Deuteronomy 2:24–4:46

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 the Lord your God are still alive today.

⁵“I have taught you all the laws, as the Lord my God told me to do. Obey them in the land that you are about to invade and occupy. ⁶Obey them faithfully, and this will show the people of other nations how wise you are. When they hear of all these laws, they will say, ‘What wisdom and understanding this great nation has!’

⁷“No other nation, no matter how great, has a god who is so near when they need him as the Lord our God is to us. He answers us whenever we call for help. ⁸No other nation, no matter how great, has laws so just as those that I have taught you today. ⁹Be on your guard! Make certain that you do not forget, as long as you live, what you have seen with your own eyes. Tell your children and your grandchildren ¹⁰about the day you stood in the presence of the Lord your God at Mount Sinai,^d when he said to me, ‘Assemble the people. I want them to hear what I have to say, so that they will learn to obey me as long as they live and so that they will teach their children to do the same.’

^11*“Tell your children how you went and stood at the foot of the mountain which was covered with thick clouds of dark smoke and fire blazing up to the sky. ^12*Tell them how the Lord spoke to you from the fire, how you heard him speaking but did not see him in any form at all. ^13*He told you what you must do to keep the covenant he made with you—you must obey the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two stone tablets. ^14*The Lord told me to teach you all the laws that you are to obey in the land that you are about to invade and occupy.

Warning against Idolatry

¹⁵“When the Lord spoke to you from the fire on Mount Sinai, you did not see any form. For your own good, then, make certain ^16*that you do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all—whether man or woman, ^17*animal or bird, ^18*reptile or fish. ¹⁹Do not be tempted to worship and serve what you see in the sky—the sun, the moon, and the stars. The Lord your God has given these to all other peoples for them to worship. ^20*But you are the people he rescued from Egypt, that blazing furnace. He brought you out to make you his own people, as you are today. ^21*Because of you the Lord your God was angry with me and solemnly declared that I would not cross the River Jordan to enter the fertile land which he is giving you. ²²I will die in this land and never cross the river, but you are about to go across and occupy that fertile land. ²³Be certain that you do not forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you. Obey his command not to make yourselves any kind of idol, ^24*because the Lord your God is like a flaming fire; he tolerates no rivals.

²⁵“Even when you have been in the land a long time and have children and grandchildren, do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all. This is evil in the Lord’s sight, and it will make him angry. ²⁶I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that, if you disobey me, you will soon disappear from the land. You will not live very long in…