Numbers 21:21-35

The Victory over Sihon and Og

21:21 ¹ Then Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, saying, ² 

21:22 “Let us ³  pass through your land; ⁴  we will not turn aside into the fields or into the vineyards, nor will we drink water from any well, but we will go along the King’s Highway until we pass your borders.” 21:23 But Sihon did not permit Israel to pass through his border; he ⁵  gathered all his forces ⁶  together and went out against Israel into the wilderness. When ⁷  he came to Jahaz, he fought against Israel. 21:24 But the Israelites ⁸  defeated him in battle ⁹  and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strongly defended. 21:25 So Israel took all these cities; and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. ¹⁰  21:26 For Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites. Now he had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all of his land from his control, ¹¹  as far as the Arnon. 21:27 That is why those who speak in proverbs ¹²  say,

“Come to Heshbon, let it be built.

Let the city of Sihon be established! ¹³ 

21:28 For fire went out from Heshbon,

a flame from the city of Sihon.

It has consumed Ar of Moab

and the lords ¹⁴  of the high places of Arnon.

21:29 Woe to you, Moab.

You are ruined, O people of Chemosh! ¹⁵ 

He has made his sons fugitives,

and his daughters the prisoners of King Sihon of the Amorites.

21:30 We have overpowered them; ¹⁶ 

Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon.

We have shattered them as far as Nophah,

which ¹⁷  reaches to Medeba.”

21:31 So the Israelites ¹⁸  lived in the land of the Amorites. 21:32 Moses sent spies to reconnoiter ¹⁹  Jaazer, and they captured its villages ²⁰  and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

21:33 Then they turned and went up by the road to Bashan. And King Og of Bashan and all his forces ²¹  marched out against them to do battle at Edrei. 21:34 And the Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand. You will do to him what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. 21:35 So they defeated Og, ²²  his sons, and all his people, until there were no survivors, ²³  and they possessed his land.

Deuteronomy 2:30--3:11

2:30 But King Sihon of Heshbon was unwilling to allow us to pass near him because the Lord our ²⁴  God had made him obstinate ²⁵  and stubborn ²⁶  so that he might deliver him over to you ²⁷  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 ²⁸  emerged to encounter us in battle at Jahaz, ²⁹  2:33 the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, along with his sons ³⁰  and everyone else. ³¹  2:34 At that time we seized all his cities and put every one of them ³²  under divine judgment, ³³  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, ³⁴  which is at the edge of Wadi Arnon (it is the city in the wadi), ³⁵  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, ³⁶  the cities of the hill country, or any place else forbidden by the Lord our God.

Defeat of King Og of Bashan

3:1 Next we set out on ³⁷  the route to Bashan, ³⁸  but King Og of Bashan and his whole army ³⁹  came out to meet us in battle at Edrei. ⁴⁰  3:2 The Lord, however, said to me, “Don’t be afraid of him because I have already given him, his whole army, ⁴¹  and his land to you. You will do to him exactly what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon.” 3:3 So the Lord our God did indeed give over to us King Og of Bashan and his whole army and we struck them down until not a single survivor was left. ⁴²  3:4 We captured all his cities at that time – there was not a town we did not take from them – sixty cities, all the region of Argob, ⁴³  the dominion of Og in Bashan. 3:5 All of these cities were fortified by high walls, gates, and locking bars; ⁴⁴  in addition there were a great many open villages. ⁴⁵  3:6 We put all of these under divine judgment ⁴⁶  just as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon – every occupied city, ⁴⁷  including women and children. 3:7 But all the livestock and plunder from the cities we kept for ourselves. 3:8 So at that time we took the land of the two Amorite kings in the Transjordan from Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon ⁴⁸  3:9 (the Sidonians ⁴⁹  call Hermon Sirion ⁵⁰  and the Amorites call it Senir), ⁵¹  3:10 all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salecah ⁵²  and Edrei, ⁵³  cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 3:11 Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaites. (It is noteworthy ⁵⁴  that his sarcophagus ⁵⁵  was made of iron. ⁵⁶  Does it not, indeed, still remain in Rabbath ⁵⁷  of the Ammonites? It is thirteen and a half feet ⁵⁸  long and six feet ⁵⁹  wide according to standard measure.) ⁶⁰ 

Nehemiah 9:22

9:22 “You gave them kingdoms and peoples, and you allocated them to every corner of the land. ⁶¹  They inherited the land of King Sihon of Heshbon ⁶²  and the land of King Og of Bashan.

