---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Deuteronomy 3"
description: "CHAPTER 3   :-. 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"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/deuteronomy/3"
---

CHAPTER 3

. 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
[[Numbers 21:25](../../../kjv/numbers/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" ([Deuteronomy 4:48](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/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 ([Joshua 15:14](../../../kjv/joshua/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 (), 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 ([Deuteronomy 3:12](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/12);
[Deuteronomy 3:13](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/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 ). 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 ([Deuteronomy 12:5](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/12/5);
[Exodus 15:2](../../../kjv/exodus/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.

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