^2:24Get up, make your way across Wadi Arnon. Look! I have already delivered over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon,³⁵ and his land. Go ahead! Take it! Engage him in war! ^2:25This very day I will begin to fill all the people of the earth³⁶ with dread and to terrify them when they hear about you. They will shiver and shake in anticipation of your approach.”³⁷

Defeat of Sihon, King of Heshbon

^2:26Then I sent messengers from the Kedemoth³⁸ Desert to King Sihon of Heshbon with an offer of peace: ^2:27“Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the roadway.³⁹ I will not turn aside to the right or the left. ^2:28Sell me food for cash⁴⁰ so that I can eat and sell me water to drink.⁴¹ Just allow me to go through on foot, ^2:29just as the descendants of Esau who live at Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land the Lord our God is giving us.” ^2:30But King Sihon of Heshbon was unwilling to allow us to pass near him because the Lord our⁴² God had made him obstinate⁴³ and stubborn⁴⁴ so that he might deliver him over to you⁴⁵ this very day. ^2:31The Lord said to me, “Look! I have already begun to give over Sihon and his land to you. Start right now to take his land as your possession.” ^2:32When Sihon and all his troops⁴⁶ emerged to encounter us in battle at Jahaz,⁴⁷^2:33the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, along with his sons⁴⁸ and everyone else.⁴⁹^2:34At that time we seized all his cities and put every one of them⁵⁰ under divine judgment,⁵¹ including even the women and children; we left no survivors. ^2:35We kept only the livestock and plunder from the cities for ourselves. ^2:36From Aroer,⁵² which is at the edge of Wadi Arnon (it is the city in the wadi),⁵³ all the way to Gilead there was not a town able to resist us—the Lord our God gave them all to us. ^2:37However, you did not approach the land of the Ammonites, the Wadi Jabbok,⁵⁴ the cities of the hill country, or any place else forbidden by the Lord our God.

Defeat of King Og of Bashan

^3:1Next we set out on¹ the route to Bashan,² but King Og of Bashan and his whole army³ came out to meet us in battle at Edrei.⁴^3:2The Lord, however, said to me, “Don’t be afraid of him because I have already given him, his whole army,⁵ and his land to you. You will do to him exactly what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon.” ^3:3So the Lord our God did indeed give over to us King Og of Bashan and his whole army and we struck them down until not a single survivor was left.⁶^3:4We captured all his cities at that time—there was not a town we did not take from them—sixty cities, all the region of Argob,⁷ the dominion of Og in Bashan. ^3:5All of these cities were fortified by high walls, gates, and locking bars;⁸ in addition there were a great many open villages.⁹^3:6We put all of these under divine judgment¹⁰ just as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon—every occupied city,¹¹ including women and children. ^3:7But all the livestock and plunder from the cities we kept for ourselves. ^3:8So at that time we took the land of the two Amorite kings in the Transjordan from Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon¹²^3:9(the Sidonians¹³ call Hermon Sirion¹⁴ and the Amorites call it Senir),¹⁵^3:10all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salecah¹⁶ and Edrei,¹⁷ cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ^3:11Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaites. (It is noteworthy¹⁸ that his sarcophagus¹⁹ was made of iron.²⁰ Does it not, indeed, still remain in Rabbath²¹ of the Ammonites? It is thirteen and a half feet²² long and six feet²³ wide according to standard measure.)²⁴

