1   When the Canaanite king of Arad who lived in the Negeb heard that the Israelites were coming by way of Atharim, he attacked them and took some of them prisoners. 2   Israel thereupon made a vow to the Lord and said, ‘If thou wilt deliver this people into my power, I will destroy their cities.’ 3   The Lord listened to Israel and delivered the Canaanites into their power. ^noteIsrael destroyed them and their cities and called the place Hormah. ^note

4   Then they left Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to march round the flank of Edom. 5   But on the way they grew impatient and spoke against God and Moses. ‘Why have you brought us up from Egypt’, they said, ‘to die in the desert where there is neither food nor water? 6   We are heartily sick of this miserable fare.’ Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit the Israelites so that many of them died. 7   The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and you. Plead with the Lord to rid us of the snakes.’ Moses therefore pleaded with the Lord for the people; 8   and the Lord told Moses to make a serpent ^note of bronze ^note and erect it as a standard, so that anyone who had been bitten could look at it and recover. 9   So Moses made a bronze serpent and erected it as a standard, so that when a snake had bitten a man, he could look at the bronze serpent and recover.

10    11   The Israelites went on and encamped at Oboth. They moved on from Oboth and encamped at Iye-abarim in the wilderness on the eastern frontier of Moab. 12   From there they moved and encamped by the gorge of the Zared. 13   They moved on from the Zared and encamped by the farther side of the Arnon in the wilderness which extends into Amorite territory, for the Arnon was the Moabite frontier; it lies between Moab and the Amorites. 14   That is why the Book of the Wars of the Lord speaks of Vaheb ^note in Suphah and the gorges:

   15   Arnon and the watershed of the gorges
  that falls away towards the dwellings at Ar
  and slopes towards the frontier of Moab.

16   From there they moved on to Beer: ^note this is the water-hole where the Lord said to Moses, ‘Gather the people together and I will give them water.’ 17   It was then that Israel sang this song:

The approach to the promised land

  Well up, spring water! Greet it with song,
   18   the spring unearthed by the princes,
  laid open by the leaders of the people
    with sceptre and with mace,
    a gift from ^note the wilderness.

19   And they proceeded from Beer ^note to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; 20   then from Bamoth to the valley in the Moabite country below the summit of Pisgah overlooking the desert.

21    22   Then Israel sent envoys to the Amorite king Sihon and said, ‘Grant us passage through your country. We will not trespass on field or vineyard, nor will we drink from your wells. We will travel by the king's highway till we have crossed your territory.’ 23   But Sihon would not grant Israel passage through his territory; he mustered all his people and came out against Israel in the wilderness. He advanced as far as Jahaz and attacked Israel, 24   but Israel put them to the sword, giving no quarter, and occupied their land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, the territory of the Ammonites, where the country became difficult. 25   So Israel took all these Amorite cities and settled in them, that is in Heshbon and all its dependent villages. 26   Heshbon was the capital of the Amorite king Sihon, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken from him all his territory as far as the Arnon. 27   Therefore the bards say:

    Come to Heshbon, come!
  Let us see the city of Sihon rebuilt and restored!
     28   For fire blazed out from Heshbon,
    and flames from Sihon's city.
    It devoured Ar of Moab,
    and swept the high ground at Arnon head.


       29   Woe to you, Moab;
    it is the end of you, you people of Kemosh.
    He has made his sons fugitives
  and his daughters the prisoners of Sihon the Amorite king.
   30   From Heshbon to Dibon their very embers are burnt out
      and they are extinct,
    while the fire ^note spreads onward to Medeba.

31   Thus Israel occupied the territory of the Amorites.

32   Moses then sent men to explore Jazer; the Israelites captured it together with its dependent villages ^note and drove out the Amorites living there. 33   Then they turned and advanced along the road to Bashan. Og

The approach to the promised land king of Bashan, with all his people, took the field against them at Edrei. 34   The Lord said to Moses, ‘Do not be afraid of him. I have delivered him into your hands, with all his people and his land. Deal with him as you dealt with Sihon the Amorite king who lived in Heshbon.’ 35   So they put him to the sword with his sons and all his people, until there was no survivor left, and they occupied his land.

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