Moreover, there are still giants who are eight feet high and upwards. “According to the N. Preuss. Zeit. of 1857, there came a man to Berlin 8 feet 4 inches high, and possibly still growing, as he was only twenty years old; and he was said to have a great-uncle who was nine inches taller” (Schultz).</ref>
Moses might then refer to this gigantic bed of Og, which was known to the Israelites; and there is no reason for resorting to the improbable conjecture, that the Ammonites had taken possession of a bed of king Og upon some expedition against the Amorites, and had carried it off as a trophy to their capital.[1]
“Rabbath of the sons of Ammon,” or briefly Rabbah, i.e., the great (Jos 13:25; 2Sa 11:1), was the capital of the Ammonites, afterwards called Philadelphia, probably from Ptolemaeus Philadelphus; by Polybius, Ῥαββατάμανα; by Abulfeda, Ammân, which is the name still given to the uninhabited ruins on the Nahr Ammân, i.e., the upper Jabbok (see Burckhardt, pp. 612ff. and v. Raumer, Pal. p. 268).
verses 12-13
Review of the Distribution of the Conquered Land. - The land which the Israelites had taken belonging to these two kingdoms was given by Moses to the two tribes and a half for their possession, viz., the southern portion from Aroer in the Arnon valley (see at Num 32:34), and half Gilead (as far as the Jabbok: see at Deu 3:10) with its towns, which are enumerated in Jos 13:15-20 and Jos 13:24-28, to the Reubenites and Gadites; and the northern half of Gilead, with the whole of Bashan (i.e., all the region of Argob: see at Deu 3:4, and Num 32:33), to the half-tribe of Manasseh. לכל־הבּשׁן, “as for all Bashan,” is in apposition to “all the region of Argob,” and the ל simply serves to connect it; for “all the region of Argob” was not merely one portion of Bashan, but was identical with “all Bashan,” so far as it belonged to the kingdom of Og (see at v. 4). All this region passed for a land of giants. הקּרא, to be called, i.e., to be, and to be recognised as being.
Verse 14
The region of Argob, or the country of Bashan, was given to Jair (see Num 32:41), as far as the territory of the Geshurites and Maachathites (cf. Jos 12:5; Jos 13:11). “Unto,” as far as, is to be understood as inclusive. This is evident from
- ↑ There is still less probability in the conjecture of J. D. Michaelis, Vater, Winer, and others, that Og's iron bed was a sarcophagus of basalt, such as are still frequently met with in those regions, as much as 9 feet long and 3 1/2 feet broad, or even as much as 12 feet long and 6 feet in breadth and height (vid., Burckhardt, pp. 220, 246; Robinson, iii. p. 385; Seetzen, i. pp. 355, 360); and the still further assumption, that the corpse of the fallen king was taken to Rabbah, and there interred in a royal way, is altogether improbable.
