Deuteronomy 2:24–4:46

²⁴‘Proceed on your journey and cross the Wadi Arnon. See, I have handed over to you King Sihon the Amorite of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession by engaging him in battle.^{* 25}This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under heaven; when they hear report of you, they will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’^*

Defeat of King Sihon

²⁶“So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with the following terms of peace:^{* 27}‘If you let me pass through your land, I will travel only along the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left.^{* 28}You shall sell me food for money, so that I may eat, and supply me water for money, so that I may drink. Only allow me to pass through on foot^*—²⁹just as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir have done for me and likewise the Moabites who live in Ar—until I cross the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving us.’ ³⁰But King Sihon of Heshbon was not willing to let us pass through, for the Lord your God had hardened his spirit and made his heart defiant in order to hand him over to you, as he has now done.^*

³¹“The Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin now to take possession of his land.’^{* 32}So when Sihon came out against us, he and all his people for battle at Jahaz,^{* 33}the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we struck him down, along with his offspring and all his people. ³⁴At that time we captured all his towns, and in each town we utterly destroyed men, women, and children. We left not a single survivor.^{* 35}Only the livestock we kept as spoil for ourselves, as well as the plunder of the towns that we had captured. ³⁶From Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon (including the town that is in the wadi itself) as far as Gilead, there was no citadel too high for us. The Lord our God gave everything to us.^{* 37}You did not encroach, however, on the land of the Ammonites, avoiding the whole upper region of the Wadi Jabbok as well as the towns of the hill country, just as^e the Lord our God had charged.^*

Defeat of King Og

³“When we headed up the road to Bashan, King Og of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, for battle at Edrei.^{* 2}The Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you, along with his people and his land. Do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.’^{* 3}So the Lord our God also handed over to us King Og of Bashan and all his people. We struck him down until not a single survivor was left.^{* 4}At that time we captured all his towns; there was no citadel that we did not take from them: sixty towns, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.^{* 5}All these were fortress towns with high walls, double gates, and bars, besides a great many villages. ⁶And we utterly destroyed them, as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon, in each city utterly destroying men, women, and children.^{* 7}But all the livestock and the plunder of the towns we kept as spoil for ourselves.

⁸“So at that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites the land beyond the Jordan, from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁹(the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, while the Amorites call it Senir),^{* 10}all the towns of the tableland, the whole of Gilead, and all of Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns of Og’s kingdom in Bashan. ¹¹(Now only King Og of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. In fact, his bed, an iron bed, can still be seen in Rabbah of the Ammonites. By the common cubit it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide.)^{* 12}As for the land that we took possession of at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites the territory north of Aroer^f that is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, as well as half the hill country of Gilead with its towns,^{* 13}and I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, Og’s kingdom. (The whole region of Argob: all that portion of Bashan used to be called a land of Rephaim; ¹⁴Jair the Manassite acquired the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and he named them—that is, Bashan—after himself, Havvoth-jair,^g as it is to this day.)^{* 15}To Machir I gave Gilead.^{* 16}And to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the Wadi Arnon, with the middle of the wadi as a boundary, and up to the Jabbok, the wadi being boundary of the Ammonites; ¹⁷the Arabah also, with the Jordan and its banks, from Chinnereth down to the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea,^h with the lower slopes of Pisgah on the east.^*

¹⁸“At that time, I charged you as follows: ‘Although the Lord your God has given you this land to occupy, all your troops shall cross over armed as the vanguard of your Israelite kin.^{* 19}Only your wives, your children, and your livestock—I know that you have much livestock—shall stay behind in the towns that I have given to you. ²⁰When the Lord gives rest to your kindred, as to you, and they also have occupied the land that the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan, then each of you may return to the property that I have given to you.’^{* 21}And I charged Joshua as well at that time, saying: ‘Your own eyes have seen everything that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so the Lord will do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. ²²Do not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.’^*

Moses Views Canaan from Pisgah

²³“At that time, too, I entreated the Lord, saying, ²⁴‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your might. What god in heaven or on earth can perform deeds and mighty acts like yours?^{* 25}Let me cross over to see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and the Lebanon.’ ²⁶But the Lord was angry with me on your account and would not heed me. The Lord said to me, ‘Enough from you! Never speak to me of this matter again!^{* 27}Go up to the top of Pisgah and look around you to the west, to the north, to the south, and to the east. Look well, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.^{* 28}But charge Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, because it is he who shall cross over at the head of this people and who shall secure their possession of the land that you will see.’^{* 29}So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.^*

Moses Commands Obedience

⁴“So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.^{* 2}You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.^{* 3}You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did with regard to the Baal of Peor, how the Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor,^{* 4}while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.

⁵“See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. ⁶You must observe them and perform them, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’^{* 7}For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him?^{* 8}And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

⁹“But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children^*—¹⁰how you once stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth and may teach their children so’;^{* 11}you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds.^{* 12}Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.^{* 13}He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments,ⁱ and he wrote them on two stone tablets.^{* 14}And the Lord charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy.

¹⁵“Since you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, watch yourselves closely, ¹⁶so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female,^{* 17}the 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 when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven.^{* 20}But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now.^*

²¹“The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he vowed that I should not cross the Jordan and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving for your possession.^{* 22}For I am going to die in this land without crossing over the Jordan, but you are going to cross over to take possession of that good land.^{* 23}So be careful, lest you forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you and make for yourselves an idol in the form…