Kedemoth

Kedemoth (meaning beginnings or easternmost) was a Levitical city in the territory of Reuben east of the Jordan, assigned to the Levites of the Merarite clan (Joshua 13:18; 21:37; 1 Chronicles 6:79). Moses sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with a peaceful request for passage through his territory, an overture that Sihon refused, triggering the battle that gave Israel its first Transjordanian territory (Deuteronomy 2:26–37).

The city's location in the Reubenite tableland east of the Dead Sea placed it in the fertile highland region between the Arnon and Jabbok rivers. The identification with a site near modern Khirbet er-Remeil has been proposed, though certainty is elusive. As a Levitical city in Transjordan, Kedemoth served as an administrative and religious center for the tribes of Reuben and Gad. Its connection to Moses's diplomatic overture before the conquest of Sihon gives it historical significance as the point of departure for Israel's first major military engagement east of the Jordan.