Numbers 21:21-30

Common English Bible

Wars against Sihon and Og

²¹Then the Israelites sent messengers to Sihon the Amorite king: ²²“Let us pass through your land. We won’t turn aside into a field or vineyard. We won’t drink water from a well. We will walk on the King’s Highway until we cross your border.”

²³But Sihon wouldn’t allow the Israelites to cross his border. Sihon gathered all his people and went out to meet the Israelites in the desert. When he came to Jahaz, he attacked the Israelites. ²⁴The Israelites struck him down with their swords and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was fortified. ²⁵The Israelites took all these cities. Then the Israelites settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and all its villages.

²⁶Now Heshbon was the city of Sihon the Amorite king who had fought against the former king of Moab. He had taken all his land from him as far as the Arnon. ²⁷Therefore, the poets say:

“Come to Heshbon, let it be built.
    Let the city of Sihon be established.
²⁸Fire went out from Heshbon,
    flame from Sihon’s city.
It consumed Ar of Moab
    and swallowed up the shrines of the Arnon.
²⁹You are doomed, Moab!
    You are destroyed, people of Chemosh!
He gave his sons as fugitives,
        and his daughters as captives
    to the Amorite king Sihon.
³⁰Yet we have thrown them down,
    destroying them^[a]
    from Heshbon to Dibon.
We brought ruin until Nophah,
    which is by Medeba.”