I. THE CONQUEST OF EASTERN PALESTINE.
This region was occupied, at the time of the arrival of the Israelites, by the Moabites between the brooks Zered and Arnon, and by the Amorites north of the Arnon. The latter people were divided into two kingdoms. The land of Gilead was ruled by King Sihon, whose capital was at Heshbon; and the table-land of Bashan by Og, a remnant of the old race of the Rephaim. Tributary to Sihon, and on the border of the Arabian desert, were the Midianites (Josh. 13:21); and near the Moabites were their nomadic kinsmen, the Ammonites.
1. The Conquest of Gilead. (Num. 21:21-31.) The Amorites, under Sihon, had wrested from the Moabites the land between the Arnon and the Jabbok, a short time before the coming of Israel. Moses sent messengers, requesting the privilege of journeying through their land; but they refused to permit the passage of such a vast host, and came out to meet the Israelites in battle at Jahaz, near their border, at the brook Arnon. They were defeated, and their whole land was conquered, including their own territory north of the Jabbok, as well as their Moabite possessions south of it. Thus the Israelites obtained, as their first foothold, the rich region of the eastern table-land, from the Arnon to the Hieromax.
2. The Conquest of Bashan. (Num. 21:32-35.) The success of the war with one nation of the Amorites encouraged the Israelites to cross the Hieromax and undertake the conquest of the rich pasture fields of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, whose capital was at the ancient city of his race, Ashteroth Karnaim. There is some evidence to indicate that the leader in this campaign was Nobah, of the tribe of Manasseh. (Num. 32:42.) A decisive battle was fought at Edrei, at the entrance to the Ledja, or mountainous district; and Og was slain, and his kingdom possessed by Israel. Its western portion, including Kenath and its vicinity, was given to Nobah, who named the region after himself. (Num. 32:42; Judges 8:11.)
3. The Conquest of Midian. (Num. 25 and 31.) While the Israelites were encamped on the plain of Jordan, opposite Jericho, their last station, called Shittim (Num. 25:1), a league was formed by the Moabites and Midianites to resist their advance. Balaam, the Mesopotamian seer, was summoned to aid them by his curses against Israel; but his words were turned to blessing. (Num. 22-24.) Fearing the result of open war, the allied nations now undertook to corrupt Israel by their friendship and the seductions of their women; and they succeeded to such an extent that multitudes of the people perished by a plague which fell upon the nation as a penalty. The Moabites were punished by exclusion for ten generations from the privileges of Israel (Deut. 23:3, 4), and by the loss of that portion of their territory already taken from the Amorites. The Midianites, evidently the guiltier nation, were doomed to utter destruction. The campaign against them was regarded as a sacred war, and Phinehas the priest took command of the army. The entire people were laid under the ban, and the portion of them east of the Jordan were thoroughly annihilated. This was, however, only a small section of the great tribe of Midian, whose principal home was on the eastern shore of the Red Sea, south of the Edomites; and their former home near Moab was again repopulated, and, some centuries afterward, gave new trouble to Israel.
The entire country east of the Jordan and north of the brook Arnon was thus conquered by the Israelites before the death of Moses. It was assigned to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, as their home, upon condition that their warriors should accompany the rest of the tribes in the conquest of Western Palestine. (Num. 32.) Their boundaries will be noticed in connection with the map of Israel, as divided among the Twelve Tribes.