The
Book of Numbers recounts that as the
Israelites making their
the Exodus came to the
Transjordan, the country east of the Jordan, near
Heshbon, King Siḥon of the
Amorites refused to let them pass through his land:
Moses allocated the land of Sihon, the king of
Heshbon, to the
Tribe of Gad in the allocation of land to the Israelite tribes in
Joshua 13:24-28. In a similar way, the Israelites took the country of
Og, and these two victories gave them possession of continuous land in the Transjordan, from the Arnon (
Wadi Mujib) to the foot of
Mount Hermon. These victories, among the earliest successful campaigns of the Israelites, became
legendary among them, and are referred to numerous times in the
Hebrew Bible as prototypical examples of God-given victory—for example, in
Psalm 135:11 and
Psalm 136:19-20. ==Analysis==