Deuteronomy 3:5

5 All of these [were] fortified towns with high walls, gates, and bars, {apart from} very many [of] the villages of the open country.

Deuteronomy 3:5 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 3:5

All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars,
&c.] That is, all the cities in the kingdom of Bashan; and though they were, it hindered not their falling into the hands of the Israelites; and this might serve to encourage them against those fears they were possessed of by the spies, with respect to the cities in the land of Canaan; see ( Numbers 13:28 ) ( Deuteronomy 1:28 )

besides unwalled towns a great many;
small towns and villages adjacent to the several cities, as is common.

Deuteronomy 3:5 In-Context

3 And [so] Yahweh our God also gave Og the king of Bashan, and all of his army into our hand, and we struck him down until not a survivor remained to him.

4 And we captured all [of] his towns at that time; [there] was not a city that we did not take from them.

5 All of these [were] fortified towns with high walls, gates, and bars, {apart from} very many [of] the villages of the open country.

6 And [so] we destroyed them just as we had done to Sihon the king of Heshbon; [we destroyed] utterly each town of males, the women, and the little children.

7 But all [of] the livestock and the booty of the towns we kept as spoil for ourselves.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "bar"
• [b]. Literally "alone from"