Bible Verses About Sihon

Isra'el sent messengers to Sichon, king of the Emori, with this message:

"Let me pass through your land. We won't turn aside into fields or vineyards, and we won't drink any water from the wells. We will go along the King's Highway until we have left your territory."

But Sichon would not allow Isra'el to pass through his territory. Instead, Sichon mustered all his people and went out into the desert to fight Isra'el. On reaching Yachatz, he fought Isra'el.

Isra'el defeated him by force of arms and took control of his land from the Arnon to the Yabok River, but only as far as the people of 'Amon, because the territory of the people of 'Amon was well defended.

Isra'el took all these cities - Isra'el lived in all the cities of the Emori, in Heshbon and all its surrounding towns.

Heshbon was the city of Sichon, the king of the Emori, who had fought against the former king of Mo'av and conquered all his land up to the Arnon.

This is why the storytellers say, "Come to Heshbon! Let it be rebuilt! Let Sichon's city be restored!

"For fire burst out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sichon. It consumed 'Ar of Mo'av, the lords of Arnon's high places.

"Woe to you, Mo'av! You are destroyed, people of K'mosh! He let his sons be fugitives and his daughters captives of Sichon, king of the Emori.

"We shot them down; Heshbon is destroyed, all the way to Divon. We even laid waste to Nofach, which extends as far as Meidva."

"'Get up, get moving, and cross the Arnon Valley! Here, I have put in your hands Sichon the Emori, king of Heshbon, and his land; commence the conquest, begin the battle!

Today I will start putting the fear and dread of you into all the peoples under heaven, so that the mere mention of your name will make them quake and tremble before you.'

"I sent envoys from the K'demot Desert to Sichon king of Heshbon with a peaceable message,

'Let me pass through your land. I will keep to the road, turning neither right nor left.

You will sell me food to eat for money and give me water to drink for money. I only want to pass through.

Do as the people of 'Esav living in Se'ir and the Mo'avim living in 'Ar did with me, until I cross the Yarden into the land ADONAI our God is giving us.'

"But Sichon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through his territory, because ADONAI your God had hardened his spirit and made him stubborn, so that he could hand him over to you, as is the case today.

ADONAI said to me, 'See, I have begun handing over Sichon and his territory before you; start taking possession of his land.'

Then Sichon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Yahatz;

and ADONAI our God handed him over to us, so that we defeated him, his sons and all his people.

At that time we captured all his cities and completely destroyed every city - men, women, little ones - we left none of them.

As booty for ourselves we took only the cattle, along with the spoil from the cities we had captured.

From 'Aro'er, on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and from the city in the valley, all the way to Gil'ad, there was not one city too well fortified for us to capture -ADONAI our God gave all of them to us.

The only land you didn't approach was that of the descendants of 'Amon - the region around the Yabok River, the cities in the hills and wherever else ADONAI our God forbade us to go.

ADONAI said to me, 'Don't be afraid of him; for I have handed him, all his people and his territory over to you; you will do to him as you did to Sichon king of the Emori, who lived at Heshbon.'