Study Desk

Arise, set out, and cross the Arnon Valley. See, I have handed Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land over to you. Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle.

But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate, that He might give him into your hands, as is the case this day.

Then the LORD said to me, "See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land to you. Now begin to conquer and possess his land."

So Sihon and his whole army came out for battle against us at Jahaz.

And the LORD our God delivered him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and his whole army.

At that time we captured all his cities and devoted to destruction the people of every city, including women and children. We left no survivors.

Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his whole army came out to meet us in battle at Edrei.

But the LORD said to me, "Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you along with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon."

So the LORD our God also handed over Og king of Bashan and his whole army to us. We struck them down until no survivor was left.

At that time we captured all sixty of his cities. There was not a single city we failed to take-the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

(For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to follow-the Ten Commandments that He wrote on two tablets of stone.

Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.

When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice.

Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation-by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors-as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?

He let you hear His voice from heaven to discipline you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire.

Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,

Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you for all time."

to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save his own life, he could flee to one of these cities:

They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan-the two Amorite kings who were across the Jordan to the east-