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The Defeat of Sihon and Og

21 Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites to say, 22 “Permit us to pass through your land. We will not turn aside into any field or vineyard. We will not drink the water from any well. We will stay on the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.”

23 Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. Instead Sihon gathered all his people together and went out into the wilderness to confront Israel. When he came to Jahaz, he fought against Israel. 24 Israel struck him with the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, but only as far as the Ammonites, because the Ammonite border was strong. 25 Israel took all these cities. Israel began living in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all its villages. 26 Because Heshbon had been the city of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken from him all his land as far as the Arnon, 27 therefore the poets[a] say,

Come to Heshbon.
Let the city of Sihon be built and established,
28 for a fire has gone out of Heshbon,
a flame from the town of Sihon.
It has consumed Ar of Moab
and engulfed the heights of the Arnon.[b]
29 Woe to you, Moab!
You are destroyed, people of Chemosh!
He has given up his sons as refugees,
and his daughters go into captivity
to Sihon king of the Amorites.
30 We overthrew them.
Heshbon is destroyed as far as Dibon.
We have laid waste as far as Nophah.
Fire reaches as far as Medeba.

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Footnotes

  1. Numbers 21:27 Literally the ones who speak in proverbs or verses
  2. Numbers 21:28 The translation follows the Greek Old Testament. The Hebrew reads it consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the heights of Arnon.