Deuteronomy 3

Then we turned and went up the road toward Bashan. Og, the king of Bashan, marched out with his whole army to fight us at Edrei.

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

NoteBashan was the fertile upland region east of the Sea of Galilee, proverbial in Hebrew for its cattle, oaks and rich pasture. Edrei was a city on its southern edge. Israel is traveling north up the eastern side of the Jordan, outside the land it is heading for.

2The LORD said to me, "Do not be afraid of him. I have handed him over to you, along with all his people and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon."

2And the LORD said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.

NoteThe Amorites were one of the peoples living in Canaan and in the territory east of the Jordan before Israel arrived; the name is used both for a specific group and loosely for the earlier inhabitants generally. Sihon's defeat at Heshbon is the campaign described just before this, in chapter 2.

3So the LORD our God handed Og king of Bashan and all his people over to us as well. We struck them down until no one was left alive.

3So the LORD our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.

4At that time we captured all his cities. There was not one we failed to take: sixty cities in all, the whole region of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan.

4And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

Note"Threescore" in the King James is simply sixty (a score is twenty). Argob was a district inside Bashan, apparently its heartland.

5All these cities were protected by high walls, with gates and heavy bars. Besides them there were a great many villages with no walls at all.

5All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a great many.

NoteThe "bars" were heavy timber beams dropped into brackets across the inside of the city gates. Walls, gates and bars together are the standard shorthand in Hebrew for a fortified town, as opposed to the open villages mentioned next.

6We completely destroyed them, just as we had done to Sihon king of Heshbon, killing the men, women, and children of every city.

6And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city.

Note"Utterly destroyed" translates the Hebrew term *herem*: to place something under an irrevocable ban, handing it over entirely and withholding it from ordinary human use or profit. It is a specific technical term of ancient warfare in this region, not a general word for killing; the following verse notes that in this case the livestock and goods were exempted from it.

7But we kept all the livestock and the goods taken from the cities for ourselves.

7But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves.

8At that time we took from the two Amorite kings the land east of the Jordan River, from the Arnon Valley all the way to Mount Hermon.

8And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto mount Hermon;

NoteThe Arnon is a deep gorge running west into the Dead Sea; it served as a recognized boundary line. Mount Hermon, at the far northern end of the territory, rises over 9,000 feet and is snow-capped for much of the year. Naming the two together is a way of saying "the whole stretch, end to end."

9(The people of Sidon call Hermon "Sirion," and the Amorites call it "Senir.")

9(Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir;)

NoteSidon was a Phoenician port on the coast of what is now Lebanon. The verse is a note by the writer for readers who might know the mountain under one of its other names, neighboring peoples called the same peak different things.

10We took all the cities of the high flatland, all of Gilead, and all of Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of Og's kingdom in Bashan.

10All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, unto Salchah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "cities of the plain" refers specifically to the high, level tableland east of the Jordan, not to lowland. Gilead was the hilly country between the Arnon and Bashan.

11Og king of Bashan was the last one left of the Rephaim. His bed was made of iron. It is still in Rabbah, the city of the Ammonites. It was nine cubits long and four cubits wide, measured by the ordinary cubit.

11For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.

NoteThe Rephaim were remembered in Hebrew tradition as an earlier population of unusual size; the King James translates the name as "giants." A cubit was roughly eighteen inches, about the length of a forearm, so the object described is about thirteen feet long and six feet wide. "After the cubit of a man" means measured by the ordinary everyday cubit rather than a longer royal one. The Hebrew word rendered "bedstead" or "bed" can mean a bed or a bier, and many readers have taken this to be a large basalt sarcophagus on display in Rabbah rather than furniture. Rabbah was the chief city of the Ammonites, on the site of modern Amman.

12At that time we took this land as our own. I gave the people of Reuben and the people of Gad the land from Aroer, which is by the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities.

12And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites.

NoteReuben and Gad were two of the twelve tribes of Israel, each descended from a son of Jacob. They are being settled here on the eastern side of the Jordan, outside the land the rest of the nation is about to enter.

13To the half tribe of Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, which was Og's kingdom. The whole region of Argob, all of Bashan, used to be called the land of the Rephaim.

13And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.

NoteManasseh's descendants were split between the two sides of the Jordan, which is why the text speaks of a "half tribe", half of the tribe's clans settled here in the east, the rest later took land west of the river.

14Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites. He named the towns after himself, Havvoth-jair, and that is still their name today.

14Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashanhavothjair, unto this day.

