1When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.
2Then Israel made a vow to Yahweh and said, “If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.”
3And Yahweh listened to the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanite, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the place was called Hormah.
4They set out from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom, and the people grew impatient on the way.
5And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread and no water, and our throat loathes this worthless bread.”
6Then Yahweh sent among the people the fiery serpents, and they bit the people, and many people of Israel died.
7So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh that he may take away the serpents from us.” And Moses prayed on behalf of the people.
8And Yahweh said to Moses, “Make yourself a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.”
9So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the pole, and it happened that if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
10Then the sons of Israel set out and camped at Oboth.
11They set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness that faces Moab, toward the sunrise.
12From there they set out and camped in the Wadi Zered.
13From there they set out and camped beyond the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the territory of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
14Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Yahweh: “Waheb in Suphah, and the wadis, the Arnon,
15and the slope of the wadis that stretches toward the site of Ar and leans against the boundary of Moab.”
16And from there they went to Beer, that is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather the people, and I will give them water.”
17Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!—
18the well that the princes dug, that the nobles of the people hollowed out, with the lawgiver’s staff, with their staffs.” And from the wilderness, Mattanah;
19and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,
20and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, at the top of Pisgah, which looks down over the wasteland.
21Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,
22“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard; we will not drink water from any well. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.”
23But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. Instead, Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.
24And Israel struck him down with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the border of the sons of Ammon was strong.
25And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all its daughter-villages.
26For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.
27Therefore those who speak in proverbs say: “Come to Heshbon, let it be built; let the city of Sihon be established.
28For fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the heights of the Arnon.
29Woe to you, O Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives and his daughters captives to the king of the Amorites, Sihon.
30But we shot them down; Heshbon is undone as far as Dibon. We laid waste as far as Nophah, which reaches to Medeba.”
31So Israel settled in the land of the Amorite.
32And Moses sent men to spy out Jazer, and they captured its daughter-villages and dispossessed the Amorite who were there.
33Then they turned and went up by the road to Bashan; and Og king of Bashan came out to meet them, he and all his people, for battle at Edrei.
34And Yahweh said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for into your hand I have given him and all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorite, who dwelt in Heshbon.”
35So they struck him and his sons and all his people down, until there was no survivor left to him, and they took possession of his land.
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