The battle for the Transjordan would now begin. Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, was among those who had been under God’s watchful eye as he waited for the sin of the Amorites to fill up the cup of iniquity (Gen. 15:16). Their sin had now flowed over the top of that cup; therefore, God would put the Amorites in the power of Israel.

Even though God’s judgment was sure, God had Moses send messengers seeking peaceful passage through Sihon’s territory. Sihon ruled over the area east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north. Heshbon may have been his capital, located some fifteen miles east of the northern end of the Dead Sea. Moses’s messengers promised to “stay on the main road” (2:27) and to consume only what they purchased, as they …