3:1 Next we set out on 1 the route to Bashan, 2 but King Og of Bashan and his whole army 3 came out to meet us in battle at Edrei. 4 3:2 The Lord, however, said to me, “Don’t be afraid of him because I have already given him, his whole army, 5 and his land to you. You will do to him exactly what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon.” 3:3 So the Lord our God did indeed give over to us King Og of Bashan and his whole army and we struck them down until not a single survivor was left. 6 3:4 We captured all his cities at that time – there was not a town we did not take from them – sixty cities, all the region of Argob, 7 the dominion of Og in Bashan. 3:5 All of these cities were fortified by high walls, gates, and locking bars; 8 in addition there were a great many open villages. 9 3:6 We put all of these under divine judgment 10 just as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon – every occupied city, 11 including women and children. 3:7 But all the livestock and plunder from the cities we kept for ourselves. 3:8 So at that time we took the land of the two Amorite kings in the Transjordan from Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon 12 3:9 (the Sidonians 13 call Hermon Sirion 14 and the Amorites call it Senir), 15 3:10 all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salecah 16 and Edrei, 17 cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 3:11 Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaites. (It is noteworthy 18 that his sarcophagus 19 was made of iron. 20 Does it not, indeed, still remain in Rabbath 21 of the Ammonites? It is thirteen and a half feet 22 long and six feet 23 wide according to standard measure.) 24
3:12 This is the land we brought under our control at that time: The territory extending from Aroer 25 by the Wadi Arnon and half the Gilead hill country with its cities I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites. 26 3:13 The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. 27 (All the region of Argob, 28 that is, all Bashan, is called the land of Rephaim. 3:14 Jair, son of Manasseh, took all the Argob region as far as the border with the Geshurites 29 and Maacathites 30 (namely Bashan) and called it by his name, Havvoth-Jair, 31 which it retains to this very day.) 3:15 I gave Gilead to Machir. 32 3:16 To the Reubenites and Gadites I allocated the territory extending from Gilead as far as Wadi Arnon (the exact middle of the wadi was a boundary) all the way to the Wadi Jabbok, the Ammonite border. 3:17 The Arabah and the Jordan River 33 were also a border, from the sea of Chinnereth 34 to the sea of the Arabah (that is, the Salt Sea), 35 beneath the watershed 36 of Pisgah 37 to the east.
3:18 At that time I instructed you as follows: “The Lord your God has given you this land for your possession. You warriors are to cross over before your fellow Israelites 38 equipped for battle. 3:19 But your wives, children, and livestock (of which I know you have many) may remain in the cities I have given you. 3:20 You must fight 39 until the Lord gives your countrymen victory 40 as he did you and they take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan River. Then each of you may return to his own territory that I have given you.” 3:21 I also commanded Joshua at the same time, “You have seen everything the Lord your God did to these two kings; he 41 will do the same to all the kingdoms where you are going. 42 3:22 Do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God will personally fight for you.”
3:23 Moreover, at that time I pleaded with the Lord, 3:24 “O, Lord God, 43 you have begun to show me 44 your greatness and strength. 45 (What god in heaven or earth can rival your works and mighty deeds?) 3:25 Let me please cross over to see the good land on the other side of the Jordan River – this good hill country and the Lebanon!” 46 3:26 But the Lord was angry at me because of you and would not listen to me. Instead, he 47 said to me, “Enough of that! 48 Do not speak to me anymore about this matter. 3:27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and take a good look to the west, north, south, and east, 49 for you will not be allowed to cross the Jordan. 3:28 Commission 50 Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, because he will lead these people over and will enable them to inherit the land you will see.” 3:29 So we settled down in the valley opposite Beth Peor. 51
4:1 Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances 52 I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, 53 is giving you. 4:2 Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to 54 you. 4:3 You have witnessed what the Lord did at Baal Peor, 55 how he 56 eradicated from your midst everyone who followed Baal Peor. 57 4:4 But you who remained faithful to the Lord your God are still alive to this very day, every one of you. 4:5 Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God told me to do, so that you might carry them out in 58 the land you are about to enter and possess. 4:6 So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding 59 to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise 60 people.” 4:7 In fact, what other great nation has a god so near to them like the Lord our God whenever we call on him? 4:8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just 61 as this whole law 62 that I am about to share with 63 you today?
