Deuteronomy 2:16

"So it came to pass when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, that Jehovah spake unto me, saying, Thou art this day: to pass over Ar, the border of Moab: and when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, vex them not, nor contend with them; for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession; because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession. (That also is accounted a land of the Rephaim: Rephaim dwelt therein aforetime; but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, a people great, and many, and tall as the Anakim; but Jehovah destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead; as he did for the children of Esau, that dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day. And the Avvim, that dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, that came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead). Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the valley of the Arnon: behold, I have given into thy hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. This day will I begin to put the dread of thee upon the peoples that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of thee, and tremble, and be in anguish because of thee."

This entire chapter gives glimpses of God's sovereignty over the earth that are unsurpassed in the Bible. Note: Seir once belonged to the Horites (the cave-dwellers), but the wickedness of the Horites caused God to give Mount Seir to Esau. Moab once belonged to the Emim (the terrible ones), but their terrorism caused God to give the area to Moabites, descendants of Lot. The area of the Ammonites also once belonged to the Rephaim, but God gave it to the Ammonite descendants of Lot. Both the Emim and the Rephaim were evil. In the case of the Philistines, we have three successive examples of God's replacing peoples because of their wickedness:

(1) The Avvim once lived along the Palestine coast. They became wicked.

(2) They were driven out by the Caphtorim who were the Philistines of later tunes, and who also became wicked.

(3) The Philistines were also driven out by Israel in the time of David king of Israel.

Also, Sihon and Og were driven out to make room for Reuben, Gad and Manasseh!

"The Caphtor ..." whose people drove out the Avvim from Philistia. "Is usually identified with the island of Crete."[22] However, Asimov confidently identified Caphtor with the island of Cyprus.[23]

"The brook Zered ..." This was the southern boundary of Moab, and the significance of this was that Israel entered an area claimed by the king of Moab. "Og the king of Bashan (the Amorite) ruled from the Zered northward to the river Amon; and Sihon (the Amorite) king of Heshbon ruled from the Arnon northward to the Jabbock."[24] This entire area was known as Gilead.

In the light of what is visible here, it is clear enough why Moses injected this information into his final discourses. It was his way of trying to enlighten Israel as to just how long "their land" would be theirs, and it was clear enough from what Moses here said that Israel would, if they rebelled against God and became grossly evil, be displaced in keeping with the principles that God has always followed in his rule over the nations. Many suppose that God no longer rules over men, but he most assuredly does. "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" (Daniel 4:25).

Also, in light of the urgent need for just such information as this to be conveyed to Israel at that strategic time, how ridiculous is the snide assertion that "These historical references in Deuteronomy 2:10-12 and Deuteronomy 2:20-23 have been inserted into the original text of Moses' address."[25] Alexander thundered the answer to all such suggestions: "There is no sufficient reason for supposing that this paragraph (Deuteronomy 2:20-23) is an interpolation, or gloss, inserted by some later hand."[26] Every line of Deuteronomy testifies to its Mosaic authorship. Here the Zamzummim, for example, are generally admitted to be the very same people that Moses mentioned in Genesis 14.[27] Such facts strongly suggest that the passage is Mosaic.

Another mark of the great antiquity of Deuteronomy is the reference to Sihon as "king of Heshbon," his capital, instead of "king of the Amorites." It was the universal custom in early times to refer to a king as king of the principal city of his domain and the seat of his government. In this light, how incorrect is the postulation of Dummelow in his vain efforts to disprove the authorship of the Book of Jonah that, "No writer at the time when Assyria was the greatest of world-powers would have described its ruler as `the king of Nineveh,' any more than Napoleon at the height of his power could have been called `king of Paris.'"[28] On the other hand, when Jonah was written and for centuries prior to that time, any mention of a monarch would most likely have followed the pattern we see in this chapter.

The repeated references in this chapter emphasizing God's replacement of one people by another were made "to impress upon the minds of the Israelites a sense of the providence of God, which rules everywhere; displacing one people and settling another in their stead, and fixing their bounds also, which they shall not pass without leave."[29]