Read in Logos

Footnotes

35 Heshbon is the name of a prominent site (now Tell Hesbān, about 7.5 mi [12 km] south southwest of Amman, Jordan). Sihon made it his capital after having driven Moab from the area and forced them south to the Arnon (Num 21:26–30). Heshbon is also mentioned in Deut 1:4.
36 Heb “under heaven” (so , ).
37 Heb “from before you.”
38 Kedemoth. This is probably Aleiyan, about 8 mi (13 km) north of the Arnon and between Dibon and Mattanah.
39 Heb “in the way in the way” (בַּדֶּרֶךְ בַּדֶּרֶךְ, baderekh baderekh). The repetition lays great stress on the idea of resolute determination to stick to the path. §7.2.3c.
40 Heb “silver.”
41 Heb “and water for silver give to me so that I may drink.”
42 The translation follows the in reading the first person pronoun. The , followed by many English versions, has a second person masculine singular pronoun, “your.”
43 Heb “hardened his spirit” (so , , ); “made his spirit stubborn.”
44 Heb “made his heart obstinate” (so , ); “made his heart defiant.”
45 Heb “into your hand.”
46 Heb “people.”
47 Jahaz. This is probably Khirbet el-Medeiyineh. See J. Dearman, “The Levitical Cities of Reuben and Moabite Toponymy,” 276 (1984): 55–57.
48 The translation follows the Qere or marginal reading; the Kethib (consonantal text) has the singular, “his son.”
49 Heb “all his people.”
50 Heb “every city of men.” This apparently identifies the cities as inhabited.
51 Heb “under the ban” (נַחֲרֵם, nakharem). The verb employed is חָרַם (kharam, usually in the Hiphil) and the associated noun is חֵרֶם (kherem). See J. Naudé, , 2:, and, for a more thorough discussion, Susan Niditch, War in the Hebrew Bible, 28–77. Divine judgment refers to God’s designation of certain persons, places, and things as objects of his special wrath and judgment because, in his omniscience, he knows them to be impure and hopelessly unrepentant.
52 Aroer. Now known as ʿAraʾir on the northern edge of the Arnon river, Aroer marked the southern limit of Moab and, later, of the allotment of the tribe of Reuben (Josh 13:9, 16).
53 Heb “the city in the wadi.” This enigmatic reference may refer to Ar or, more likely, to Aroer itself. Epexegetically the text might read, “From Aroer …, that is, the city in the wadi.” See D. L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1–11 (), 49.
54 Wadi Jabbok. Now known as the Zerqa River, this is a major tributary of the Jordan that normally served as a boundary between Ammon and Gad (Deut 3:16).
1 Heb “turned and went up.”
2 Bashan. This plateau country, famous for its oaks (Isa 2:13) and cattle (Deut 32:14; Amos 4:1), was north of Gilead along the Yarmuk River.
3 Heb “people.”
4 Edrei is probably modern Derʿa, 60 mi (95 km) south of Damascus (see Num 21:33; Josh 12:4; 13:12, 31; also mentioned in Deut 1:4).
5 Heb “people.”
6 Heb “was left to him.” The final phrase “to him” is redundant in English and has been left untranslated.
7 Argob. This is a subdistrict of Bashan, perhaps north of the Yarmuk River. See Y. Aharoni, Land of the Bible, 314.
8 Or “high walls and barred gates” (); Heb “high walls, gates, and bars.” Since “bars” could be understood to mean “saloons,” the qualifying adjective “locking” has been supplied in the translation.
9 The Hebrew term פְּרָזִי (péraziy) refers to rural areas, at the most “unwalled villages” (, “unwalled towns”).
10 Heb “we put them under the ban” (נַחֲרֵם, nakharem). See note at . The divine curse. See note on this phrase in .
11 Heb “city of men.”
12 Mount Hermon. This is the famous peak at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range known today as Jebel es-Sheik.
13 Sidonians were Phoenician inhabitants of the city of Sidon (now in Lebanon), about 47 mi (75 km) north of Mount Carmel.
14 Sirion. This name is attested in the Ugaritic texts as sryn. See 495.
15 Senir. Probably this was actually one of the peaks of Hermon and not the main mountain (Song of Songs 4:8; 1 Chr 5:23). It is mentioned in a royal inscription of Shalmaneser III of Assyria (saniru; see 280).
16 Salecah. Today this is known as Salkhad, in Jordan, about 31 mi (50 km) east of the Jordan River in the Hauran Desert.
17 Edrei. See note on this term in .
18 Heb “Behold” (הִנֵּה, hinneh).
19 The Hebrew term עֶרֶשׂ (’eres), traditionally translated “bed” (cf. , , , ) is likely a basaltic (volcanic) stone sarcophagus of suitable size to contain the coffin of the giant Rephaite king. Its iron-like color and texture caused it to be described as an iron container. See A. Millard, “King Og’s Iron Bed: Fact or Fancy?” BR 6 (1990): 16–21, 44; cf. also “his sarcophagus of basalt”; , “his coffin.”
20 Or “of iron-colored basalt.” See note on the word “sarcophagus” earlier in this verse.
21 Rabbath. This place name (usually occurring as Rabbah; 2 Sam 11:11; 12:27; Jer 49:3) refers to the ancient capital of the Ammonite kingdom, now the modern city of Amman, Jordan. The word means “great [one],” probably because of its political importance. The fact that the sarcophagus “still remain[ed]” there suggests this part of the verse is post-Mosaic, having been added as a matter of explanation for the existence of the artifact and also to verify the claim as to its size.
22 Heb “nine cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 in (45 cm) for the standard cubit, this would be 13.5 ft (4.1 m) long.
23 Heb “four cubits.” This would be 6 ft (1.8 m) wide.
24 Heb “by the cubit of man.” This probably refers to the “short” or “regular” cubit of approximately 18 in (45 cm).