John Calvin Commentary Numbers 21:25

"And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the towns thereof." — Numbers 21:25 (ASV)

And Israel took all these cities. As if speaking of something present, he uses the demonstrative pronoun and says, “these cities,” just as if he were pointing them out to the eyes of his readers. The word which we have translated as “towns” (oppida,)¹³⁰ others translate as “country-houses” (villas,) or “hamlets” (viculos.) In Hebrew, Moses calls by the name of “daughters” all the villages and lesser towns, whose mother-city (metropolis) was Heshbon.

By these words, however, Moses indicates that, by the right of war, all these places had fallen into the hands of the Israelites as their allotted inheritance. For, as I have recently said, God had not yet openly declared that they would be masters of this part of the country. Consequently, they would have overstepped their boundaries unless these places had been added to the land of Canaan. This is why God openly declares that they possessed them by His authority.

But when he says that the cities were destroyed, and all their inhabitants exterminated, so that neither women nor children were spared, let us understand that they did not deal so cruelly of their own impulse or in heedless violence. Instead, whatever was on the other side of the Jordan was devoted to destruction by God, so that they might always have their minds fixed on the promised land and might never give way to listlessness, which would have happened if an easy occupation of it had invited them to repose.

Although, therefore, God delivered the land over to them afterward and allowed them to enrich themselves with its booty and spoils, He nevertheless would not have it retained as a place of residence. Therefore, He commanded them to destroy its cities and villages, so that they might seek their rest elsewhere.

Finally, since they were abundantly disposed to be slothful, it was expedient that all snares should be removed, and that by the very desolation they might be urged forward to where God called them.

¹³⁰ “ Par ce mot, que nous avons translate Par ce mot, que nous avons translate villages, il nous faut aussi entendre les bourgades, et metairies;“ by this word, which we have translated il nous faut aussi entendre les bourgades, et metairies;“ by this word, which we have translated villages, we must also understand the hamlets and farm-houses. — we must also understand the hamlets and farm-houses. — Fr. See marg. A.V.