1And we shall turn and go up the way of Bashan: and Og, king of Bashan, will come forth to our meeting, he and all his people to war at Edrei. 2And Jehovah will say to me, Thou shalt not fear him, for into thy hand I gave him and all his people, and his land; and do to him as thou didst to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who will dwell in Hebron. 3And Jehovah our God will give into our hand also Og, king of Bashan, and all his people: and we shall smite him till none remained to him escaping. 4And we shall take all his cities in that time, and there was not a city which we took not from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, from the kingdom of Og in Bashan 5All these cities fortified with high walls, doors and bars; besides of cities of the open country exceedingly many. 6And we shall exterminate them as we did to Sihon, king of Heshbon, exterminating men, women, and little ones. 7And all the cattle and the spoil of the cities we plundered for ourselves. 8And we shall take in that time the land out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites, which is on the other side Jordan from the torrent Arnon, even to mount Hermon. 9(The Sidonians will call to Hermon, Sirion; and the Amorites will call to it, Shenk.) 10All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, even to Salchah and Edrei, cities from the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11For only Og, king Of Bashan, remained from the remnant of the Rephaims; behold, his bed, a bed of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the sons of Ammon? nine cubits its length and four cubits its breadth, according to the cubit of a man. 12And this land we possessed in that time from Aroer which is by the torrent Arnon, and half the mount of Gilead and its cities I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gates. 13And the remnant of Gilead and all Bashan from the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob and all Bashan, it will be called the land of Rephaims. 14Jair, son of Manasseh, took all the region of Argob, even to the boun of Geshuri and Maachathi; and he call them according to his name, Bashan-Havath-Jair, even to this day.. 15And to Machir I gave Gilead. 16And to the Reubemtes and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the torrent Anion, the midst of the torrent and the boundary and even to the emptying of the torrent, the boundary of the sons of Ammon. 17And the sterile region, and Jordan, and the boundary from Chinnereth, and even to the sea of the desert, the salt sea under the ravines of Pisgah from the sunrising. 18And I shall command you in that time, saying, Jehovah your God gave to you this land to possess it; ye shall pass over armed before your brethren, the sons of Israel, all sons of strength. 19Only your wives and your little ones and your cattle (I knew that much cattle to you) they shall dwell in your cities which I gave to you, 20Till when Jehovah shall cause your brethren to rest as you, and they also shall possess the land which Jehovah, your God, gave to them on the other side of Jordan: and ye turned back each to his possession which I gave to you. 21And I commanded Joshua in that time, saying, Thine eyes saw all that Jehovah, your God, did to these two kings: so will Jehovah do to all the kingdoms which ye pass through there. 22Ye shall not be afraid of them, for Jehovah, your God, he shall fight for you. 23And I shall entreat Jehovah in that time, saying, 24O Lord Jehovah, thou didst begin to cause thy servant to see thy greatness and thy strong hand: for what God in the heavens and in the earth will do according to thy works and according to thy strength? 25Shall I now pass over and see the good land which is beyond Jordan, this good mountain, and Lebanon? 26And Jehovah will pass by me on account of you, and he heard not to me: and Jehovah said to me, It was enough to thee; thou shalt not add to speak more to me concerning this word. 27Go up to the head of Pisgah and lift up thine eyes to the sea, and to the north, and to the south, and to the sunrising, and see with thine eyes; for thou shalt not pass over this Jordan. 28And command Joshua and strengthen him, and make him firm, for he shall pass through before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see. 29And we shall dwell in the valley over against the House of Opening.
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.