Deuteronomy 2:26-3:11

Good News Translation

Israel Defeats King Sihon^(A)

²⁶ “Then I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with the following offer of peace: ²⁷ ‘Let us pass through your country. We will go straight through and not leave the road. ²⁸ We will pay for the food we eat and the water we drink. All we want to do is to pass through your country, ²⁹ until we cross the Jordan River into the land that the Lord our God is giving us. The descendants of Esau, who live in Edom, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, allowed us to pass through their territory.’

³⁰ “But King Sihon would not let us pass through his country. The Lord your God had made him stubborn and rebellious, so that we could defeat him and take his territory, which we still occupy.

³¹ “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Look, I have made King Sihon and his land helpless before you; take his land and occupy it.’ ³² Sihon came out with all his men to fight us near the town of Jahaz, ³³ but the Lord our God put him in our power, and we killed him, his sons, and all his men. ³⁴ At the same time we captured and destroyed every town, and put everyone to death, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. ³⁵ We took the livestock and plundered the towns. ³⁶ The Lord our God let us capture all the towns from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and the city in the middle of that valley, all the way to Gilead. No town had walls too strong for us. ³⁷ But we did not go near the territory of the Ammonites or to the banks of the Jabbok River or to the towns of the hill country or to any other place where the Lord our God had commanded us not to go.

Israel Conquers King Og^(B)

3 “Next, we moved north toward the region of Bashan, and King Og came out with all his men to fight us near the town of Edrei. ² But the Lord said to me, ‘Don't be afraid of him. I am going to give him, his men, and all his territory to you. Do the same thing to him that you did to Sihon the Amorite king who ruled in Heshbon.’

³ “So the Lord also placed King Og and his people in our power, and we slaughtered them all. ⁴ At the same time we captured all his towns—there was not one that we did not take. In all we captured sixty towns—the whole region of Argob, where King Og of Bashan ruled. ⁵ All these towns were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars to lock the gates, and there were also many villages without walls. ⁶ We destroyed all the towns and put to death all the men, women, and children, just as we did in the towns that belonged to King Sihon of Heshbon. ⁷ We took the livestock and plundered the towns.

⁸ “At that time we took from those two Amorite kings the land east of the Jordan River, from the Arnon River to Mount Hermon. (⁹ Mount Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians, and Senir by the Amorites.) ¹⁰ We took all the territory of King Og of Bashan: the cities on the plateau, the regions of Gilead and of Bashan, as far east as the towns of Salecah and Edrei.”

(¹¹ King Og was the last of the Rephaim. His coffin,^[a] made of stone,^[b] was six feet wide and almost fourteen feet long, according to standard measurements. It can still be seen in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.)