Deuteronomy 2:24–4:46

²⁴Arise,^l set out and cross over the wadi^m of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession of it, and engage with him in battle. ²⁵This day I will begin to place the dread of youⁿ and the fear of you before^o the peoples under all the heavens. They will hear the report about you,^p and so they will shake and tremble because of you.’ ^q

²⁶“So I sent messengers from the wilderness^r of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon; I sent terms of peace, saying,^{s 27}‘Let me cross through your land and only along the road^t I will go; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left. ²⁸Food for money you shall sell me, so that I may eat, and water for money you will give to me, so that I may drink; just let me cross on foot. ²⁹Just as the descendants^u of Esau did for me, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, until I cross the Jordan into the land that Yahweh our God is giving to us.’ ³⁰But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing to let us cross through his territory because Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made him obstinate^v in order to give him^w into your hand, just as he has now done.^{x 31}Yahweh said to me, ‘Look! I have begun to give over to you^y Sihon and his land; begin to take possession of his land.’^{z 32}Then Sihon and all his people came out to meet us for battle at Jahaz. ³³And so Yahweh our God gave him over to us,^a and we struck him down, and his sons^b and all of his people. ³⁴So we captured all of his cities at that time, and we destroyed each town of males and the women and the children; we did not leave behind a survivor. ³⁵We took only the livestock as spoil for ourselves,^c and also the booty of the cities that we had captured. ³⁶From Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi^d of Arnon and the city that was in the wadi^e on up to Gilead, there was not a city that was inaccessible to us; Yahweh our God gave everything^f to us.^{g 37}Only the land of the Ammonites^h you did not approach, all along the whole upper region of the Jabbok Riverⁱ and the towns of the hill country, according to all that Yahweh our God had instructed.

3“Then we turned, and we went up the road to Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us, he and all of his army for the battle at Edrei. ²And Yahweh said to me, ‘You should not fear him, for I have given him and all of his army^a and his land into your hand. And so you will do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites,^b who was reigning in Heshbon.’ ³And so Yahweh our God also gave Og the king of Bashan, and all of his army^c into our hand, and we struck him down until not a survivor remained to^d him. ⁴And we captured all of his towns^e at that time; there was not a city that we did not take from them. ⁵All of these were fortified towns with high walls, gates, and bars,^f apart from^g very many of the villages of the open country. ⁶And so we destroyed them just as we had done to Sihon the king of Heshbon; we destroyed utterly each town of males, the women, and the little children. ⁷But all of the livestock and the booty of the towns we kept as spoil for ourselves.^h

⁸“And so we took at that time the land from the control ofⁱ the two kings of the Amorites^j who were on the other side of the Jordan,^k from the wadi^l of Arnon up to Mount Hermon.^{m 9}(The Sidonians called Hermon ‘Sirion,’ and the Amorites called it ‘Senir.’) ¹⁰All of the towns of the plateau and the whole of Gilead and all of Bashan up to Salecah and Edrei, the towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹(For only Og, king of Bashan, was left from the remnant of the Rephaim. Indeed, his bedstead—it was a bedstead of iron. It is in Rabbah of the Ammonites.ⁿ Nine cubits is its length, and four cubits is its width according to the cubit of a man.)

¹²And so we took possession of this land at that time, from Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi^o of Arnon, and also half of the hill country of Gilead and its towns I gave to the Reubenites^p and to the Gadites.^{q 13}And the remainder of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the whole region of Argob. All of that area of Bashan was called the land of the Rephaim. ¹⁴Jair the descendant^r of Manasseh acquired the whole region of Argob, up to the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and he called it,^s that is Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, as it still is today.^{t 15}And also I gave Gilead to Makir. ¹⁶And to the Reubenites^u and to the Gadites^v I gave, from Gilead up to the wadi^w of Arnon, the middle of the wadi^x as a boundary and up to the Jabbok River,^y the boundary of the Ammonites.^{z 17}And the Jordan Valley^a with the Jordan River as its boundary, from Kinnereth^b up to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea,^c with the slopes of Pisgah toward the east.

