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26 “So I sent messengers from the wilderness[a] of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon; I sent terms of peace, saying,[b] 27 ‘Let me cross through your land and only along the road[c] I will go; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left. 28 Food for money you shall sell me, so that I may eat, and water for money you will give to me, so that I may drink; just let me cross on foot. 29 Just as the descendants[d] of Esau did for me, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, until I cross the Jordan into the land that Yahweh our God is giving to us.’ 30 But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing to let us cross through his territory because Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made him obstinate[e] in order to give him[f] into your hand, just as he has now done.[g] 31 Yahweh said to me, ‘Look! I have begun to give over to you[h] Sihon and his land; begin to take possession of his land.’[i] 32 Then Sihon and all his people came out to meet us for battle at Jahaz. 33 And so Yahweh our God gave him over to us,[j] and we struck him down, and his sons[k] and all of his people. 34 So we captured all of his cities at that time, and we destroyed each town of males and the women and the children; we did not leave behind a survivor. 35 We took only the livestock as spoil for ourselves,[l] and also the booty of the cities that we had captured. 36 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi[m] of Arnon and the city that was in the wadi[n] on up to Gilead, there was not a city that was inaccessible to us; Yahweh our God gave everything[o] to us.[p] 37 Only the land of the Ammonites[q] you did not approach, all along the whole upper region of the Jabbok River[r] and the towns of the hill country, according to all that Yahweh our God had instructed.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 2:26 Or “desert”
  2. Deuteronomy 2:26 Literally “to say”
  3. Deuteronomy 2:27 Literally “in the road, in the road”
  4. Deuteronomy 2:29 Or “the children/sons of”
  5. Deuteronomy 2:30 Literally “made firm his heart”
  6. Deuteronomy 2:30 Literally “to give him,” indicating purpose
  7. Deuteronomy 2:30 Literally “as it is this day”
  8. Deuteronomy 2:31 Literally “to the face of you”
  9. Deuteronomy 2:31 Literally, “take possession in order to possess his land”
  10. Deuteronomy 2:33 Literally “before us”
  11. Deuteronomy 2:33 Or “descendants”
  12. Deuteronomy 2:35 Hebrew “us”
  13. Deuteronomy 2:36 A valley that is dry most of the year, but contains a stream during the rainy season
  14. Deuteronomy 2:36 A valley that is dry most of the year, but contains a stream during the rainy season
  15. Deuteronomy 2:36 Literally “the whole”
  16. Deuteronomy 2:36 Literally “before us”
  17. Deuteronomy 2:37 Literally “children/sons of Ammon”
  18. Deuteronomy 2:37 Literally “wadi,” which here refers to a flowing river

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