Deuteronomy 3:1

Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan,.... Which seems to have been higher than the kingdom of Sihon: this was a fine country for pasturage, for the breeding of cattle, larger and lesser, and

Then 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. We turned, and want up the way to Bashan (cf. Numbers 21:33-35).

Deuteronomy 3:1 Then 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.Ver. 1. Then we turned.] How pleasant must the continuation of this holy history needs be to every good heart, out of the mouth of Moses! Methinks I see the people’ s ears linked to his tongue with golden chains, as the heathens fable of their Hercules. And surely, if King Alphonsus and some others, of whom the physicians despaired, did recover health beyond all expectation, only by reading Livy, Curtius, Aventinus, &c., what may we think may be done by these wholesome words, these healing histories, if rightly regarded. Joh. Bodin., De Utilita. Histor. λογοιυγιαινοντες.

III.(1) Then.—In the Hebrew, a simple And. The history of this movement is given in Numbers 21:32-33. For Edrei, see Numbers 21:33, from which this whole verse is repeated.

CHAPTER III The war with OG, king of Bashan, 1, 2. He is defeated, 3. Sixty fortified cities with many unwalled towns taken, 4, 5. The utter destruction of the people, 6. The spoils, 7; and extent of the land taken, 8-10. Account of OG'S iron bedstead, 11. The land given to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh, 12, 13. Jair takes the country of Argob, 14. Gilead is given unto Machir, 15. And the rest of the land possessed by the Reubenites and Gadites, 16,17. The directions given to those tribes, 18-20. The counsel given to Joshua, 21, 22. Moses's prayer to God for permission to go into the promised land, 23-25; and God's refusal, 26. He is commanded to go up to Mount Pisgah to see it, 27; and to encourage Joshua, 28. They continue in the valley opposite to Beth-peor, 29. NOTES ON CHAP. III

1. turned, and went up] See on Deuteronomy 1:7. Bashan] Heb. the Bashan, so in all historical statements and sometimes in poetry in which however the article is oftener omitted (HGHL, 549 n. 7). In its wider sense the name covered all the land from the. Yarmϋk to Ḥ ?ermon, Deuteronomy 4:43, Deuteronomy 33:22. But its proper application was confined to the land immediately N. of the Yarmϋk and E. of Geshur and Ma‘akah, the present Jaulan (see below Deuteronomy 3:14, Deuteronomy 4:43): the S. end of Ḥ ?auran, including ‘Ashtaroth (perhaps Tell el ‘Ashari) on the W., Edre‘i on the S. and Salkah on the S.E. (Deuteronomy 1:4, Deuteronomy 3:10, Joshua 9:10; Joshua 12:4; Joshua 13:11 f., 31), the district known in Greek times as Batanea, and in the 10th century still called ‘Ard-el-Bathaniyeh, containing Edre‘i (Idrisi); but to-day the name has drifted N.E. to the E. of the Lejα. Ar. Bathnah means level, loamy land (Freytag) and suits the region. See HGHL, 549, 553, 570 f. Og] The name ‘Og, LXX Ιώγ and Ὤγ, does not occur except as that of the king of Bashan; the root meaning ‘curved’ or ‘round’ supplies some Ar. geographical names. W. R. Smith (Rel. of the Sem. 83) arguing that in Heb. a king’s name is usually joined with that of his people or of his capital (e.g. Sξḥ ?τn, king of the Amorites, or of Ḥ ?eshbon) and that ‘Τg’s is the only exception, takes ‘Τg ‘who is a mythical figure’ as presumably ‘an old god of the region.’ Edrei] Edre‘i on the S. frontier of Bashan (Deuteronomy 3:10), the Otara‘a of Egyptian inscriptions, Adra of Ptolemy, Adraa of Euseb., now Edhra‘at, Dera‘at or on Bedawee lips ’Azra‘at, a strong site on the S. edge of the gorge that forms the S. limit of Ḥ ?auran, and further entrenched by a tributary ravine. In the rock beneath the walled city, a labyrinth of streets with houses and shops was excavated. That this marvel is not mentioned in the O.T. proves it of later date, and indeed its architecture and inscriptions point to the Greek period: HGHL, 576, ZDPV, xx. 118 ff. On the only possible remains in Bashan of ‘Τg’s time see Driver, Deut., in loco.

1. Bashan — A region celebrated for its oak groves and rich pastures and fine cattle. We find many references to it in the poetical books. Psalms 22:12; Psalms 68:15; Isaiah 2:13; Zechariah 11:2.