Deuteronomy 2:26-37

Defeat of Sihon, King of Heshbon

2:26 Then I sent messengers from the Kedemoth ¹  Desert to King Sihon of Heshbon with an offer of peace: 2:27 “Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the roadway. ²  I will not turn aside to the right or the left. 2:28 Sell me food for cash ³  so that I can eat and sell me water to drink. ⁴  Just allow me to go through on foot, 2:29 just as the descendants of Esau who live at Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land the Lord our God is giving us.” 2:30 But King Sihon of Heshbon was unwilling to allow us to pass near him because the Lord our ⁵  God had made him obstinate ⁶  and stubborn ⁷  so that he might deliver him over to you ⁸  this very day. 2:31 The Lord said to me, “Look! I have already begun to give over Sihon and his land to you. Start right now to take his land as your possession.” 2:32 When Sihon and all his troops ⁹  emerged to encounter us in battle at Jahaz, ¹⁰  2:33 the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, along with his sons ¹¹  and everyone else. ¹²  2:34 At that time we seized all his cities and put every one of them ¹³  under divine judgment, ¹⁴  including even the women and children; we left no survivors. 2:35 We kept only the livestock and plunder from the cities for ourselves. 2:36 From Aroer, ¹⁵  which is at the edge of Wadi Arnon (it is the city in the wadi), ¹⁶  all the way to Gilead there was not a town able to resist us – the Lord our God gave them all to us. 2:37 However, you did not approach the land of the Ammonites, the Wadi Jabbok, ¹⁷  the cities of the hill country, or any place else forbidden by the Lord our God.

[2:26]  ¹ sn Kedemoth. This is probably Aleiyan, about 8 mi (13 km) north of the Arnon and between Dibon and Mattanah.

[2:27]  ² tn Heb “in the way in the way” (בַּדֶּרֶךְ בַּדֶּרֶךְ, baderekh baderekh). The repetition lays great stress on the idea of resolute determination to stick to the path. IBHS 116 §7.2.3c.

[2:28]  ³ tn Heb “silver.”

[2:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “and water for silver give to me so that I may drink.”

[2:30]  ⁵ tc The translation follows the LXX in reading the first person pronoun. The MT, followed by many English versions, has a second person masculine singular pronoun, “your.”

[2:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “hardened his spirit” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “made his spirit stubborn.”

[2:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “made his heart obstinate” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “made his heart defiant.”

[2:30]  ⁸ tn Heb “into your hand.”

[2:32]  ⁹ tn Heb “people.”

[2:32]  ¹⁰ sn Jahaz. This is probably Khirbet el-Medeiyineh. See J. Dearman, “The Levitical Cities of Reuben and Moabite Toponymy,” BASOR 276 (1984): 55-57.

[2:33]  ¹¹ tc The translation follows the Qere or marginal reading; the Kethib (consonantal text) has the singular, “his son.”

[2:33]  ¹² tn Heb “all his people.”

[2:34]  ¹³ tn Heb “every city of men.” This apparently identifies the cities as inhabited.

[2:34]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “under the ban” (נַחֲרֵם, nakharem). The verb employed is חָרַם (kharam, usually in the Hiphil) and the associated noun is חֵרֶם (kherem). See J. Naudé, NIDOTTE, 2:276-77, and, for a more thorough discussion, Susan Niditch, War in the Hebrew Bible, 28-77.

[2:36]  ¹⁵ sn Aroer. Now known as àAraáir on the northern edge of the Arnon river, Aroer marked the southern limit of Moab and, later, of the allotment of the tribe of Reuben (Josh 13:9, 16).

[2:36]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the city in the wadi.” This enigmatic reference may refer to Ar or, more likely, to Aroer itself. Epexegetically the text might read, “From Aroer…, that is, the city in the wadi.” See D. L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1–11 (WBC), 49.

[2:37]  ¹⁷ sn Wadi Jabbok. Now known as the Zerqa River, this is a major tributary of the Jordan that normally served as a boundary between Ammon and Gad (Deut 3:16).