Deuteronomy 3

¹ ‘We then turned in the direction of Bashan and went up there. And Og king of Bashan marched out against us, he and all his people, to give battle at Edrei.

² And Yahweh said to me, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have put him at your mercy, with all his people and his land. Deal with him as you dealt with Sihon the king of the Amorites who lives in Heshbon.”

³ So Yahweh our God put Og king of Bashan at our mercy too, with all his people. We struck him down and not a thing remained to him.

⁴ We captured all his towns at that time; there was not a town of theirs we did not take: sixty towns, the whole confederation of Argob, Og’s capital in Bashan,

⁵ all strongholds enclosed in high walls and fortified with gates and bars, not to mention the Perizzite[*a] towns, which were very many.

⁶ We laid them under ban as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, laying the whole town, men, women, children, under the ban;

⁷ but we seized the livestock and the spoil from these towns as our plunder.

⁸ ‘So at that time we took the land of the two Amorite kings beyond Jordan, from the wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon

⁹ (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion and the Amorites call it Senir):

¹⁰ all the towns of the tableland, all Gilead, and all Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, the capital cities of Og in Bashan.

¹¹ (Og king of Bashan was the last survivor of the Rephaim; his bed was the bed of iron[*b] that can be seen at Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites, nine cubits long and four wide, in the common cubit.)

¹² ‘At that time, therefore, we occupied this land, onwards from Aroer on the wadi Arnon. To Reuben and Gad I gave half the highlands of Gilead with its towns.

¹³ To the half-tribe of Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and the whole of Bashan, Og’s kingdom. (The whole confederation of Argob and the whole of Bashan is called the country of the Rephaim.

¹⁴ Since Jair son of Manasseh occupied the whole confederation of Argob as far as the frontiers of the Geshurites and Maacathites, he gave his name to those towns that are still called the Encampments of Jair.)

¹⁵ To Machir I gave Gilead.

¹⁶ To the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the region from Gilead to the wadi Arnon, the middle of the ravine marking the boundary, and up as far as the Jabbok, the wadi marking the frontier of the Ammonites.

¹⁷ The Arabah and the Jordan serve as frontiers from Chinnereth down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

¹⁸ ‘Then I gave you this command: Yahweh your God has given you this land for your own. All you fighting men must take up arms and march at the head of your brothers, the sons of Israel.

¹⁹ Only your wives, your children and your flocks (you have many flocks, I know) shall stay behind in the towns I have given you,

²⁰ until such time as Yahweh settles your brothers as he has settled you, and they too occupy the land that Yahweh your God is giving them beyond the Jordan; then you shall return, each to the domain I have given you.

²¹ I then gave Joshua this order: You can see with your own eyes all that Yahweh has done to these two kings; Yahweh will do the same to all the kingdoms through which you pass.

²² Do not be afraid of them: Yahweh your God himself is fighting for you.

²³ ‘And I pleaded then with Yahweh.

²⁴ My Lord Yahweh, I said, you that have begun to reveal your greatness and your power to your servant, you whose works and mighty deeds no one in heaven or on earth can rival,

²⁵ may I not go across and see this prosperous land beyond the Jordan, this prosperous country of hills, and Lebanon?

²⁶ But because of you, Yahweh was angry with me and would take no notice of me. “Enough!” he said “Speak to me no more of this.

²⁷ Climb to the top of Pisgah; let your eyes turn towards the west, the north, the south, the east. Look well, for across this Jordan you shall not go.

²⁸ Give Joshua your instructions; encourage him, strengthen him; for it is he who shall go across at the head of his people; it is he who shall put them in possession of the land that you will see.”

²⁹ ‘So we stayed in the valley close to Beth-peor