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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(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.”)

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 3:11. Only Og remained of the remnant of giants — Namely, in those parts; for there were other giants among the Philistines, and elsewhere. When the Ammonites drove out the Zamzummims, mentioned Deuteronomy 2:20, Og might escape, and so be said to be left of the remnant of the giants, and afterward, fleeing to the Amorites, perhaps was made their king, because of his gigantic stature. His bedstead was a bedstead of iron — Bedsteads of iron, brass, and other metals, are not unusual in the warm countries, as a defence against vermin. In Rabbath — 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. Nine cubits —

So his bed was four yards and a half long, and two yards broad.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-11 Og was very powerful, but he did not take warning by the ruin of Sihon, and desire conditions of peace. He trusted his own strength, and so was hardened to his destruction. Those not awakened by the judgments of God on others, ripen for the like judgments on themselves.br>

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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 iron, but was actually called "iron," and is still so regarded by the Arabians. Iron was indeed both known and used, principally for tools (see e. g. Deuteronomy 19:5 and compare Genesis 4:22 note), at the date in question by the Semitic people of Palestine and the adjoining countries; but bronze was the ordinary metal of which weapons, articles of furniture, etc., were made.

The word translated "bedstead" is derived from a root signifying "to unite" or "bind together," and so "to arch" or "cover with a vault." The word may then certainly mean "bier," and perhaps does so in this passage. Modern travelers have discovered in the territories of Og sarcophagi as well as many other articles made of the black basalt of the country.

Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? - Probably after the defeat and death of Og at Edrei the remnant of his army fled into the territory of the friendly Ammonites, and carried with them the corpse of the giant king.

After the cubit of a man - i. e. after the usual and ordinary cubit, counted as people are accustomed to count. Taking 18 inches to the cubit, the bedstead or sarcophagus would thus be from thirteen to fourteen feet long.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants—literally, "of Rephaim." He was not the last giant, but the only living remnant in the trans-jordanic country (Jos 15:14), of a certain gigantic race, supposed to be the most ancient inhabitants of Palestine.

behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron—Although beds in the East are with the common people nothing more than a simple mattress, bedsteads are not unknown. They are in use among the great, who prefer them of iron or other metals, not only for strength and durability, but for the prevention of the troublesome insects which in warm climates commonly infest wood. Taking the cubit at half a yard, the bedstead of Og would measure thirteen and a half feet, so that as beds are usually a little larger than the persons who occupy them, the stature of the Amorite king may be estimated at about eleven or twelve feet; or he might have caused his bed to be made much larger than was necessary, as Alexander the Great did for each of his foot soldiers, to impress the Indians with an idea of the extraordinary strength and stature of his men [Le Clerc]. But how did Og's bedstead come to be in Rabbath, of the children of Ammon? In answer to this question, it has been said, that Og had, on the eve of engagement, conveyed it to Rabbath for safety. Or it may be that Moses, after capturing it, may have sold it to the Ammonites, who had kept it as an antiquarian curiosity till their capital was sacked in the time of David. This is a most unlikely supposition, and besides renders it necessary to consider the latter clause of this verse as an interpolation inserted long after the time of Moses. To avoid this, some eminent critics take the Hebrew word rendered "bedstead" to mean "coffin." They think that the king of Bashan having been wounded in battle, fled to Rabbath, where he died and was buried; hence the dimensions of his "coffin" are given [Dathe, Roos].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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 possession of this country, Deuteronomy 2:20 or that was left when the Amorites took it from the Ammonites; and who having by some means or other ingratiated himself into their affections, because of his stature, strength, and courage, and other qualifications they might discern in him, made him their king:

behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron: his body being so large and bulky, he might think it most proper and safest for him to have a bedstead made of iron to lie upon, or to prevent noxious insects harbouring in it; nor was it unusual to have bedsteads made of other materials than wood, as of gold, silver, and ivory; See Gill on Amos 6:4. Some learned men (r) have been of opinion, that the beds of Typho in Syria, made mention of by Homer (s), refer to this bedstead of Og:

is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? which was the royal city of the Ammonites, in the times of David, 2 Samuel 12:26, now called Philadelphia, as Jerom says (t). This bedstead might be either sent thither by Og, before the battle at Edrei, for safety, or rather might be sold by the Israelites to the inhabitants of Rabbath, who kept it, as a great curiosity:

nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man; a common cubit, so that it was four yards and a half long, and two yards broad. Onkelos renders it, after the king's cubit; and the king's cubit at Babylon, according to Herodotus (u), was larger by three fingers than the common one; such as the cubit in Ezekiel 40:5, which was a cubit and an hand's breadth; and this makes the dimensions of the bedstead yet larger. And by this judgment may be made of the tallness of Og's stature, though this is not always a sure rule to go by; for Alexander, when in India, ordered his soldiers to make beds of five cubits long, to be left behind them, that they might be thought to be larger men than they were, as Diodorus Siculus (w) and Curtius (x) relate; but there is little reason to believe that Og's bedstead was made with such a view. Maimonides observes (y), that a bed in common is a third part larger than a man; so that Og, according to this way of reckoning, was six cubits high, and his stature doubly larger than a common man's; but less than a third part may well be allowed to a bed, which will make him taller still; the height of Og is reckoned by Wolfius (z) to be about thirteen feet eleven inches of Paris measure.

