Deuteronomy 2:26–3:17

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.^*