The Wilderness Years

The Lord spoke to me, saying:

Thou shalt pass this day the borders of Moab, the city named Ar:

And when thou comest nigh the frontiers of the children of Ammon, take heed thou fight not against them, nor once move to battle: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon, because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.

It was accounted a land of giants: and giants formerly dwelt in it, whom the Ammonites call Zomzommims,

A people great and many, and of tall stature, like the Enacims whom the Lord destroyed before their face: and he made them to dwell in their stead,

As he had done in favour of the children of Esau, that dwell in Seir, destroying the Horrhites, and delivering their land to them, which they possess to this day.

The Hevites also, that dwelt in Haserim as far as Gaza, were expelled by the Cappadocians: who came out of Cappadocia, and destroyed them and dwelt in their stead.

Arise ye, and pass the torrent Arnon: Behold I have delivered into thy hand Sehon king of Hesebon the Amorrhite, and begin thou to possess his land and make war against him.

This day will I begin to send the dread and fear of thee upon the nations that dwell under the whole heaven: that when they hear thy name they may fear and tremble, and be in pain like women in travail.

So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Cademoth to Sehon the king of Hesebon with peaceable words, saying:

We will pass through thy land, we will go along by the highway: we will not turn aside neither to the right hand nor to the left.

Sell us meat for money, that we may eat: give us water for money and so we will drink. We only ask that thou wilt let us pass through,

As the children of Esau have done, that dwell in Seir, and the Moabites, that abide in Ar: until we come to the Jordan, and pass to the land which the Lord our God will give us.

And Sehon the king of Hesebon would not let us pass: because the Lord thy God had hardened his spirit, and fixed his heart, that he might be delivered into thy hands, as now thou seest.

And the Lord said to me: Behold I have begun to deliver unto thee Sehon and his land, begin to possess it.

And Sehon came out to meet us with all his people to fight at Jasa.

And the Lord our God delivered him to us: and we slew him with his sons and all his people.

And we took all his cities at that time, killing the inhabitants of them, men and women and children. We left nothing of them:

Except the cattle which came to the share of them that took them: and the spoils of the cities, which we took:

From Aroer, which is upon the bank of the torrent Arnon, a town that is situate in a valley, as far as Galaad. There was not a village or city, that escaped our hands: the Lord our God delivered all unto us:

Except the land of the children of Ammon, to which we approached not: and all that border upon the torrent Jeboc, and the cities in the mountains, and all the places which the Lord our God forbade us.

Then we turned and went by the way of Basan: and Og the king of Basan came out to meet us with his people to fight in Edrai.

And the Lord said to me: Fear him not: because he is delivered into thy hand, with all his people and his land: and thou shalt do to him as thou hast done to Sehon king of the Amorrhites, that dwelt in Hesebon.

So the Lord our God delivered into our hands, Og also, the king of Basan, and all his people: and we utterly destroyed them,

Wasting all his cities at one time, there was not a town that escaped us: sixty cities, all the country of Argob the kingdom of Og in Basan.