Deuteronomy 3:1-11

The Defeat of Og

1 Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his whole army came out to meet us in battle at Edrei. ¹

2 But the LORD said to me, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, along with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”

3 So the LORD our God also delivered Og king of Bashan and his whole army into our hands. We struck them down until no survivor was left.

4 At that time we captured all sixty of his cities. There was not a single city we failed to take—the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

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

6 We devoted them to destruction, ^[a] as we had done to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city.

7 But all the livestock and plunder of the cities we carried off for ourselves.

8 At that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites the land across the Jordan, from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon—

9 which the Sidonians call Sirion but the Amorites call Senir—

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

11 (For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, ^[b] is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

Deuteronomy 3:1-11 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.

Cross References

• 1. (Numbers 21:31–35)

Footnotes

• [a] Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to the LORD, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.
• [b] Og’s bed was approximately 14 feet long and 6 feet wide (4.3 meters long and 1.8 meters wide).