Numbers 21:16-30

¹⁶From there they moved on to Beer, the well where the Lord told Moses, “Have the people gather together so I can give them water.”

¹⁷Then the Israelites sang this song: “Pour out water, well! Everyone of you sing to it!

¹⁸The tribal chiefs dug the well; yes the leaders of the people dug the well with their rods of authority and their walking sticks.” The Israelites left the desert and carried on to Mattanah.

¹⁹From Mattanah they traveled to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

²⁰and from Bamoth to the valley in the territory of Moab where the top of Mount Pisgah looks down on the wastelands.

²¹Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, with the following request:

²²“Please allow us to travel through your country. We won't cross any of your fields or vineyards, or drink water from any of your wells. We will stay on the King's Highway until we have passed through your country.”

²³But Sihon refused to allow the Israelites to travel through his territory. Instead, he called out his whole army and went out to meet the Israelites head-on in the desert. When he arrived at Jahaz, he attacked the Israelites.

²⁴The Israelites defeated them, killing them with their swords. They took over his land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River —but only as far as the border of the Ammonites, because it was well defended.

²⁵The Israelites conquered all the Amorite towns and took them over, including Heshbon and its surrounding villages.

²⁶Heshbon was the capital of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the previous king of Moab and had taken from him all his land as far as the Arnon River.

²⁷That's why the old songwriters wrote: “Come to Heshbon and have it be rebuilt; restore the town of Sihon!

²⁸For a fire blazed out from Heshbon, a flame from the town of Sihon. It burned up Ar in Moab where the rulers live on the high places of Arnon.

²⁹What a disaster you face, Moab! You are all going to die, people of Chemosh! You handed over your sons as exiles and your daughters as prisoners to Sihon, king of the Amorites.

³⁰But now we have defeated the Amorites! Heshbon's rule has been destroyed all the way to Dibon. We wiped them out all the way to Nophah and on to Medeba.”