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Deuteronomy 2

God directs Israel’s advance, setting boundaries around other peoples’ lands and delivering Sihon’s kingdom into Israel’s hands.

Moses recounts Israel’s passage through the wilderness toward the land east of the Jordan. God orders the people to leave Mount Seir and respect the lands he has given to Esau’s and Lot’s descendants. Along the way, the last men of the condemned fighting generation die. The account then turns to Sihon, king of Heshbon, who refuses passage and comes out to fight. Israel defeats him and destroys his cities, including their women and children.

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1Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to me; and we encircled Mount Seir many days.
4Command the people, saying, ‘You are to pass through the border of your brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore be careful.
5Don’t contend with them; for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession.
6You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat. You shall also buy water from them for money, that you may drink.’”
7For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has known your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years, the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.
8So we passed by from our brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion Geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.
9The LORD said to me, “Don’t bother Moab, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give you any of his land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession.”
10(The Emim lived there before, a great and numerous people, and tall as the Anakim.
11These also are considered to be Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim.
12The Horites also lived in Seir in the past, but the children of Esau succeeded them. They destroyed them from before them, and lived in their place, as Israel did to the land of his possession, which the LORD gave to them.)
14The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea until we had come over the brook Zered were thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the middle of the camp, as the LORD swore to them.
15Moreover the LORD’s hand was against them, to destroy them from the middle of the camp, until they were consumed.
16So, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people,
18“You are to pass over Ar, the border of Moab, today.
19When you come near the border of the children of Ammon, don’t bother them, nor contend with them; for I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession, because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.”
21a great people, many, and tall, as the Anakim; but the LORD destroyed them from before Israel, and they succeeded them, and lived in their place,
22as he did for the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place even to this day.
23Then the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza: the Caphtorim, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.)
24“Rise up, take your journey, and pass over the valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.
25Today I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.”
26I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,
27“Let me pass through your land. I will go along by the highway. I will turn neither to the right hand nor to the left.
29as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me, until I pass over the Jordan into the land which the LORD our God gives us.”
30But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is today.
32Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz.
33The LORD our God delivered him up before us; and we struck him, his sons, and all his people.
34We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. We left no one remaining.
35Only the livestock we took for plunder for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities which we had taken.
36From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. The LORD our God delivered up all before us.
37Only to the land of the children of Ammon you didn’t come near: all the banks of the river Jabbok, and the cities of the hill country, and wherever the LORD our God forbade us.
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Key verses
Deuteronomy 2:7God’s provision through forty wilderness years grounds the command to pay for supplies while passing through another people’s land.
Deuteronomy 2:25God announces that Israel’s advance will spread fear among the nations as the battle with Sihon approaches.
Deuteronomy 2:30Sihon’s refusal is traced to God’s hardening of his spirit, placing the coming conquest under God’s rule.
Where this chapter reaches

Numbers recounts the same conflict with Sihon, while Genesis supplies the family histories behind the references to Esau and Lot’s descendants. Joshua recalls Sihon’s defeat and the fear it spread, linking this victory east of the Jordan with Israel’s later entry into the land.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What stands out about God protecting neighboring peoples’ lands while giving Sihon’s land to Israel?

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How does the account of the dying generation shape your reading of God’s forty years of provision?

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Questions people ask about Deuteronomy 2

Why did God forbid Israel to attack Edom, Moab, and Ammon?

God says he has given Mount Seir to Esau and the lands of Moab and Ammon to Lot’s descendants. Israel has no grant to seize those territories. These commands establish limits on Israel’s advance: God’s promise of land does not authorize taking every neighboring nation’s possessions.

Why did God harden Sihon’s heart in Deuteronomy 2:30?

The verse states the purpose: God hardened Sihon’s spirit so that he would be delivered into Israel’s hand. Sihon refuses Moses’ request for passage and then comes out to battle. The account places both Sihon’s refusal and God’s rule over the outcome together, without explaining how divine hardening works.

Why were women and children killed in Deuteronomy 2?

Verse 34 reports the destruction of Sihon’s cities, including women and children, within the conquest God had commanded against his kingdom. The chapter gives no separate explanation for their deaths. It describes a specific war tied to Israel’s possession of this land; it supplies no general permission for religious violence.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).