4:9 Again, however, pay very careful attention, 64 lest you forget the things you have seen and disregard them for the rest of your life; instead teach them to your children and grandchildren. 4:10 You 65 stood before the Lord your God at Horeb and he 66 said to me, “Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands. 67 Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children.” 4:11 You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, a mountain ablaze to the sky above it 68 and yet dark with a thick cloud. 69 4:12 Then the Lord spoke to you from the middle of the fire; you heard speech but you could not see anything – only a voice was heard. 70 4:13 And he revealed to you the covenant 71 he has commanded you to keep, the ten commandments, 72 writing them on two stone tablets. 4:14 Moreover, at that same time the Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to keep in the land which you are about to enter and possess. 73
4:15 Be very careful, 74 then, because you saw no form at the time the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the middle of the fire. 4:16 I say this 75 so you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female, 4:17 any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky, 4:18 anything that crawls 76 on the ground, or any fish in the deep waters of the earth. 77 4:19 When you look up 78 to the sky 79 and see the sun, moon, and stars – the whole heavenly creation 80 – you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, 81 for the Lord your God has assigned 82 them to all the people 83 of the world. 84 4:20 You, however, the Lord has selected and brought from Egypt, that iron-smelting furnace, 85 to be his special people 86 as you are today. 4:21 But the Lord became angry with me because of you and vowed that I would never cross the Jordan nor enter the good land that he 87 is about to give you. 88 4:22 So I must die here in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you are going over and will possess that 89 good land. 4:23 Be on guard so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he has made with you, and that you do not make an image of any kind, just as he 90 has forbidden 91 you. 4:24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire; he is a jealous God. 92
4:25 After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, 93 if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind 94 and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him, 95 4:26 I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you 96 today that you will surely and swiftly be removed 97 from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be 98 annihilated. 4:27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you 99 among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 4:28 There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell. 4:29 But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. 100 4:30 In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, 101 if you return to the Lord your God and obey him 102 4:31 (for he 103 is a merciful God), he will not let you down 104 or destroy you, for he cannot 105 forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them.
4:32 Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind 106 on the earth, and ask 107 from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it. 4:33 Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it? 4:34 Or has God 108 ever before tried to deliver 109 a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, 110 signs, wonders, war, strength, power, 111 and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 4:35 You have been taught that the Lord alone is God – there is no other besides him. 4:36 From heaven he spoke to you in order to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire from which you also heard his words. 112 4:37 Moreover, because he loved 113 your ancestors, he chose their 114 descendants who followed them and personally brought you out of Egypt with his great power 4:38 to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property. 115 4:39 Today realize and carefully consider that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below – there is no other! 4:40 Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth 116 today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you as a permanent possession.
4:41 Then Moses selected three cities in the Transjordan, toward the east. 4:42 Anyone who accidentally killed someone 117 without hating him at the time of the accident 118 could flee to one of those cities and be safe. 4:43 These cities are Bezer, in the desert plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.
4:44 This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites. 119 4:45 These are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that Moses spoke to the Israelites after he had brought them out of Egypt, 4:46 in the Transjordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. (It is he whom Moses and the Israelites attacked after they came out of Egypt. 4:47 They possessed his land and that of King Og of Bashan – both of whom were Amorite kings in the Transjordan, to the east. 4:48 Their territory extended 120 from Aroer at the edge of the Arnon valley as far as Mount Siyon 121 – that is, Hermon – 4:49 including all the Arabah of the Transjordan in the east to the sea of the Arabah, 122 beneath the watershed 123 of Pisgah.)