19. When you come near the people of Ammon, don’t bother them or go to war against them, because I will not give you any of their land as your own. I have given it to the descendants of Lot for their own.”
20. (That land was also thought to be a land of the Rephaites, because those people used to live there, but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites.
21. They were strong people, and there were many of them; they were very tall, like the Anakites. The Lord destroyed the Zamzummites, and the Ammonites forced them out of the land and took their place.
22. The Lord did the same thing for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Edom, when he destroyed the Horites. The Edomites forced them out of the land and took their place, and they live there to this day.
23. The Cretan people came from Crete and destroyed the Avvites, who lived in towns all the way to Gaza; the Cretans destroyed them and took their place.)
24. The Lord said, “Get up and cross the Arnon Ravine. See, I am giving you the power to defeat Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and I am giving you his land. So fight against him and begin taking his land.
25. Today I will begin to make all the people in the world afraid of you. When they hear reports about you, they will shake with fear, and they will be terrified of you.”
26. I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon. They offered him peace, saying,
27. “If you let us pass through your country, we will stay on the road and not turn right or left.
28. We will pay you in silver for any food we eat or water we drink. We only want to walk through your country.
29. The descendants of Esau in Edom let us go through their land, and so did the Moabites in Ar. We want to cross the Jordan River into the land the Lord our God has given us.”
30. But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass, because the Lord your God had made him stubborn. The Lord wanted you to defeat Sihon, and now this has happened.
31. The Lord said to me, “See, I have begun to give Sihon and his country to you. Begin taking the land as your own.”
32. Then Sihon and all his army came out and fought us at Jahaz,
33. but the Lord our God gave Sihon to us. We defeated him, his sons, and all his army.
34. We captured all his cities at that time and completely destroyed them, as well as the men, women, and children. We left no one alive.
35. But we kept the cattle and valuable things from the cities for ourselves.