Bible Commentaries

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

(a) Therefore aside from the commandment of the Lord, they had just cause to fight against him.

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

(b) As villages and small towns.

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

(c) Because this was God's appointment, therefore it may not be judged cruel.

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his ^d 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.

(d) The more terrible this giant was, the greater reason they had to glorify God for the victory.

Jair 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 ^e this day.

(e) Meaning, when he wrote this history.

And 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 ^f Jabbok, [which is] the border of the children of Ammon;

(f) Which separates the Ammonites from the Amorites.

And I commanded ^g 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.

(g) That is, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half Manasseh, as in (Numbers 32:32).

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

(h) So that the victories did not come by your own wisdom, strength or multitude.

O 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 ⁱ do according to thy works, and according to thy might?

(i) He speaks according to the common and corrupt speech of those who attribute power to idols that only belongs to God.

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

(k) He means Zion, where the Temple should be built, and God honoured.

Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and ^l 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.

(l) As before he saw by the spirits of prophecy the good mountain which was Zion: so here his eyes were lifted up above the order of nature to behold all the plentiful land of Canaan.