Deuteronomy 3:11

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants,.... The meaning seems to be, either that he was the only one that was left of the race of the giants the Ammonites found when they took

For 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?

The other giants of Bashan were destroyed before; and therefore when Og was killed, the Israelites’ work was done. In Rabbath of the children of Ammon; where it might now be, either because the Ammonites in some former-battle with Og had taken it as a spoil; or because after Og’ s death the Ammonites desired to have this monument of his greatness, and the Israelites permitted them to carry it away to their chief city. After the cubit of a man, to wit, of ordinary stature. So his bed was four yards and a half long, and two yards broad.

Deuteronomy 3:11 For 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. Ver. 11. Og, king of Bashan, remained,] sc., In Bashan; and he seems to have been of the remnant of those Rephaims, whom Chedorlaomer and his company smote in Ashteroth. Is it not in Rabbath?] Kept for a monument of so mighty and massy a man. The Jews fable that he escaped in the flood by riding astride on the ark!

(11) Of the remnant of giants—i.e., of the nation of Rephaim in these parts. (See Note on Genesis 14:5.) His bedstead.—The word may mean either bedstead or coffin. Both the word for “bedstead” and the word for “iron” have given rise to some discussion and difficulty. An iron bedstead and an iron coffin are almost equally improbable. Basalt has been suggested as an alternative. But though there is basalt in Argob, there is none in Rabbath-Ammon. Conder, who has recently explored Rabbath, has discovered a remarkable throne of stone on the side of a hill there, and he suggests that the Hebrew word rendered “bedstead,” which properly signifies a couch with a canopy, may apply to this. The word for “iron” (barzîl) in Talmudical language means also “a prince,” and this meaning has been suggested for the name Barzillai, which we find in the same district in later times. “His canopied throne was a princely one, and yet remains in Rabbath of the Ammonites,” would be the meaning of the passage, on this hypothesis. The dimensions of the throne recently discovered are said to be nearly those given in this verse. After the cubit of a man-Ish (not adam) the distinctive and emphatic word for a man. Some think that the cubit of any man is meant; others that the man himself for whom it was made, viz., Og, is intended. (Comp. Revelation 21:17, “according to the measure of a man—i.e., of an angel.”)

Verse 11. Og king of Bashan remained] Og was the last king of the Amorites; his kingdom appears to have taken its name from the hill of Bashan; the country has been since called Batanaea. Remnant of giants] Of the Rephaim. See on Deuteronomy 2:10-11. His bedstead was - of iron] Iron was probably used partly for its strength and durability, and partly to prevent noxious vermin from harbouring in it. Is it not in Rabbath, of the children of Ammon?] The bedstead was probably taken in some battle between the Ammonites and Amorites, in which the former had gained the victory. The bedstead was carried a trophy and placed in Rabbath, which appears, from 2 Samuel 12:26, to have been the royal city of the children of Ammon. Nine cubits was the length - four cubits the breadth] Allowing the bedstead to have been one cubit longer than Og, which is certainly sufficient, and allowing the cubit to be about eighteen inches long, for this is perhaps the average of the cubit of a man, then Og was twelve feet high. This may be deemed extraordinary, and perhaps almost incredible, and therefore many commentators have, according to their fancy, lengthened the bedstead and shortened the man, making the former one-third longer than the person who lay on it, that they might reduce Og to six cubits; but even in this way they make him at least nine feet high. On this subject the rabbins have trifled most sinfully. I shall give one specimen. In the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel on Numbers 21:33-35, it is said that "Og having observed that the camp of the Israelites extended six miles, he went and tore up a mountain six miles in its base, and put it on his head, and carried it towards the camp, that he might throw it on the Israelites and destroy them; but the word of the Lord prepared a worm, which bored a hole in the mountain over his head, so that it fell down upon his shoulders: at the same time his teeth growing out in all directions, stuck into the mountain, so that he could not cast it off his head. Moses, (who was himself ten cubits high,) seeing Og thus entangled, took an axe ten cubits long, and having leaped ten cubits in height, struck Og on the ankle bone, so that he fell and was slain." From this account the distance from the sole of Og's foot to his ankle was thirty cubits in length! I give this as a very slight specimen of rabbinical comment. I could quote places in the Talmud in which Og is stated to be several miles high! This relation about Og I suppose to be also an historical note added by a subsequent hand.

11. Archaeological Note. ‘Ôg was the last survivor of the Repha‘îm (see on Deuteronomy 1:28). Bedstead, rather sarcophagus, for though the Heb. ‘eres elsewhere means couch, its synonyms miṭ ?ah (2 Samuel 3:31) and mishkab (Isaiah 57:2; Ezekiel 32:25) are used for bier and tomb (the latter too in Phoen.), and the monumental character of this ‘eres proves it to have been the same. Iron, rather basalt; I have often heard basalt called iron in Ḥ ?auran. The cubit of a man: the ordinary cubit, originally the length of the lower arm; later there was also a longer cubit (Ezekiel 40:5; Ezekiel 43:13). Taking it as about 18 in., ‘Ôg’s coffin was 13½ ft by 6. Some sites in E. Palestine are strewn with stone-coffins, e.g. Umm Keis, usually 7 to 8 ft by 2½ to 4. That of Eshmunazar, the Sidonian, Isaiah 7 by 4; ‘Hiram’s Tomb’ Isaiah 12 by 6. Cp. Doughty, Ar. Des. i. 18, on marble sarcophagi near Es-Salt, ‘little less than the bed of Og,’ and Cl. Ganneau, Arch. Res. ii. 233.

Giants - Or Rephaim: see the marginal reference note. A bedstead of iron - The “iron” was probably the black basalt of the country, which not only contains a large proportion, about 20 percent, of

11. Only Og… remained of the… giants — In Abraham’s time the Rephaim were living in Bashan. Genesis 14:5. His bedstead was… of iron — It has been suggested that this was a sarcophagus of basalt.