Numbers 21:22
Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king’s high way, until we be past thy borders. Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king’s high way, until we be past thy borders.
Moses and Israel asked Sihon, king of the Amorites, for peaceful passage through his land on the king's highway without turning aside into fields or vineyards or drinking water from the wells. They offered to pay for food and water, because they needed to cross Amorite territory to reach the Jordan and the land God had promised them. The request was courteous and limited to passage without harming property, as in Israel's dealings with neighboring nations. The Amorite king's refusal and preparation for battle was defiance of God's purpose that brought judgment on his people.
The verse belongs to Israel's advance through the territory of Sihon and Og and the Amorite lands east of the Jordan toward Canaan. It stands when Israel was approaching the promised land and stood on Canaan's border after success in Bashan, before the battle in which Israel took possession of the country. The surrounding events present Israel as advancing under God's command and winning because God alone delivered them. This advance is set in contrast with the earlier generation's refusal to trust God and advance toward Canaan. In these accounts the request to pass through is not explained but is placed within the victories over Sihon and Og and the approach to the promised land.
The advance ended with Israel destroying the Amorites and taking possession of their land. That victory showed Israel to be a powerful people and left Balak and all Moab exceedingly terrified as Israel moved forward and pitched in the plains of Moab by Jericho. Those recent victories over Sihon and Og were widely known and familiar to Balaam. The passage records the slaying of two kings shortly before crossing the Jordan, and that victory together with the miraculous passage over the swollen and impetuous Jordan melted the hearts of the Amorite and Canaanite kings with fear and filled all the surrounding nations with great terror.