Deuteronomy 3:1-22

The Defeat of King Og

1 "Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And ¹Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at ²Edrei.

2 But the LORD said to me, 'Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to ³Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.'

3 So the LORD our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, ⁴and we struck him down until he had no survivor left.

4 And we took all his cities at that time--there was not a city that we did not take from them--sixty cities, ⁵the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages.

6 And ⁶we devoted them to destruction,^[a] as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every ⁷city, men, women, and children.

7 But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder.

8 So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon

9 (the Sidonians call ⁸Hermon ⁹Sirion, while the Amorites call it ¹⁰Senir),

10 all the cities of the ¹¹tableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as ¹²Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

11 (For ¹³only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of ¹⁴the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in ¹⁵Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits^[b] was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the ¹⁶common cubit.^[c])

12 "When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory beginning ¹⁷at Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with ¹⁸its cities.

13 ¹⁹The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, that is, ²⁰all the region of Argob, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (All that portion of Bashan is called the land of ²¹Rephaim.

14 ²²Jair the Manassite took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of ²³the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called the villages ²⁴after his own name, Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.)

15 To Machir ²⁵I gave Gilead,

16 and to the Reubenites ²⁶and the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the Valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a border, as far over as the river Jabbok, ²⁷the border of the Ammonites;

17 the Arabah also, with the Jordan as the border, from ²⁸Chinnereth as far as ²⁹the Sea of the Arabah, ³⁰the Salt Sea, under ³¹the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

18 "And I commanded you at that time, saying, 'The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. ³²All your men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the people of Israel.

19 Only your wives, your little ones, and your livestock ³³(I know that you have much livestock) shall remain in the cities that I have given you,

20 ³⁴until the LORD gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also occupy the land that the LORD your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.'

21 And I commanded ³⁵Joshua at that time, 'Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. So will the LORD do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing.

22 You shall not fear them, for it is ³⁶the LORD your God who fights for you.'

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Deuteronomy 3:1-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 3

In this chapter the account is carried on of the conquest of the Amorites by Israel, of Og king of Bashan, and his kingdom, De 3:1-11, and of the distribution of their country to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, De 1:12-17 and then the command to the said tribes is observed, to go out armed before their brethren, and assist them in the conquest of the land of Canaan, and then return to their possessions, De 3:18-20 and also that to Joshua not to fear, but to do to the Canaanitish kings and kingdoms what he had seen done to the two kings of the Amorites, De 3:21,22. After which Moses relates the request he made, to go over Jordan and see the good land, which was denied him, only he is bidden to look from the top of an hill to see it, De 3:23-27. And the chapter is closed with the charge he was to give Joshua, De 3:28 which was received in the valley where they abode, De 3:29.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 36

1. Deuteronomy 29:7; Numbers 21:33, 35
2. See Deuteronomy 1:4
3. See Num. 21:23-26, 34
4. Numbers 21:35
5. 1 Kings 4:13
6. See Deuteronomy 7:2; Psalms 135:10-12
7. Deuteronomy 2:34
8. Deuteronomy 4:48; Joshua 11:3, 17; Joshua 12:5
9. Psalms 29:6; [Deuteronomy 4:48]
10. 1 Chronicles 5:23; Song of Songs 4:8; Ezekiel 27:5
11. Deuteronomy 4:43; Josh. 13:9, 16, 17, 21; Jeremiah 48:8, 21
12. Joshua 12:5; Joshua 13:11; 1 Chronicles 5:11
13. Deuteronomy 2:11, 20
14. See Genesis 14:5
15. 2 Samuel 11:1; 2 Samuel 12:26; Jeremiah 49:2; Ezekiel 21:20; Ezekiel 25:5; Amos 1:14
16. [Revelation 21:17]
17. See Deuteronomy 2:36
18. See Numbers 32:32-38; Joshua 13:8-13
19. See Numbers 32:39-42; Joshua 13:29-31
20. 1 Kings 4:13
21. [See ver. 11 above]
22. Numbers 32:41; [1 Chronicles 2:22, 23]
23. Joshua 12:5; Joshua 13:11, 13; 2 Samuel 3:3; 2 Samuel 10:6; 2 Samuel 13:37, 38
24. Numbers 32:41
25. Numbers 32:39
26. [2 Samuel 24:5]
27. Numbers 21:24; Joshua 12:2
28. See Numbers 34:11
29. Deuteronomy 4:49; Joshua 3:16; Joshua 12:3; 2 Kings 14:25
30. See Genesis 14:3
31. [Numbers 21:15]
32. Numbers 32:20, 21; Joshua 1:14; Joshua 4:12
33. Numbers 32:1, 4
34. Joshua 22:4
35. [Numbers 27:18]
36. See Exodus 14:14

Footnotes 3

[a]. That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); twice in this verse
[b]. A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
[c]. Hebrew cubit of a man

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.