[21:21]  ¹ sn For this section, see further J. R. Bartlett, “Sihon and Og of the Amorites,” VT 20 (1970): 257-77, and “The Moabites and the Edomites,” Peoples of Old Testament Times, 229-58; S. H. Horn, “The Excavations at Tell Hesban, 1973,” ADAJ 18 (1973): 87-88.

[21:21]  ² tc Smr and the LXX have “words of peace.”

[21:22]  ³ tn The Hebrew text uses the singular in these verses to match the reference to “Israel.”

[21:22]  ⁴ tc Smr has “by the King’s way I will go. I will not turn aside to the right or the left.”

[21:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “Sihon.”

[21:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “people.”

[21:23]  ⁷ tn The clause begins with a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive, but may be subordinated to the next preterite as a temporal clause.

[21:24]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text has “Israel,” but the verb is plural.

[21:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “with the edge of the sword.”

[21:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “its daughters.”

[21:26]  ¹¹ sn There is a justice, always, in the divine plan for the conquest of the land. Modern students of the Bible often think that the conquest passages are crude and unjust. But an understanding of the ancient Near East is critical here. This Sihon was not a part of the original population of the land. He himself invaded the territory and destroyed the population of Moab that was indigenous there and established his own kingdom. The ancient history is filled with such events; it is the way of life they chose – conquer or be conquered. For Israel to defeat them was in part a turning of their own devices back on their heads – “those that live by the sword will die by the sword.” Sihon knew this, and he did not wait, but took the war to Israel. Israel wanted to pass through, not fight. But now they would either fight or be pushed into the gorge. So God used Israel to defeat Sihon, who had no claim to the land, as part of divine judgment.

[21:27]  ¹² sn Proverbs of antiquity could include pithy sayings or longer songs, riddles, or poems composed to catch the significance or the irony of an event. This is a brief poem to remember the event, like an Egyptian victory song. It may have originated as an Amorite war taunt song; it was sung to commemorate this victory. It was cited later by Jeremiah (48:45-46). The composer invites his victorious people to rebuild the conquered city as a new capital for Sihon. He then turns to address the other cities which his God(s) has/have given to him. See P. D. Hanson, “The Song of Heshbon and David’s Nir,” HTR 61 (1968): 301.

[21:27]  ¹³ tn Meaning, “rebuilt and restored.”

[21:28]  ¹⁴ tc Some scholars emend to בָּלְעָה (bal’ah), reading “and devoured,” instead of בַּעֲלֵי (ba’aley, “its lords”); cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV. This emendation is closer to the Greek and makes a better parallelism, but the MT makes good sense as it stands.

[21:29]  ¹⁵ sn The note of holy war emerges here as the victory is a victory over the local gods as well as over the people.

[21:30]  ¹⁶ tc The first verb is difficult. MT has “we shot at them.” The Greek has “their posterity perished” (see GKC 218 §76.f).

[21:30]  ¹⁷ tc The relative pronoun “which” (אֲשֶׁר, ’asher) posed a problem for the ancient scribes here, as indicated by the so-called extraordinary point (punta extraordinaria) over the letter ר (resh) of אֲשֶׁר. Smr and the LXX have “fire” (אֵשׁ, ’esh) here (cf. NAB, NJB, RSV, NRSV). Some modern scholars emend the word to שֹׁאָה (sho’ah, “devastation”).

[21:31]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Israel.”

[21:32]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Moses sent to spy out.”

[21:32]  ²⁰ tn Heb “daughters.”

[21:33]  ²¹ tn Heb “people.”

[21:35]  ²² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Og) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:35]  ²³ tn Heb “no remnant.”

[2:30]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Heb “hardened his spirit” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “made his spirit stubborn.”

[2:30]  ²⁶ tn Heb “made his heart obstinate” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “made his heart defiant.”

[2:30]  ²⁷ tn Heb “into your hand.”

[2:32]  ²⁸ tn Heb “people.”

[2:32]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tc The translation follows the Qere or marginal reading; the Kethib (consonantal text) has the singular, “his son.”

