Sihon

When the Israelites wish to pass through a desert kingdom, the king attacks them against his better judgment because God has hardened his heart.

Context

• Reference: Deuteronomy 2:30

• After many years in the desert, Moses and the Israelites began to travel toward their ancestral home in Canaan.

• They asked the kings of several cities to ""let them pass throug**h, saying that they would not eat or drink resources from the cities.

• God "hardened the heart" of Sihon, king of Heshbon, so that he refused to let them pass.

Aftermath

• The Israelites fought and defeated Sihon, as well as Og, the king of Bashan.

• They continued on their journey toward Canaan.

Notes

I knew nothing at all of Sihon beginning this, other than a vague memory of running across his name. But there turn out to be plenty of legends about him. And seeing that the name of his city, Heshbon חֶשְׁבּוֹן means “intelligence” in Hebrew led me to the image of his surveilance systems.

Rereading this several years after writing it, I realize that it was influenced by the lyrics to one of my favorite songs, "The Belldog" by Cluster and Brian Eno.

I ran across an odd legend connected to this story in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, It claims that Og, the king of Bashan, was the same person as Eliezer, Abraham's faithful servant, and was a giant who was so large that he ate a thousand oxen a day. Ginzburg doesn't explain how the good Eliezer became the apparently evil Og, but digging further into the sources referenced in his notes might do so. It might be good fodder for future stories.

In this story, like that of Pharaoh, God is said to have hardened the person’s heart so that, even though he might have normally acceded to the Israelites’ request, he refused. In each case, the person and many others were killed. One hopes that God would have had a good reason for causing this, since it seems to contradict the idea that God doesn't mess with people's free will.