Numbers 21

1When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived 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 indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.”

3And Yahweh heard the voice of Israel and gave the Canaanite over to them, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the place was called Hormah.

4Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom, and the people became 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 we loathe this miserable bread.”

6So Yahweh sent among the people the fiery serpents, and they bit the people, and many from Israel died.

7Then 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 serpent from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

8Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Make for 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 the serpent bit a man, and 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 is opposite Moab, toward the sunrise.

12From there they set out and camped by the Wadi Zered.

13From there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites, for the Arnon is the border 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 of the Arnon.”

15and the slope of the wadis that extends to the site of Ar and leans against the border of Moab.

16And from there they went to Beer. That is the well about which Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather the people, and I will give them water.”

17Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well! Answer it!”

18the well that the princes dug, that the nobles of the people hollowed out with the ruler’s staff, with their staffs. And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah.

19And from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth.

20and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which overlooks the face of the wasteland.

21Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,

22Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard, and we will not drink water from a well. We will go by the king’s road until we have passed through your territory.

23But Sihon did not allow Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people and went out to meet Israel in the wilderness. He came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

24Israel struck him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon, for the border of the sons of Ammon was strong.

25Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all its daughter towns.

26For Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, and he had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land from his hand as far as the Arnon.

27Therefore the poets say, “Come to Heshbon; let the city of Sihon be built and established.”

28For fire has gone out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon; it has consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the high places of the Arnon.

29Woe to you, Moab! You are ruined, people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives and his daughters captives to Sihon, king of the Amorites.

30And we shot at them; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon, and we laid waste as far as Nophah, which reaches to Medeba.

31So Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

32Then Moses sent men to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

33Then they turned and went up by the way of 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 I have given him into your hand, along with all his people and his land. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”

35So they struck him down, and his sons, and all his people, until he had no survivor left; and they took possession of his land.