[2:33]  ³¹ tn Heb “all his people.”

[2:34]  ³² tn Heb “every city of men.” This apparently identifies the cities as inhabited.

[2:34]  ³³ 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]  ³⁴ 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]  ³⁵ 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]  ³⁶ 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).

[3:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “turned and went up.”

[3:1]  ³⁸ sn Bashan. This plateau country, famous for its oaks (Isa 2:13) and cattle (Deut 32:14; Amos 4:1), was north of Gilead along the Yarmuk River.

[3:1]  ³⁹ tn Heb “people.”

[3:1]  ⁴⁰ sn Edrei is probably modern Deràa, 60 mi (95 km) south of Damascus (see Num 21:33; Josh 12:4; 13:12, 31; also mentioned in Deut 1:4).

[3:2]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “people.”

[3:3]  ⁴² tn Heb “was left to him.” The final phrase “to him” is redundant in English and has been left untranslated.

[3:4]  ⁴³ sn Argob. This is a subdistrict of Bashan, perhaps north of the Yarmuk River. See Y. Aharoni, Land of the Bible, 314.

[3:5]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “high walls and barred gates” (NLT); Heb “high walls, gates, and bars.” Since “bars” could be understood to mean “saloons,” the qualifying adjective “locking” has been supplied in the translation.

[3:5]  ⁴⁵ tn The Hebrew term פְּרָזִי (pÿraziy) refers to rural areas, at the most “unwalled villages” (KJV, NASB “unwalled towns”).

[3:6]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “we put them under the ban” (נַחֲרֵם, nakharem). See note at 2:34.

[3:6]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “city of men.”

[3:8]  ⁴⁸ sn Mount Hermon. This is the famous peak at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range known today as Jebel es-Sheik.

[3:9]  ⁴⁹ sn Sidonians were Phoenician inhabitants of the city of Sidon (now in Lebanon), about 47 mi (75 km) north of Mount Carmel.

[3:9]  ⁵⁰ sn Sirion. This name is attested in the Ugaritic texts as sryn. See UT 495.

[3:9]  ⁵¹ sn Senir. Probably this was actually one of the peaks of Hermon and not the main mountain (Song of Songs 4:8; 1 Chr 5:23). It is mentioned in a royal inscription of Shalmaneser III of Assyria (saniru; see ANET 280).

[3:10]  ⁵² sn Salecah. Today this is known as Salkhad, in Jordan, about 31 mi (50 km) east of the Jordan River in the Hauran Desert.

[3:10]  ⁵³ sn Edrei. See note on this term in 3:1.

[3:11]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “Behold” (הִנֵּה, hinneh).

[3:11]  ⁵⁵ tn The Hebrew term עֶרֶשׂ (’eres), traditionally translated “bed” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) is likely a basaltic (volcanic) stone sarcophagus of suitable size to contain the coffin of the giant Rephaite king. Its iron-like color and texture caused it to be described as an iron container. See A. Millard, “King Og’s Iron Bed: Fact or Fancy?” BR 6 (1990): 16-21, 44; cf. also NEB “his sarcophagus of basalt”; TEV, CEV “his coffin.”

[3:11]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “of iron-colored basalt.” See note on the word “sarcophagus” earlier in this verse.

[3:11]  ⁵⁷ sn Rabbath. This place name (usually occurring as Rabbah; 2 Sam 11:11; 12:27; Jer 49:3) refers to the ancient capital of the Ammonite kingdom, now the modern city of Amman, Jordan. The word means “great [one],” probably because of its political importance. The fact that the sarcophagus “still remain[ed]” there suggests this part of the verse is post-Mosaic, having been added as a matter of explanation for the existence of the artifact and also to verify the claim as to its size.

[3:11]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “nine cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 in (45 cm) for the standard cubit, this would be 13.5 ft (4.1 m) long.

[3:11]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “four cubits.” This would be 6 ft (1.8 m) wide.

[3:11]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “by the cubit of man.” This probably refers to the “short” or “regular” cubit of approximately 18 in (45 cm).

[9:22]  ⁶¹ tn The words “of the land” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:22]  ⁶² tc Most Hebrew MSS read “the land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon.” The present translation (along with NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, CEV, NLT) follows the reading of one Hebrew MS, the LXX, and the Vulgate.