Numbers 21:21-30

New American Standard Bible

Two Victories

²¹^(A)Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying, ²²“^(B)Let me pass through your land. We will not turn off into field or vineyard; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the king’s road until we have passed through your border.” ²³^(C)But Sihon would not permit Israel to pass through his border. Instead, Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and came to ^(D)Jahaz and fought against Israel. ²⁴Then ^(E)Israel struck him 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 ^(F)border of the sons of Ammon was ^[a]Jazer. ²⁵Israel took all these cities, and ^(G)Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all her ^[b]villages. ²⁶For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon. ²⁷For that reason those who use proverbs say,

“Come to Heshbon! Let it be built!
So let the city of Sihon be established.
²⁸^(H)For a fire spread from Heshbon,
A flame from the town of Sihon;
It devoured ^(I)Ar of Moab,
The ^[c]^(J)dominant ^[d]heights of the Arnon.
²⁹^(K)Woe to you, Moab!
You are destroyed, people of ^(L)Chemosh!
^(M)He has given his sons as fugitives,
^(N)And his daughters into captivity,
To an Amorite king, Sihon.
³⁰But we have shot them down with arrows,
Heshbon is destroyed as far as ^(O)Dibon,
Then we have laid waste as far as Nophah,
Which reaches to Medeba.”