The Land East of the Jordan
1 Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan. Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 2 Yahweh said to me, “Don’t fear him; for I have delivered him, with all his people and his land, into your hand. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.” 3 So Yahweh our God also delivered into our hand Og, the king of Bashan, and all his people. We struck him until no one was left to him remaining. 4 We took all his cities at that time. There was not a city which we didn’t take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, in addition to a great many villages without walls. 6 We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. 7 But all the livestock, and the plunder of the cities, we took for plunder for ourselves. 8 We took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon. 9 (The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.) 10 We took all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11 (For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its width, after the cubit of a man.) 12 This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites; 13 and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh—all the region of Argob, even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim. 14 Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, to this day.) 15 I gave Gilead to Machir. 16 To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and its border, even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon; 17 the Arabah also, and the Jordan and its border, from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward. 18 I commanded you at that time, saying, “Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it. All of you men of valor shall pass over armed before your brothers, the children of Israel. 19 But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), shall live in your cities which I have given you, 20 until Yahweh gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then you shall each return to his own possession, which I have given you.”
Two and a half tribes receive their inheritance first and are required to fight for everyone else's before they may enjoy it.
The victories are summarized and the territory is divided, and the arithmetic is impressive: sixty walled cities in one region alone, fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides unwalled villages Deuteronomy 3:4–5.
The land runs from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon Deuteronomy 3:8, and Moses allocates it — Reuben and Gad in the south, half of Manasseh in the north Deuteronomy 3:12–13. This is the only land he ever distributes, and it is on the wrong side of the river.
Then the condition, and it is the point of the section.
I commanded you at that time, saying, “Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it. All of you men of valor shall pass over armed before your brothers, the children of Israel.
The families and the livestock stay in the towns they have just been given; the fighting men cross the Jordan, and they go in front.
They have their inheritance. They are told they may not settle into it until everyone else has theirs — until Yahweh gives rest to your brothers, as to you Deuteronomy 3:20. Only then may each man go home.
The principle is stated without argument and it is worth naming. A portion received early does not release the receiver from the campaign; it obliges him to it, and it obliges him at the front of the column rather than the rear. The men with the most secure position are the ones sent first into the least secure one.
Moses' aside about their livestock is affectionate and slightly dry: I know that you have much livestock Deuteronomy 3:19. He is aware of exactly why they wanted this particular grazing country.
The charge to Joshua then follows, and its logic is the same as everything in the first address. Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings. So shall Yahweh do to all the kingdoms where you go over Deuteronomy 3:21.
The argument runs from what has been observed to what has not yet happened. Joshua is not asked to believe something new; he is asked to extend a pattern he has watched with his own eyes. And the ground of the courage is not his own competence: Yahweh your God himself fights for you Deuteronomy 3:22.
settled What this mark means