Joshua 12:2

2 Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, [and] ruled from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the ravine, and over half Gilead, as far as the river Jabbok, [which is] the border of the children of Ammon;

Joshua 12:2 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 12:2

Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon
Which he took from the Moabites, and made his capital city, ( Numbers 21:26 ) ;

[and] ruled from Aroer, which [is] upon the bank of the river of Arnon;
a city of Moab, which never fell into the hands of Sihon, and therefore he is said to rule from it but not over it:

and from the middle of the river;
that is, the river Arnon, which being the boundary of the Moabites and Amorites, the king of the Amorites might be said to rule from the middle of it:

and from half Gilead even unto the river Jabbok, [which is] the border
of the children of Ammon;
so it is said to be, ( Deuteronomy 3:16 ) ; it should be rendered, not "from half Gilead", but "and half Gilead", as it is in the Hebrew text, and so in the Targum; for half Gilead belonged to the kingdom of Sihon, as the other half did to the kingdom of Og, as in ( Joshua 12:5 ) ; and so Jarchi remarks.

Joshua 12:2 In-Context

1 And these are the kings of the land, whom the children of Israel smote, and of whose land they took possession across the Jordan, toward the sun-rising, from the river Arnon to mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east:

2 Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, [and] ruled from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the ravine, and over half Gilead, as far as the river Jabbok, [which is] the border of the children of Ammon;

3 and the plain as far as the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and as far as the sea of the plain, the salt sea, on the east, toward Beth-jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah;

4 and the territory of Og the king of Bashan, of the residue of the giants, who dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,

5 and ruled over mount Hermon, and over Salcah, and over all Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and [over] half Gilead [as far as] the border of Sihon the king of Heshbon.

Footnotes

• [a] So ch. 13.9,16: see Note, Deut. 2.36.