Taking the Eastern Bank

Moses had requested permission to cross the Edomites land, knowing they were related through Esau.  The Edomites had refused permission. So they had gone around Edom’s borders.  The Moabites and Ammonites were even more distant relatives, descended from Abraham’s nephew, Lot.  Since Edom had refused passage, Moses avoided Moab and Ammon.  Centuries before, Abraham had made a treaty with the Amorites, and Moses requested permission to cross their lands based on that treaty, in Numbers 21:21-22.  “And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king's high way, until we be past thy borders.”

The Amorites not only refused permission to cross the land, but they went out into the wilderness to attack the Israelites, in Numbers 21:23.  “And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness: and he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel.”

When Israel was attacked, they defended themselves, defeating the Amorite army, in Numbers 21:24-26.  “And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon: for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.  And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof.  For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon.”  Israel was left in control of a large area stretching from the northern boundary of Moab at the brook Arnan east to the Ammonite border at the Jabbok River, and west to the Jordan River

The defeat of the Amorites was as complete and unexpected that the nations took is as a serious warning against fighting Israel and God, as Numbers 21:27-30 describes.  “Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared: For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon.  Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites.  We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba.”

Israel occupied the Amorite territory, including some villages which had not taken part in the original attack, according to Numbers 21:31-32.  “Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites.  And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.” In the process they came close to the border of Bashan. 

Determined to prevent an invasion, The king of Bashan attacked Israel, in Numbers 21:33-35.  “And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.  And the LORD said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.  So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left him alive: and they possessed his land.”  Israel had had no intention of invading Bashan, but when they were attacked. God told them he would give them the land of Bashan as well.  The attacks by Sihon and Og gave Israel control of all the land between the Jordan and Jabbok Rivers, from where the Arnan River empties into the Dead Sea to the Sea of Galilee. 

Note:  It is interesting that Israel had been afraid to go into Canaan because of a few giants they saw there.  Deuteronomy 3:11-13 tells us, “For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.  And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites.  And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.”  The few giants in Canaan were abnormalities, while Bashan was known as the land of Giants.  Og himself was a huge man, requiring a bed almost fourteen feet long, and six feet wide, roughly the size of two king sized mattresses end to end.  He was the last of the race of giants, and Israel had no trouble defeating his army. 

Note also that three hundred years later, in Judges 11, the Moabite king would accuse Israel of stealing the Amorite land from the Moabites, and demanded it be given them even though they had never owned it.   Israel was under no obligation to give it to them.