1 And we turned, and went up the way to Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, for battle at Edrei.
2 And Jehovah said to me, Fear him not; for into thy hand have I given him, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.
3 And Jehovah our God gave into our hand Og the king of Bashan also, and all his people; and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.
4 And we took all his cities at that time: there was not a town which we took not from them, sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
5 All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides unwalled towns very many.
6 And we utterly destroyed them, as we had done to Sihon the king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every city, men, women and little ones.
7 But all the cattle and the spoil of the cities we took as booty for ourselves.
8 And we took at that time the land out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites, that were on this side the Jordan, from the river Arnon to mount Hermon
9 (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir):
10 all the cities of the plateau, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salchah and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
11 For only Og the king of Bashan remained of the residue of giants: behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? its length was nine cubits, and its breadth four cubits, after the cubit of a man.
12 And this land we took in possession at that time. From Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and the half of mount Gilead, and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites;
13 and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. (The whole region of Argob, even all Bashan, is called a land of giants.
14 Jair the son of Manasseh took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maachathites, and called Bashan after his own name, Havoth-Jair, to this day.)
15 And I gave Gilead to Machir.
16 And to the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the river Arnon, the middle of the ravine and its border, as far as the river Jabbok, the border of the children of Ammon;
17 the plain also, and the Jordan, and [its] border from Chinnereth as far as the sea of the plain, the salt sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.
18 And I commanded you at that time, saying, Jehovah your God hath given you this land to take possession of it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all [who are] combatants.
19 Only your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle, -- I know that ye have much cattle, -- shall abide in your cities which I have given you,
20 until Jehovah give rest to your brethren, as well as to you, and they also take possession of the land that Jehovah your God giveth them beyond the Jordan; then shall ye return, each man to his possession, which I have given you.
21 And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that Jehovah your God hath done to these two kings: so will Jehovah do to all the kingdoms to which thou shalt go.
22 Ye shall not fear them; for Jehovah your God, he will fight for you.
23 And I besought Jehovah at that time, saying,
24 Lord Jehovah, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy powerful hand; for what ùGod is in the heavens or in the earth that can do like to thy works, and like to thy might?
25 Let me go over, I pray thee, and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.
26 But Jehovah was wroth with me on your account, and did not hear me; and Jehovah said to me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter!
27 Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes; for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
28 But charge Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land which thou shalt see.
29 And we abode in the valley opposite to Beth-Peor.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Deuteronomy 3
Commentary on Deuteronomy 3 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 3
De 3:1-20. Conquest of Og, King of Bashan.
1. 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 [Nu 21:25].
3-8. 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" (De 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 (Jos 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, 13. 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 (De 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 (De 3:12, 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 Jos 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 (De 12:5; Ex 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.