1LUEGO volvimos el rostro, y subimos por el camino del Basán. Y salió Og, rey de Basán, a nuestro encuentro, él y todo su pueblo, a librar batalla en Edrei. 2Y me dijo Jehová: No tengas temor de él, porque en tu mano le he entregado, tanto a él como a su pueblo y su tierra. Y harás con él como hiciste con Sehón, rey amorreo, que habitaba en Hesbón. 3De manera que Jehová nuestro Dios entregó en vuestra mano también a Og, rey de Basán, y a todo su pueblo; y le herimos hasta no quedar de los suyos quien escapase. 4Y tomamos todas sus ciudades en aquel tiempo; no hubo plaza fuerte que no les quitásemos; sesenta ciudades, toda la región de Argob, reino de Og en Basán. 5Todas estas eran ciudades fortificadas, de muros altos, con puertas y barras; sin contar muchísimas ciudades sin muros. 6Y las destruímos totalmente, lo mismo que habíamos hecho con Sehón, rey de Hesbón, destruyendo completamente en cada ciudad hombres, mujeres y niños. 7Mas todas las bestias, con el despojo de las ciudades, saqueamos para nosotros. 8Y así en aquel tiempo arrancamos del poder de los dos reyes amorreos, la tierra que está de esta parte del Jordán, desde el torrente de Arnón hasta el monte Hermón: 9(los Sidonios llaman al Hermón Sirión, pero los Amorreos lo llaman Senir); 10todas las ciudades de la Mesa, y todo Galaad, y todo Basán, hasta Salca y Edrei, ciudades de Og en Basán. 11Porque solamente Og, rey de Basán, quedaba del resto de los gigantes. He aquí su cama, cama de hierro, ¿no está todavía en Rabbá de los Ammonitas? de nueve codos es su longitud, y de cuatro codos su anchura, según el codo de un hombre. 12¶Así pues nos posesionamos de esta tierra en aquel tiempo: desde Aroer, situada sobre el torrente de Arnón, con la mitad de la serranía de Galaad, y sus ciudades, lo dí a los Rubenitas y los Gaditas; 13mas el resto de Galaad, con todo el Basán, reino de Og, lo dí a la media tribu de Manasés; es decir, toda la región de Argob con todo el Basán. (Esta fué llamada tierra de gigantes. 14Jaír, hijo de Manasés, tomó toda la región de Argob, hasta el confín de los Gesureos y los Maacateos, y los llamó de su mismo nombre, Basán de las Villas de Jaír; nombre que dura hasta el día de hoy.) 15Dí pues a Maquir el resto de Galaad. 16Porque a los Rubenitas y a los Gaditas, ya había dado desde Galaad hasta el torrente de Arnón, con la mitad del valle adyacente, hasta el torrente de Jaboc, linde de los hijos de Ammón; 17el Arabá también, y el Jordán con su comarca adyacente, de la parte del oriente, desde el Mar de Cineret, hasta el Mar del Arabá, el Mar Salado, debajo de las vertientes del Pisga. 18¶Y os mandé en aquel tiempo, (a los de dichas tribus), diciendo: Jehová vuestro Dios os ha dado esta tierra para poseerla: expeditos pues, todos los hombres valerosos habéis de pasar delante de vuestros hermanos, los hijos de Israel. 19Vuestras mujeres y vuestros niños y vuestro ganado, (pues sé que tenéis mucho ganado), quedarán en vuestras ciudades que os he dado, 20hasta que Jehová haya dado descanso a vuestros hermanos, así como a vosotros, de modo que posean también ellos la tierra que Jehová vuestro Dios les va a dar, al otro lado del Jordán; entonces se volverá cada uno de vosotros a su propia herencia que os he dado. 21A Josué también mandé en aquel tiempo, diciendo: Tus ojos han visto todo lo que acaba de hacer Jehová tu Dios a estos dos reyes; así hará Jehová con todos los reinos adonde vas a pasar. 22No los temáis, porque Jehová vuestro Dios es el que pelea por vosotros. 23¶Y yo supliqué a Jehová en aquel tiempo, diciendo: 24Jehová, Señor, tú has comenzado a mostrar a tu siervo tu grandeza y tu mano poderosa; pues ¿qué Dios hay en el cielo o en la tierra, que pueda hacer conforme a tus obras, y conforme a tus hechos estupendos? 25¡Ruégote me permitas pasar y ver aquella buena tierra que está más allá del Jordán, aquella serranía hermosa y el Líbano! 26Mas Jehová estaba enojado contra mí por causa vuestra, de manera que no me escuchó. Me dijo pues Jehová: ¡Basta, no vuelvas a hablarme sobre este asunto! 27Sube a la cumbre del Pisga, y alza tus ojos hacia el occidente, y hacia el aquilón, y hacia el mediodía, y hacia el oriente, y mira con tus ojos; pues no podrás pasar este Jordán. 28Manda empero a Josué, y fortalécele, y anímale; porque él ha de pasar al frente de este pueblo, y él los hará poseer la tierra que tú verás. 29Y nos quedamos en el valle, frente a Bet-peor.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 CONQUEST OF OG, KING OF BASHAN. (Deu. 3:1-20)
we turned, and went up the way to Bashan--Bashan ("fruitful" or "flat"), now El-Bottein, lay situated to the north of Gilead and extended as far as Hermon. It was a rugged mountainous country, valuable however for its rich and luxuriant pastures.
