{"id":4551,"date":"2026-10-19T20:18:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/?p=4551"},"modified":"2026-10-19T20:43:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:43:20","slug":"israels-journey-from-the-arnon-river-to-mount-pisgah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/10\/19\/israels-journey-from-the-arnon-river-to-mount-pisgah\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s Journey from the Arnon River to Mount Pisgah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[Author’s Note: The final leg of the Israelites’ journey from Kadesh-barnea to Mount Pisgah (see “The Journey to Abel-Shittim”<\/a> map)) is recounted in four separate passages of Scripture (Numbers 21:12-26; 33:45-47; Deuteronomy 2:24-37; Judges 11:18-22), but various aspects of the accounts can seem difficult to reconcile with each other. This map proposes a possible itinerary that I believe harmonizes well with all the accounts. Nevertheless, I openly acknowledge that other itineraries may harmonize with the accounts as well, and I encourage all readers to study the passages and geography carefully for themselves to determine what seems to be the best explanation.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numbers 21:12-26; 33:45-47; Deuteronomy 2:24-37; Judges 11:18-22<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After passing along the eastern border of Moab\u2019s territory, the Israelites camped in the wilderness of Kedemoth and sent messengers to King Sihon in Heshbon, asking permission to pass through his land. Sihon refused permission and instead mobilized his forces at Jahaz to attack the Israelites. It may be that during this time the main camp of the Israelites remained in the wilderness of Kedemoth while the fighting men confronted Sihon at or near Jahaz, because Numbers 33 notes that the Israelites eventually traveled to Dibon, and it seems unlikely that all the Israelites would have traveled south again to Dibon before traveling north to Almon-diblathaim (likely the same as Beth-diblathaim) and the the mountains of Abarim. The unknown locations of Beer, Mattanah, and Nahaliel (“river of God”), noted in Numbers 21 as waypoints on the Israelites’ journey, were likely also situated somewhere along this route. At Jahaz the Israelites completely destroyed Sihon and his forces, but it is unclear when they took control of all his land, which stretched from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north. Given the large amount of land they took from him, it seems likely this took place over a long stretch of time, perhaps beginning immediately after their victory at Jahaz (including the capture of Aroer and the “Town in the Gorge”) and continuing well after their arrival at Mount Pisgah. Nearly all the accounts, however, specially note that the Israelites did not encroach on the territory of the Ammonites, who occupied the land along the upper Jabbok River at this time. Additionally, it is interesting to note that Numbers 32:34 includes the southern towns of Dibon (also called Dibon-gad in Numbers 33:46), Ataroth, and Aroer among the towns built (or rebuilt) by the tribe of Gad, but elsewhere in Scripture these towns are included in the territory allotted to Reuben. Perhaps the reason for this may be that Gad was the tribe that first captured this region during the initial conquest of Sihon’s land, but later Gad was formally allotted the northern portion of Sihon’s former territory, and these towns were given to Reuben.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2913 download hi-res file<\/a>         \u29d7 see in TimeGlider<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Author’s Note: The final leg of the Israelites’ journey from Kadesh-barnea to Mount Pisgah (see “The Journey to Abel-Shittim” map)) is recounted in four separate passages of Scripture (Numbers 21:12-26; 33:45-47; Deuteronomy 2:24-37; Judges 11:18-22), but various aspects of the accounts can seem difficult to reconcile with each other. This map proposes a possible itinerary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbsXLW-1bp","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4551"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4555,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4551\/revisions\/4555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}