NoteHavvoth-jair means "the tent-villages of Jair." The Geshurites and Maacathites were small independent kingdoms on the north-eastern frontier. "Unto this day" is the writer speaking to his own readers: the name was still in use when the account was written down.

15And I gave Gilead to Machir.

15And I gave Gilead unto Machir.

NoteMachir was the leading clan of the tribe of Manasseh, named after Manasseh's son; giving land "to Machir" means giving it to that whole family group, not to one man.

16To the people of Reuben and the people of Gad I gave the land from Gilead down to the Arnon Valley, with the middle of the valley as the border, and as far as the Jabbok River, which is the border of the Ammonites.

16And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites I gave from Gilead even unto the river Arnon half the valley, and the border even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

NoteThe Jabbok is a river flowing west into the Jordan. Saying the border ran through "the middle of the valley" means the boundary followed the streambed at the bottom of the gorge, so each side held the slope facing it. The Ammonites were a neighboring nation east of the Jordan whose territory Israel was not to take.

17Their land also took in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River as its border, from Chinnereth down to the Sea of the Arabah, that is, the Salt Sea, below the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

17The plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdothpisgah eastward.

NoteChinnereth is the lake later called the Sea of Galilee. The Arabah is the deep rift valley running south from it. The "Salt Sea" is the Dead Sea, so saline that nothing lives in it. Pisgah is the ridge overlooking the valley from the east.

18At that time I gave you this command: "The LORD your God has given you this land to hold as your own. But every man fit to fight must cross the river ahead of your relatives, the Israelites, armed for battle.

18And I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God hath given you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war.

NoteThe arrangement is that Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh keep the land already taken east of the river, but their fighting men must still cross the Jordan and campaign alongside the other tribes before going home.

19Your wives, your children, and your livestock, since I know you have a great deal of livestock, may stay behind in the cities I have given you.

19But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle, (for I know that ye have much cattle,) shall abide in your cities which I have given you;

20They stay until the LORD gives your relatives rest, as he has given you rest, and until they too take the land the LORD your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then each of you may return to the property I have given you."

20Until the LORD have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until they also possess the land which the LORD your God hath given them beyond Jordan: and then shall ye return every man unto his possession, which I have given you.

Note"Rest" here is not sleep or leisure but the settled condition on the far side of a war: enemies subdued, land occupied, no further campaigning necessary.

21At that time I gave Joshua this command: "You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD your God did to these two kings. The LORD will do the same to all the kingdoms you are about to enter.

21And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto these two kings: so shall the LORD do unto all the kingdoms whither thou passest.

22Do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God himself will fight for you."

22Ye shall not fear them: for the LORD your God he shall fight for you.

23At that time I also begged the LORD, saying,

23And I besought the LORD at that time, saying,

24"Lord GOD, you have begun to show me, your servant, how great you are and how strong your hand is. What god in heaven or on earth can do the works and the mighty acts that you do?

24O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?

NoteIn the King James, "LORD" and "GOD" printed in capitals stand for the personal name of Israel's God, which the translators did not spell out; "Lord" in ordinary type is the separate word meaning master. This verse pairs the two, which is why it looks repetitive. "Thy mighty hand" is a standard Hebrew idiom for power exercised in action, not a description of a body.

25Please let me cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, that fine hill country, and Lebanon."

25I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.

Note"That goodly mountain" is the hill country running down the middle of Canaan, the central spine of the land. Lebanon is the mountain range at its northern end.

26But the LORD was angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. He said to me, "That is enough. Do not speak to me about this again.

26But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.

Note"For your sakes" means on your account, because of what you did, not for your benefit. The incident being referred to is told in Numbers 20, where Moses is barred from entering the land after the quarrel over water at Meribah.

27Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west, north, south, and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, because you will not cross this Jordan.

27Get thee up into 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.

NotePisgah is a headland on the ridge east of the Dead Sea, high enough to see a great sweep of the country west of the Jordan. Looking in all four directions is a recognized gesture for surveying and formally taking in a territory.

28But give Joshua his orders. Encourage him and make him strong, because he will cross over ahead of these people, and he will give them the land you will see as their own."

28But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

NoteTo "charge" someone here means to commission them formally and publicly, a legal act of handing over authority in front of witnesses, not simply giving instructions.

29So we stayed in the valley across from Beth-peor.

29So we abode in the valley over against Bethpeor.

NoteBeth-peor was a place in Moab associated with the local god worshiped at Peor. Naming the camp site locates the whole of Moses' long speech in Deuteronomy at one spot, just east of the Jordan.