War_against the king of Arad
1The king of Arad lived in Canaan, in the Southern Desert. When they told him that the Israelites were coming to the city of Atharim, he started a war_against them and caught some of the Israelites who became his prisoners. 2The Israelites prayed and they made a promise to the Lord. They said: ‘Lord, if you help us defeat these people, we will completely destroy their towns and cities.’
3The Lord did what the Israelites asked. He helped them defeat the Canaanites. The Israelites killed all the Canaanites and completely destroyed their towns and cities. Then they named that place Hormah.
The bronze snake
4The Israelites went further from Mount Hor to the Red Sea. They wanted to walk around the land of Edom, but the people got tired on the road 5and they complained about God and said to Moses: ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt into the desert to die here? There is no food and water here and we are tired of this bad food.’
6Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes that bit the people and many of the Israelites died. 7The people came to Moses and said: ‘We have sinned. We have complained against God and against you. Please pray to the Lord and ask Him to take away the snakes.’
Moses prayed as the people asked, 8and the Lord told him: ‘You must make a snake from bronze and you must tie it to a long pole. If a snake has bitten someone, then that person must look at the snake that you have tied to the pole, and he will not die.’
9Moses made a snake from bronze and he tied it to a long pole. Every time a snake bit someone, and that person looked at the bronze snake, he did not die.
The road to the land of Moab
10The Israelites went further and they put up their tents at the town of Oboth. 11Later they went further from Oboth and they put up their tents at the town of Iye-Abarim near the land of Moab, on the eastern side. 12They went further from there and they put up their tents in the Zered Valley. 13They went further from there and they put up their tents at the Arnon River that flows from the land of the Amorites through the desert. The Arnon River is the border between the land of Moab and the land of the Amorites. 14This is why these words are written in the Book of the Wars of the Lord:
‘This happened at Zahab in Suphah,
and the valleys at the Arnon River,
15and in the field near the valleys
of the town of Ar
next to the land of Moab.’
16The Israelites went further to the water-well of Beer. It was the same water-well where the Lord had talked to Moses before when He said: ‘Tell the people to come to you so that I can give them water from a water-well.’
17That was when the Israelites sang this song:
‘Water-well, you must be filled with water.
They must sing to you.
18Our leaders made this well.
The important people of the nation
made you with their sceptres and staffs.’
The Israelites went from the desert to the town of Mattanah, 19and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth, 20and from Bamoth to the valley in the land of Moab near the top of Mount Pisgah. From there one could see the desert.
The Israelites defeat King Sihon
21The Israelites sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, and they said to him: 22‘We want to go through your land. We will not go into the wheat_fields or the vineyards and we will not drink water from the water-wells. We will stay on the main road until we have gone through your land.’
23But Sihon did not want the Israelites to go through his land. He called all his men together and they went to meet the Israelites in the desert. When he came to the town of Jahaz, he started to make war_against the Israelites. 24But the Israelites defeated him and they took his land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and to the border of the land of the Ammonites, where the army of the Ammonites was very strong. 25The Israelites took all those towns and they went to live in the towns of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all the towns nearby. 26Heshbon was the town of Sihon, king of the Amorites. He went to war_against the first king of Moab and he took all of his land as far as the Arnon River. 27This is why they sing this song:
‘Come to Heshbon and build it again.
Build the town of Sihon
28because the men from Heshbon
came out like a fire, like a flame
from the town of King Sihon.
The fire burnt the people
of the town of Ar in Moab,
the people who lived in
the high places at the Arnon River.
29Moab, you will suffer.
People of Chemosh, you will die.
Your sons have fled and
your daughters have become prisoners
of Sihon, king of the Amorites.
30We have defeated them.
People have died
from the town of Heshbon
to the town of Dibon.
We have destroyed them as far as
the towns of Nophah and Medeba.’
31The Israelites went to live in the land of the Amorites. 32Moses sent spies to the town of Jazer and the Israelites defeated the towns near Jazer. They chased away the Amorites who were living there.
The Israelites defeat King Og of Bashan
33The Israelites then went to the land of Bashan. King Og of Bashan came to meet them. He came with all his men. He wanted to go to war_against the Israelites at the town of Edrei. 34The Lord said to Moses: ‘Do not be afraid of King Og. I will help you defeat him and all his men and his land. You must do the same to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, in Heshbon.’
35The Israelites defeated King Og and they killed him and his sons and all his men. No one was alive. Then the Israelites took their land.
