Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Deuteronomy 2:32-37
The War With Sihon and the Amorites (Deuteronomy 2:32).
As a result of Sihon's refusal and show of force Israel retaliate and capture their cities and their land, and thus take possession of the land and a multitude of flocks and herds.
We can analyse the passage as follows:
a Sihon comes out against Israel, he and all his people, to battle (Deuteronomy 2:32).
b Yahweh delivers them up to Israel and they smite them and all their people (Deuteronomy 2:33).
c All their cities are taken and destroyed with all their inhabitants (Deuteronomy 2:34).
d The cattle and the spoils of the cities are kept as a prey for themselves (Deuteronomy 2:35).
c Over the whole land no city had sufficiently high walls to resist them (Deuteronomy 2:36 a)
b And Yahweh delivered them up before them (Deuteronomy 2:36 b).
a But they did not touch Ammon or the Ammonites. Their land was left untouched because Yahweh had forbidden them to touch it (Deuteronomy 2:37).
Note how in ‘a' Sihon comes out against Israel to battle, but in the parallel Ammon remains untouched. Both were in accordance with Yahweh's stated purpose. In ‘b' and its parallel Yahweh delivers up the Amorites to them. In ‘c' all their cities are destroyed and in the parallel no city could resist them. And central to it all they accumulated much spoil and cattle.
‘ Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. And Yahweh our God delivered him up before us, and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed (‘devoted') every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. We left none remaining. Only the cattle did we take for a prey to ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we had taken.'
Moses points out that Sihon came as described, with all his warriors, and there was a great battle at Jahaz at which Sihon and his forces were routed. And as far as Israel were concerned it was all Yahweh's doing. This was then followed by a campaign in which each of the cities was subdued. All the cities were destroyed (‘devoted') and every man, woman and child put to death, as Yahweh had commanded must be done with the Canaanites. Their corruption had gone so far that there was no other remedy. Only the cattle were spared, along with all the spoils taken. (Jahaz is mentioned in the Moabite Stone).
It should be noted that Sihon and his people had had two other options. The first was to accept the treaty offered, which would have done them no harm, indeed would have done them good, the other was to remain within their walled cities safe out of harms way. The treaty could be offered to them because strictly they were not in the promised land and so would not be a snare to Israel. But it is made clear that it was Yahweh's purpose that His judgment should come on them.
We know now that the country was surrounded by fortified border posts. (It was one thing to capture the cities of a defeated army, another to capture those filled with armed men who have not suffered defeat). Thus Sihon brought his judgment on himself and his people by leaving his defenced cities and attacking Israel. It was also the law of warfare that if a city surrendered it would be spared. If it resisted its menfolk would be put to the sword (Deuteronomy 20:10). This went one step further because the Canaanites were under God's sentence of judgment, and by choosing to take sides with them Sihon had put himself under the curse.
We understandably see this as very harsh. But before we presume to condemn God we must consider the situation.
1). Had the women been spared they would have led Israel into idolatry, as the women at Baal-peor had done (Numbers 25:1).
2). Had the children been spared they would have grown up with vengeance in their hearts against those who had destroyed their parents and their nation. And many of them would already have become submerged in idolatry. Furthermore this would have been repeated wherever they went in Canaan. They would have been sitting on a huge time bomb.
3). It was Yahweh's purpose to destroy the Canaanites/Amorites as a judgment on them for centuries of evil and sin. He had withheld this judgment for over 400 years (Genesis 15:16) and more, but things had only got worse, not better. As the righteous Judge He had the right to determine what should be done and how it should be done (so as also to teach Israel a lesson about the severity of sin). What would be wrong for us was not wrong for the Judge of all the world. He could have destroyed them by plague or wild beasts or earthquakes or thunderbolts. He chose to do it through Israel. The only question we should ask is how could a holy God allow any sinners to live? Why did He stop at the Canaanites? That is the unanswerable question, for that reveals the depths of sin as it is, until we find the answer in the coming of His Son to save us.
It should be noted that the corollary of this is that Yahweh was seen as having the right to do what He would with all nations. He was not limited to Israel. The whole world was seen as subject to His judgment, as Abraham had made clear long before (Genesis 18:25).
‘ From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. Yahweh our God delivered up all before us.'
So of every city from south (on the banks of the Arnon) to north (the region of Gilead) not one city was too strong to prevent Israel from taking it. God delivered all of them up to Israel. The ruins of Aroer, a Moabite border city, do literally look down the huge ravine through which flows the Arnon.
“There was not a city too high for us.” Contrast Deuteronomy 1:28, where the complaint had been that ‘the cities are great and fenced up to heaven'. They now discovered that Yahweh did keep His promises and was able to deal with the worst possible situations, with cities great and ‘fenced up to heaven', that is having high walls.
‘ Only to the land of the children of Ammon you (thou) did not come near. All the side of the river Jabbok, and the cities of the hill-country, and wherever Yahweh our God forbade us.'
But those whom Yahweh had declared untouchable were not in any way molested, just as Sihon and his people would not have been molested had they not acted belligerently. The children of Ammon were not touched in any way. Everything their side of the River Jabbok was left alone, including all the cities of their hill-country. Israel touched nothing in the region that Yahweh their covenant God had forbidden. The emphasis is on the fact that they were totally obedient. How different they now were from their fathers, and from what they would be like in a few decades time. The River Jabbok left the Jordan going eastward. Then it turned south and marked the boundaries of Sihon's kingdom and Ammon.
It may reasonably be asked how far this justifies religious wars. The answer is that it does not. This was a unique occasion. Nowhere did Jesus ever suggest that men should fight for Christianity. What they were called on to do was humbly die for it (or should we say, for Him). Violence was forbidden. Christians were to love their enemies and do good to those who hated them. No exceptions were stated, whereas at this period there was one exception, the evil and degraded Canaanites. This does not prevent a nation from defending itself from attack, that is another matter. What it forbids is deliberately and belligerently going to war. God has not given us a land or a city to fight for. The land and city He has given to us is where no one can touch it.
For the use of the singular verb see on Deuteronomy 2:9.