This sovereign
now set himself to subdue southern Moab also, and not without
success.
"Fire went out from Heshbon, flame from the stronghold of Sihon,
devoured the cities of Moab upon the heights of Arnon.
Woe to thee, O Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh!"
From these straits the Moabites were rescued by their cousins,
the nomads of the wilderness of Kadesh. The Israelites came
forward on behalf of what was at once the common Hebrew cause
and their own particular interest; they took the field against
the Amorites, vanquished them in battle, and broke up the kingdom
of Sihon. The consequence was that the land to the south of the
Arnon remained in the undisputed possession of Moab, while the
victors themselves became masters of the territory immediately
to the north. Settled thus between Moab and Ammon their kinsmen,
the Israelites supplied the link that was wanting in the chain of
petty Hebrew nationalities established in the south of eastern
Palestine.
The army that went out against the Amorites from Kadesh was
certainly not exclusively composed of men who, or whose fathers,
had accomplished the passage of the Red Sea Israel was not a
formed nation when it left Egypt; and throughout the whole period
of its sojourn in the wilderness it continued to be in process of
growth.
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