One was Sihon … at Heshbon may be somewhat clearer if translated, “One of the kings whom Moses defeated was King Sihon. He was an Amorite king who ruled at the city of Heshbon.”

The geographical data in verses 2-3 relating to the kingdom of Sihon are not very clear in Hebrew. For the defeat of Sihon, see Numbers 21.21-30; Deuteronomy 2.26-37.

Heshbon, the capital of Sihon, was about 25 kilometers northeast of the northern end of the Dead Sea. The southern limit of Sihon’s kingdom was Aroer (that is, the Arnon Valley); the northern limit was the Jabbok River, which flows into the Jordan. The river formed the boundary with Ammon, which lay to the east (a look at a map in k The New Oxford Annotated Bible,k* Revised Standard Version, will show how the river runs north and then turns west to the Jordan). Sihon’s kingdom occupied (the southern) half of Gilead.

Good News Translation and from the city in the middle of that valley attempts to make sense of the Hebrew, which has “from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and the middle of the valley and half of Gilead and to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.” Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, New American Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, in different ways, translate “and the valley (or, riverbed) itself”; Revised Standard Version “from the middle of the valley” involves a slight alteration of the Masoretic text. Good News Translation has taken its clue from 13.9, 16, “the city that is in the middle of the valley” (see also Deut 2.36), on the assumption that the city in has dropped out from the text here.

In verse 3, Revised Standard Version “the Arabah” and “the Sea of Chinneroth” are the Jordan Valley and Lake Galilee. Beth Jeshimoth lies slightly northeast of the Dead Sea, about 20 kilometers west of Heshbon, the capital of Sihon’s kingdom. Mount Pisgah is between Heshbon and Beth Jeshimoth. Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew “the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea,” which is a way of speaking of the Dead Sea.The Hebrew miteman in verse 3 is translated by most “from the south” or “southward”; New English Bible, however, takes it to be a place name, “from Teman,” a city in Edom, about halfway between the Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea.

A clear and simple presentation of the geographical data contained in this and the following verse will be extremely difficult. At the least it will require constant reference to a map and careful consideration of the most natural order in which to present the material in the receptor language. Following the interpretation of Good News Translation, one method of presentation would be:

• 2 King Sihon ruled the southern half of the land of Gilead, which was the territory between the Jabbok River valley in the north and the Arnon River valley in the south. His kingdom extended southeast as far as the city of Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley. In the southwest it extended as far as the town in the Arnon Valley halfway between Aroer and the Dead Sea. 3 The western boundary of his kingdom was the Jordan River valley from Lake Galilee in the north to the Dead Sea in the south. Included in his territory was the area east of the Dead Sea as far as the town of Beth Jeshimoth and Mount Pisgah.

Since Mount Pisgah is less well known than Mount Nebo, the neighboring mountain, it would also be proper to use the better known term for the geographical description.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .