Deuteronomy

Introduction
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34

CHAPTER 3

Defeat of Og. 1Then we turned and proceeded up the road to Bashan. But Og, king of Bashan,^a came out against us with all his people to give battle at Edrei. 2The LORD said to me, Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your power with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon. 3And thus the LORD, our God, delivered into our power also Og, king of Bashan, with all his people. We defeated him so completely that we left him no survivor. 4At that time we captured all his cities; there was no town we did not take: sixty cities in all, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan— 5all these cities were fortified with high walls and gates and bars—besides a great number of unwalled towns. 6 ^b As we had done to Sihon, king of Heshbon, so also here we put all the towns under the ban, men, women and children; 7but all the livestock and the spoils of each city we took as plunder for ourselves.

8And so at that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan the territory from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon 9(the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion and the Amorites call it Senir), 10all the towns of the plateau, all of Gilead, and all of Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11(Og, king of Bashan, was the last remaining survivor of the Rephaim. He had a bed of iron,^* nine regular cubits long and four wide, which is still preserved in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)^c

Allotment of the Conquered Lands. 12 ^d As for the land we took possession of at that time, I gave Reuben and Gad the territory from Aroer, on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, halfway up into the highlands of Gilead, with its cities. 13The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (The whole Argob region, all that part of Bashan, was once called a land of the Rephaim.^e 14Jair, a Manassite,^f took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and named them—Bashan, that is—after himself, Havvoth-jair, the name it bears today.) 15To Machir ^* I gave Gilead, 16and to Reuben and Gad the territory from Gilead to the Wadi Arnon—the middle of the wadi being its boundary—and to the Wadi Jabbok, which is the border of the Ammonites, 17as well as the Arabah with the Jordan and its banks from Chinnereth ^* to the Salt Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

18 ^g At that time I charged you: The LORD, your God, has given you this land as your possession. But all your troops equipped for battle must cross over in the vanguard of your fellow Israelites. 19But your wives and children, as well as your livestock, of which I know you have a large number, shall remain behind in the towns I have given you, 20until the LORD has settled your relatives as well, and they too possess the land which the LORD, your God, will give them on the other side of the Jordan. Then you may all return to the possessions I have given you.

21And I charged Joshua as well, “Your own eyes have seen all that the LORD, your God, has done to both these kings; so, too, will the LORD do to all the kingdoms into which you will cross over. 22Do not fear them, for it is the LORD, your God, who will fight for you.”^h

Moses Excluded from the Promised Land. 23 ⁱ It was then that I entreated the LORD, 24“Lord GOD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. What god in heaven or on earth can perform deeds and powerful acts like yours? 25Ah, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that fine hill country, and the Lebanon!” 26But the LORD was angry with me on your account ^* and would not hear me.^j The LORD said to me, Enough! Speak to me no more of this. 27Go up to the top of Pisgah and look out to the west, and to the north, and to the south, and to the east. Look well, for you shall not cross this Jordan.^k 28Commission Joshua,^l and encourage and strengthen him, for it is he who will cross at the head of this people and he who will give them possession of the land you are to see.

29So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

* [3:11] Bed of iron: some translate, “a sarcophagus of basalt”; its dimensions would be approximately thirteen and a half feet by six feet.

* [3:15] Machir: a clan of the tribe of Manasseh (cf. Gn 50:23).

* [3:17] Chinnereth: later known as the Lake of Gennesaret and the Sea of Galilee. The Salt Sea: the Dead Sea. Pisgah: a mountain range to the northeast of the Salt Sea; Mount Nebo, from which Moses viewed the promised land, is in this range (cf. v. 27; 34:1).

* [3:26] On your account: that Moses saw but never entered the promised land is attested by every Pentateuchal tradition, but different reasons are given in different places. Nm 20:12 and Dt 32:51 present Moses as being at fault. Here, as in 1:37 and 4:21, the fault lies in the people but affects Moses.

a. [3:1–11] Nm 21:33–35.

b. [3:6–7] Dt 2:34–35; 7:2, 26; 13:16, 18; 20:16–18; Jos 10:40; 11:11–12.