23. The Avvites lived in villages as far away as Gaza. But people came from Crete. They destroyed the Avvites. Then they settled in the territory of the Avvites.
24. The Lord said, "Start out and go across the valley of the Arnon River. I have handed Sihon over to you. He is the Amorite king of Heshbon. I have also given you his country. Begin to take it as your own. Go to war against him.
25. "This very day I will bring fear and terror on all of the nations because of you. They will hear about you. They will tremble with fear. Pain and suffering will take hold of them because of you."
26. I sent messengers from the Desert of Kedemoth. I told them to go to Sihon, the king of Heshbon. They offered him peace. They said,
27. "Let us pass through your country. We'll stay on the main road. We won't turn off it to one side or the other.
28. We'll pay you the right amount of silver for food to eat and water to drink. Just let us walk through your country.
29. The people of Esau, who live in Seir, allowed us to do that. The people of Moab, who live in Ar, also allowed us to do it. So let us walk through until we go across the Jordan River. Then we'll be able to go into the land the Lord our God is giving us."
30. But Sihon, the king of Heshbon, refused to let us walk through. The Lord your God had made his heart and spirit stubborn. The Lord wanted to hand him over to you. And that's exactly what he has done.
31. The Lord said to me, "I have begun to hand Sihon and his country over to you. So begin the battle to take his land as your own."
32. Sihon and his whole army came out to fight against us at Jahaz.
33. But the Lord our God handed him over to us. We struck him down together with his sons and his whole army.
34. At that time we took all of his towns. We completely destroyed them. We killed all of the men, women and children. We didn't leave any of them alive.
35. But we took for ourselves the livestock and everything else from the towns we had captured.
36. Not a single town was too strong for us. That includes all of the towns from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon River valley all the way to Gilead. It also includes the town in the valley. The Lord our God gave us all of them.