The Defeat of King Sihon

26 “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of (A)Kedemoth to Sihon the king of (B)Heshbon, (C)with words of peace, saying, 27 (D)‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. 28 (E)You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, 29 (F)as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’ 30 But (G)Sihon the king of (H)Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God (I)hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day. 31 And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ 32 Then (J)Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 33 And (K)the Lord our God gave him over to us, and (L)we defeated him and his sons and all his people. 34 And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction[a] every (M)city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. 35 Only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities that we captured. 36 (N)From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and from (O)the city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. (P)The Lord our God gave all into our hands. 37 Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river (Q)Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 2:34 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)

26 I then sent messengers from the Kedemoth desert to Sihon, Heshbon’s king, with words of peace: 27 “Please let us[a] pass through your land. We promise to stay on the road. We won’t step off it, right or left. 28 Please sell us food for money so we can eat; sell us water for money so we can drink. Let us pass through on foot— 29 just as Esau’s descendants who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me—until we cross the Jordan River into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.”

30 But Sihon, Heshbon’s king, wasn’t willing to let us pass through his land because the Lord your God had made his spirit hard and his heart inflexible so that God could hand him over to you, which is exactly how it happened. 31 The Lord said to me: Look! Right now I’m laying Sihon and his land before you. It’s time to take possession of his land!

32 Sihon and all his forces came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz. 33 But the Lord our God gave him to us. We struck him down, along with his sons, and all his forces. 34 At that time, we captured all of Sihon’s cities, and we placed every town—men, women, and children—under the ban.[b] We left no survivors. 35 The only things we kept for ourselves were the animals and the plunder from the towns we had taken. 36 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Arnon Ravine, to the town that is in the valley there,[c] even as far as Gilead, there wasn’t a city that could resist us. The Lord our God laid everything out before us. 37 But you didn’t go near the Ammonite lands or hillside cities alongside the Jabbok River, in compliance with all[d] that the Lord our God had commanded.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 2:27 Heb here and through 2:29a is singular me, I.
  2. Deuteronomy 2:34 A technique of holy war that often involves total destruction, in which everything that is destroyed is dedicated to the deity who helps in the battle
  3. Deuteronomy 2:36 Heb uncertain
  4. Deuteronomy 2:37 LXX, Tg Jonathan; MT and all