Joshua 12:1-6

Territory East of the Jordan

1 The Israelites struck down the following kings of the land and took possession of their land beyond the Jordan to the east and from the Arnon Valley to Mount Hermon, including all the Arabah eastward:

2 Sihon king of the Amorites lived in Heshbon. He ruled [over the territory] from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along the middle of the valley, and half of Gilead up to the Jabbok River (the border of the Ammonites),

3 the Arabah east of the Sea of Chinnereth^[a] to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea), eastward through Beth-jeshimoth and southward^[b] below the slopes of Pisgah.

4 Og^[c] king of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei.

5 He ruled over Mount Hermon, Salecah, all Bashan up to the Geshurite and Maacathite border, and half of Gilead to the border of Sihon, king of Heshbon.

6 Moses the Lord's servant and the Israelites struck them^[d] down. And Moses the Lord's servant gave their land as an inheritance to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh.^[e]

Joshua 12:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 12

This chapter gives a short account of the conquests made by the Israelites, both in the times of Moses and of Joshua, and first of the kingdom of Sihon and Og on the other side Jordan, in the times of Moses, and which he gave to the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and which are particularly described, Jos 12:1-6; and then of the kings and the countries on this side Jordan whom Joshua conquered, Jos 12:7,8; and the names of the thirty one kingdoms are recited, that so it might be exactly known and observed what were afterwards divided among the tribes and possessed by them, Jos 12:9-24.

Footnotes

• [a]. The Sea of Galilee
• [b]. Or and from Teman
• [c]. LXX; MT reads The territory of Og
• [d]. Nm 21:21-35; Dt 2:26-3:11; 29:7
• [e]. Dt 3:12-17; 29:8