¹⁸“And I charged you all at that time when I said, “Yahweh has given you—to all of you—this land to possess. All the warriors^d shall cross over, ready to fight, before your brothers, the Israelites.^{e 19}Only your wives and your little children and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock)^f must stay in your towns that I have given you, ²⁰until Yahweh shall give rest to your brothers as he did to you, and also they take possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving to them beyond the Jordan; then they may return, each one to his possession that I have given to them. ²¹And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes see all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings; so Yahweh will do to all of the kingdoms where you are about to cross over to. ²²You shall not fear them, for Yahweh your God is the one fighting for you.

²³“And I pleaded with Yahweh at that time, saying, ²⁴‘Lord Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand, for what^g god is there in the heaven or on the earth who can do according to your works and according to your mighty deeds? ²⁵Let me cross over, please, and let me see the good land that is beyond the Jordan,^h this good hill country and Lebanon.’ ²⁶But Yahweh was very angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me, and Yahweh said, ‘Enough of that from you!ⁱ You shall not speak to me any longer about this matter! ²⁷Go up to the top of Pisgah and look around you^j toward the west, toward the north, and toward the east, and view^k the land with your eyes, for you will not cross this Jordan. ²⁸Now instruct Joshua and support him and encourage him because he himself^l will cross over before this people and enable them to inherit the land that you will see.’ ²⁹So we remained in the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Introduction to the Stipulations

4“Now, Israel, listen to the rules and to the regulations that I am teaching you to do, in order that you may live and you may go in and you may take possession of the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,^a is giving to you. ²You must not add to the word that I am commanding you, and you shall not take away from it in order to keep^b the commands of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you to observe. ³Your eyes have seen^c what Yahweh did with^d the case of Baal Peor, for each^e man that followed after Baal Peor Yahweh your God destroyed from your midst. ⁴But you, the ones holding fast to Yahweh your God, are all alive today.^f

⁵See, I now teach^g you rules and regulations just as Yahweh my God has commanded me, to observe them just so in the midst of the land where you are going, to take possession of it. ⁶And you must observe them diligently,^h for that is your wisdom and your insight before the eyes of the people, who will hear all of these rules, and they will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.’ ⁷For what great nation has for it a god near to it as Yahweh our God, wheneverⁱ we call upon him? ⁸And what other great nation has for it^j just rules and regulations just like^k this whole^l law that I am setting before^m you today?ⁿ

⁹“However, take care^o for yourself and watch your inner self^p closely, so that you do not forget the things that your eyes have seen, so that they do not slip from your mind all the days of your life; and you shall make them known to your children and to your grandchildren.^{q 10}Remember the day that you stood before^r Yahweh your God at Horeb when Yahweh said to me,^s ‘Summon for me the people so that I can tell them my words, that they may learn to fear me all of the days they are alive on the earth and so that they may teach their children.’ ¹¹And so you came near, and you stood under the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire up to the heart of the heaven, dark with a very thick cloud.^{t 12}And Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard^u a sound of words, but you did not see^v a form—only a voice. ¹³And he declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments,^w which he charged you to observe,^x and he wrote them on the two tablets of stone. ¹⁴And Yahweh charged me at that time to teach you rules and regulations for your observation of them^y in the land that you are about to cross into^z to take possession of it.

¹⁵“So you must be very careful for yourselves,^a because you did not see^b any form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, ¹⁶so that you do not ruin yourselves^c and make for yourselves a divine image in a form of any image, a replica of male or female, ¹⁷a replica of any animal that is upon the earth, a replica of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸a replica of any creeping thing on the ground, a replica of any fish that is in the water below^d the earth. ¹⁹And do this so that you do not lift^e your eyes toward heaven and observe^f the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all of the peoples under all of the heaven. ²⁰But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out from the furnace of iron,…