Sihon was the king of the Amorites. He originally conquered and ruled the region where the Moabites lived, and this fact was so well-known at the time that a poem by another poet singing about it is recorded in the Bible.
Numbers 21:26Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon. Let the city of Sihon be built and established;Numbers 21:27for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.Numbers 21:28Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites.Numbers 21:29We have shot at them. Heshbon has perished even to Dibon. We have laid waste even to Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba.”Numbers 21:30Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.
모세가 출애굽 과정에서 이 시혼에게 사자를 보내 그들의 땅을 지나도록 허락을 구하였으나, 허락하지 않고 오히려 이들을 공격하였다.
Numbers 21:21“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn away into field or vineyard. We will not drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the king’s highway, until we have passed your border.”Numbers 21:22Sihon would not allow Israel)) to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz. He fought against Israel.Numbers 21:23Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was fortified.Numbers 21:24Israel took all these cities. Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages.Numbers 21:25For Heshbon was the city of Sihon) the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even to the Arnon.