Og the king of Bashan came out against us--Without provocation, he rushed to attack the Israelites, either disliking the presence of such dangerous neighbors, or burning to avenge the overthrow of his friends and allies.
2 The Lord said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand--Og's gigantic appearance and the formidable array of forces he will bring to the field, need not discourage you; for, belonging to a doomed race, he is destined to share the fate of Sihon [
Num 21:25].
3 Argob was the capital of a district in Bashan of the same name, which, together with other fifty-nine cities in the same province, were conspicuous for their lofty and fortified walls. It was a war of extermination. Houses and cities were razed to the ground; all classes of people were put to the sword; and nothing was saved but the cattle, of which an immense amount fell as spoil into the hands of the conquerors. Thus, the two Amorite kings and the entire population of their dominions were extirpated. The whole country east of the Jordan--first upland downs from the torrent of the Arnon on the south to that of the Jabbok on the north; next the high mountain tract of Gilead and Bashan from the deep ravine of Jabbok--became the possession of the Israelites.
9 Hermon--now Jebel-Es-Sheick--the majestic hill on which the long and elevated range of Anti-Lebanon terminates. Its summit and the ridges on its sides are almost constantly covered with snow. It is not so much one high mountain as a whole cluster of mountain peaks, the highest in Palestine. According to the survey taken by the English Government Engineers in 1840, they were about 9376 feet above the sea. Being a mountain chain, it is no wonder that it should have received different names at different points from the different tribes which lay along the base--all of them designating extraordinary height: Hermon, the lofty peak; "Sirion," or in an abbreviated form "Sion" (
Deut 4:48), the upraised, glittering; "Shenir," the glittering breastplate of ice.
11 only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants--literally, "of Rephaim." He was not the last giant, but the only living remnant in the trans-jordanic country (
Josh 15:14), of a certain gigantic race, supposed to be the most ancient inhabitants of Palestine.
behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron--Although beds in the East are with the common people nothing more than a simple mattress, bedsteads are not unknown. They are in use among the great, who prefer them of iron or other metals, not only for strength and durability, but for the prevention of the troublesome insects which in warm climates commonly infest wood. Taking the cubit at half a yard, the bedstead of Og would measure thirteen and a half feet, so that as beds are usually a little larger than the persons who occupy them, the stature of the Amorite king may be estimated at about eleven or twelve feet; or he might have caused his bed to be made much larger than was necessary, as Alexander the Great did for each of his foot soldiers, to impress the Indians with an idea of the extraordinary strength and stature of his men [LE CLERC]. But how did Og's bedstead come to be in Rabbath, of the children of Ammon? In answer to this question, it has been said, that Og had, on the eve of engagement, conveyed it to Rabbath for safety. Or it may be that Moses, after capturing it, may have sold it to the Ammonites, who had kept it as an antiquarian curiosity till their capital was sacked in the time of David. This is a most unlikely supposition, and besides renders it necessary to consider the latter clause of this verse as an interpolation inserted long after the time of Moses. To avoid this, some eminent critics take the Hebrew word rendered "bedstead" to mean "coffin." They think that the king of Bashan having been wounded in battle, fled to Rabbath, where he died and was buried; hence the dimensions of his "coffin" are given [DATHE, ROOS].
12 this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer . . . gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites--The whole territory occupied by Sihon was parcelled out among the pastoral tribes of Reuben and Gad. It extended from the north bank of the Arnon to the south half of mount Gilead--a small mountain ridge, now called Djelaad, about six or seven miles south of the Jabbok, and eight miles in length. The northern portion of Gilead and the rich pasture lands of Bashan--a large province, consisting, with the exception of a few bleak and rocky spots, of strong and fertile soil--was assigned to the half-tribe of Manasseh.
14 Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob--The original inhabitants of the province north of Bashan, comprising sixty cities (
Deut 3:4), not having been extirpated along with Og, this people were afterwards brought into subjection by the energy of Jair. This chief, of the tribe of Manasseh, in accordance with the pastoral habits of his people, called these newly acquired towns by a name which signifies "Jair's Bedouin Villages of Tents."
unto this day--This remark must evidently have been introduced by Ezra, or some of the pious men who arranged and collected the books of Moses.
15 I gave Gilead unto Machir--It was only the half of Gilead (
Deut 3:12-
Deut 3:13) which was given to the descendants of Machir, who was now dead.
16 from Gilead--that is, not the mountainous region, but the town Ramoth-gilead,
even unto the river Arnon half the valley--The word "valley" signifies a wady, either filled with water or dry, as the Arnon is in summer, and thus the proper rendering of the passage will be--"even to the half or middle of the river Arnon" (compare
Josh 12:2). This prudent arrangement of the boundaries was evidently made to prevent all disputes between the adjacent tribes about the exclusive right to the water.
25 I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon--The natural and very earnest wish of Moses to be allowed to cross the Jordan was founded on the idea that the divine threatening might be conditional and revertible. "That goodly mountain" is supposed by Jewish writers to have pointed to the hill on which the temple was to be built (
Deut 12:5;
Exod 15:2). But biblical scholars now, generally, render the words--"that goodly mountain, even Lebanon," and consider it to be mentioned as typifying the beauty of Palestine, of which hills and mountains were so prominent a feature.
26 speak no more unto me of this matter--that is, My decree is unalterable.