Numbers 21:26

Summary

This verse explains why the city of Heshbon belonged to Sihon, king of the Amorites: he had previously fought against an earlier king of Moab and had taken all of that king's territory, from his control up to the Arnon.

Key words

• ki ("for", H3588A) — introduces the explanatory clause, giving the reason behind the preceding narrative about Heshbon.
• 'ir ("city of", H5892B) — noun in construct state, linking Heshbon directly to Sihon as "the city of Sihon."
• ha-rishon ("the former", H7223H) — an ordinal number modifying "king of Moab"; it specifies that the king Sihon fought was a previous ruler, not the current one.
• nilcham ("he had waged war", H3898A) — Niphal perfect of the root for fighting; the Niphal stem here expresses mutual/reciprocal engagement in battle, common for describing warfare between two parties.
• mi-yado ("from his hand", H3027H + H9023) — idiomatic construct meaning "from his control/possession," describing the transfer of territory rather than a literal hand.

What the text says

The verse is built as two linked clauses. The first (ki chesh.Bon 'ir si.Chon melekh ha-'emori hi') uses the independent pronoun hi' ("it/she", H1931) as a predicate, affirming identity: "Heshbon — it is the city of Sihon, king of the Amorite." This construction, common in Biblical Hebrew, does double duty as a copular sentence without a verb "to be."

The second clause opens with the narrative va- prefix on yiqqach ("and he took", H3947G), continuing the story after the initial explanatory statement. The subject is Sihon, who is described as having fought (nilcham) against "the king of Moab, the former one" (melekh mo'av ha-rishon) — the ordinal ha-rishon clarifies that this was a Moabite king who reigned before the current one, distinguishing him from any Moabite king present at the time of the narrative's action. The phrase mi-yado ("from his hand") functions idiomatically to indicate that the land was taken out of that former king's control, extending "to Arnon" ('ad 'ar.Non), marking the geographic limit of the conquered territory.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint reads ἔλαβον ("they took"), a third-person plural, where the Hebrew has va-yiqqach ("he took"), third-person singular — a shift in the implied subject of the taking. The LXX also adds ἀπὸ Ἀροὴρ ("from Aroer") as the starting point of the territory, a place name not present in the Hebrew text, which instead uses the idiom mi-yado ("from his hand"). The Vulgate's qui pugnavit contra regem Moab ("who fought against the king of Moab") omits an equivalent to the Hebrew ha-rishon ("the former"), not specifying that this was a prior king of Moab.