(r) Vid. Dickinson. Delph. Phaenieizant. c. 2. p. 12. (s) Iliad. z. (t) De loc. Heb. fol. 94. C. (u) Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 175. (w) Bibliothec. l. 17. p. 563. (x) Hist. l. 9. c. 3.((y) Moreh Nevochim, par. 2. c. 47. p. 325. (z) Apud Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 3. p. 401.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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 miṭah (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 Ḥauran. 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.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Bashan was of old possessed by a giant race, the Rephaim (Genesis 14:5); but of these Og, King of Bashan, was, at the time of the Israelitish invasion, the sole remnant. His vast size is indicated by the size of his bedstead, which was preserved in Rabbath-Ammon, perhaps as a trophy of some victory obtained by the Ammonites over their gigantic foe. This measured nine cubits in length, and four in breadth, "after the cubit of a man," i.e. according to the cubit in common use. Taking the cubit as equal to eighteen inches, the measure of the bedstead would be thirteen feet and a half by six feet. That Og even approximated to this height is incredible; if he reached nine or ten feet his height would exceed that of any one on record. It is probable, however, that he may have had his bed made vastly larger than himself, partly from ostentation, partly that he might leave a memorial that should impress upon posterity a sense of his gigantic size and resistless might; just as Alexander the Great is said (Died. Sic., 17:95) to have, on his march to India, caused couches to be made for his soldiers in their tents, each five cubits long, in order to impress the natives with an overwhelming sense of the greatness of his host. It has been suggested that it is not a bed that is here referred to, but a sarcophagus of basalt or ironstone in which, it is supposed, the corpse of Og was placed, and which was afterwards carried to Rabbath, and there deposited (J. D. Michaelis, Winer, Knobel, etc.). This implies that the passage is a later insertion, and not part of the original narrative as given by Moses. But with what view could such an insertion be introduced? Not to establish the credibility of the story of the victory of the Israelites over Og, for the existence of a sarcophagus in which a corpse had been placed would only attest the fact that such a one once lived and died, but would prove nothing as to how or when or where he came by his death. Not to show the vast size of the man, for a sarcophagus affords no measure whatever of the size of the person whose remains are placed in it, being an honorary monument, the size of which is proportioned to the real or supposed dignity of the person for whose honor it is made. A bed, on the contrary, which a man had used, or at least had caused to be made for himself, would afford some evidence of his size; and there is an obvious reason for Moses referring to this here, inasmuch as thereby he recalled-to the Israelites the remembrance, on the one hand, of what occasioned the fear with which they anticipated the approach of this terrible foe, and, on the other, of the grace of God to them in that he had delivered Og and all his people into their hand. It is idle to inquire how Moses could know of the existence of this bed at Rabbath; for we may be well assured that from all the peoples through whose territories he had passed reports of the strength and prowess and doings of this giant warrior would be poured into his ear. Deuteronomy 3:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Even in Abraham's time, the giant tribe of Rephaim was living in Bashan (Genesis 14:5). But out of the remnant of these, king Og, whom the Israelites defeated and slew, was the only one left. For the purpose of recalling the greatness of the grace of God that had been manifested in that victory, and not merely to establish the credibility of the statements concerning the size of Og ("just as things belonging to an age that has long passed away are shown to be credible by their remains," Spinoza, etc.), Moses points to the iron bed of this king, which was still in Rabbath-Ammon, and was nine cubits long and four broad, "after the cubit of a man," i.e., the ordinary cubit in common use (see the analogous expression, "a man's pen," Isaiah 8:1). הלה, for הלא, synonymous with הנּה. There is nothing to amaze is in the size of the bed or bedstead given here. The ordinary Hebrew cubit was only a foot and a half, probably only eighteen Dresden inches (see my Archologie, ii. p. 126, Anm. 4). Now a bed is always larger than the man who sleeps in it. But in this case Clericus fancies that Og "intentionally exceeded the necessary size, in order that posterity might be led to draw more magnificent conclusions from the size of the bed, as to the stature of the man who was accustomed to sleep in it." He also refers to the analogous case of Alexander the Great, of whom Diod. Sic. (xvii. 95) affirms, that whenever he was obliged to halt on his march to India, he made colossal arrangements of all kinds, causing, among other things, two couches to be prepared in the tents for every foot-soldier, each five cubits long, and two stalls for every horseman, twice as large as the ordinary size, "to represent a camp of heroes, and leave striking memorials behind for the inhabitants of the land, of gigantic men and their supernatural strength." With a similar intention Og may also have left behind him a gigantic bed as a memorial of his superhuman greatness, on the occasion of some expedition of his against the Ammonites; and this bed may have been preserved in their capital as a proof of the greatness of their foe.

(Note: "It will often be found, that very tall people are disposed to make themselves appear even taller than they actually are" (Hengstenberg, Diss. ii. p. 201). 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).)

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.

(Note: 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.)

"Rabbath of the sons of Ammon," or briefly Rabbah, i.e., the great (Joshua 13:25; 2 Samuel 11:1), was the capital of the Ammonites, afterwards called Philadelphia, probably from Ptolemaeus Philadelphus; by Polybius, Ῥαββατάμανα; by Abulfeda, Ammn, which is the name still given to the uninhabited ruins on the Nahr Ammn, i.e., the upper Jabbok (see Burckhardt, pp. 612ff. and v. Raumer, Pal. p. 268).