Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving us. The descendants of Esau, who live in Edom, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, allowed us to pass through their territory.’

³⁰“But King Sihon would not let us pass through his country. The Lord your God had made him stubborn and rebellious, so that we could defeat him and take his territory, which we still occupy.

³¹“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Look, I have made King Sihon and his land helpless before you; take his land and occupy it.’ ³²Sihon came out with all his men to fight us near the town of Jahaz, ³³but the Lord our God put him in our power, and we killed him, his sons, and all his men. ³⁴At the same time we captured and destroyed every town, and put everyone to death, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. ³⁵We took the livestock and plundered the towns. ³⁶The Lord our God let us capture all the towns from Aroer, on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city in the middle of that valley, all the way to Gilead. No town had walls too strong for us. ³⁷But we did not go near the territory of the Ammonites or to the banks of the River Jabbok or to the towns of the hill country or to any other place where the Lord our God had commanded us not to go.

Israel Conquers King Og

3“Next, we moved north towards the region of Bashan, and King Og came out with all his men to fight us near the town of Edrei. ²But the Lord said to me, ‘Don’t be afraid of him. I am going to give him, his men, and all his territory to you. Do the same to him as you did to Sihon the Amorite king who ruled in Heshbon.’

³“So the Lord also placed King Og and his people in our power, and we slaughtered them all. ⁴At the same time we captured all his towns—there was not one that we did not take. In all we captured 60 towns—the whole region of Argob, where King Og of Bashan ruled. ⁵All these towns were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars to lock the gates, and there were also many villages without walls. ⁶We destroyed all the towns and put to death all the men, women, and children, just as we did in the towns that belonged to King Sihon of Heshbon. ⁷We took the livestock and plundered the towns.

⁸“At that time we took from those two Amorite kings the land east of the River Jordan, from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon. ⁹(Mount Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians, and Senir by the Amorites.) ¹⁰We took all the territory of King Og of Bashan: the cities on the plateau, the regions of Gilead and of Bashan, as far east as the towns of Salecah and Edrei.”

¹¹(King Og was the last of the Rephaim. His coffin,^b made of stone,^c was 4 metres long and almost 2 metres wide according to standard measurements. It can still be seen in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.)

The Tribes That Settled East of the Jordan

¹²“When we took possession of the land, I assigned to the tribes of Reuben and Gad the territory north of the town of Aroer near the River Arnon and part of the hill country of Gilead, along with its towns. ¹³To half the tribe of Manasseh I assigned the rest of Gilead and also all of Bashan, where Og had ruled, that is, the entire Argob region.”

(Bashan was known as the land of the Rephaim. ¹⁴Jair, from the tribe of Manasseh, took the entire region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of Geshur and Maacah. He named the villages after himself, and they are still known as the villages of Jair.)

¹⁵“I assigned Gilead to the clan of Machir of the tribe of Manasseh. ¹⁶And to the tribes of Reuben and Gad I assigned the territory from Gilead to the River Arnon. The middle of the river was their southern boundary, and their northern boundary was the River Jabbok, part of which formed the Ammonite border. ¹⁷On the west their territory extended to the River Jordan, from Lake Galilee in the north down to the Dead Sea in the south and to the foot of Mount Pisgah on the east.

^18*“At the same time, I gave them the following instructions: ‘The Lord our God has given you this land east of the Jordan to occupy. Now arm your fighting men and send them across the Jordan ahead of the other tribes of Israel, to help them to occupy their land. ^19*Only your wives, children, and livestock—I know you have a lot of livestock—will remain behind in the towns that I have assigned to you. ^20*Help your fellow-Israelites until they occupy the land that the Lord is giving them west of the Jordan and until the Lord lets them live there in peace, as he has already done here for you. After that, you may return to this land which I have assigned to you.’

²¹“Then I instructed Joshua: ‘You have seen all that the Lord your God did to those two kings, Sihon and Og; and he will do the same to everyone else whose land you invade. ²²Don’t be afraid of them, for the Lord your God will fight for you.’

Moses Is Not Permitted to Enter Canaan

^23*“At that time I earnestly prayed, ^24*‘Sovereign Lord, I know that you have shown me only the beginning of the great and wonderful things you are going to do. There is no god in heaven or on earth who can do the mighty things that you have done! ^25*Let me cross the River Jordan, Lord, and see the fertile land on the other side, the beautiful hill country and the Lebanon Mountains.’

^26*“But because of you people the Lord was angry with me and would not listen. Instead, he said, ‘That’s enough! Don’t mention this again! ^27*Go to the peak of Mount Pisgah and look to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west. Look carefully at what you see, because you will never go across the Jordan. ²⁸Give Joshua his instructions. Strengthen his determination, because he will lead the people across to occupy the land that you see.’

²⁹“So we remained in the valley opposite the town of Bethpeor.”

Moses Urges Israel to Be Obedient

4Then Moses said to the people, “Obey all the laws that I am teaching you, and you will live and occupy the land which the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. ^2*Do not add anything to what I command you, and do not take anything away. Obey the commands of the Lord your God that I have given you. ^3*You yourselves saw what the Lord did at Mount Peor. He destroyed everyone who worshipped Baal there, ⁴but those of you who were faithful to…