Study Desk

“The Lord also said, ‘Get up, move out, and cross the Arnon Valley. See, I have handed the Amorites’ King Sihon of Heshbon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession of it; engage him in battle.

But King Sihon of Heshbon would not let us travel through his land, for the Lord your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to hand him over to you, as has now taken place.

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land to you. Begin to take possession of it.’

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

The Lord our God handed him over to us, and we defeated him, his sons, and his whole army.

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

“Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and King Og of Bashan came out against us with his whole army to do battle at Edrei.

But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you along with his whole army and his land. Do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.’

So the Lord our God also handed over King Og of Bashan and his whole army to us. We struck him until there was no survivor left.

We captured all his cities at that time. There wasn’t a city that we didn’t take from them: sixty cities, the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

(Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed was made of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the Ammonites? It is 13½ feet long and 6 feet wide by a standard measure.)

Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took over the entire region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. He called Bashan by his own name, Jair’s Villages, as it is today.

until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession that I have given you.

He declared his covenant to you. He commanded you to follow the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two stone tablets.

But the Lord selected you and brought you out of Egypt’s iron furnace to be a people for his inheritance, as you are today.

Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, 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 instruct you. He showed you his great fire on earth, and you heard his words from 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 commands, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Someone could flee there who committed manslaughter, killing his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him. He could flee to one of these cities and stay alive: