Deuteronomy 3:10 Komentář

Moses, in this chapter, relates, I. The conquest of Og, king of Bashan, and the seizing of his country (Deu 3:1-11). II. The distribution of these new conquests to the two tribes and a half (Deu 3:12-17). Under certain provisos and limitations (Deu 3:18-20). III. The encouragement given to Joshua to carry on the war which was so gloriously begun (Deu 3:21, Deu 3:22). IV. Moses's request to go over into Canaan (Deu 3:23-25), with the denial of that request, but the grant of an equivalent (Deu 3:26, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 3 In this chapter the account is carried on of the conquest of the Amorites by Israel, of Og king of Bashan, and his kingdom, Deu 3:1, and of the distribution of their country to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, Deu 1:12 and then the command to the said tribes is observed, to go out armed before their brethren, and assist them in the conquest of the land of Canaan, and then return to their possessions, Deu 3:18 and also that to Joshua not to fear, but to do to the Canaanitish kings and kingdoms what he had seen done to the two kings of the Amorites, Deu 3:21. After which Moses relates the request he made, to go over Jordan and see the good land, which was denied him, only he is bidden to look from the top of an hill to see it, Deu 3:23. And the chapter is closed with the charge he was to give Joshua, Deu 3:28 which was received in the valley where they abode, Deu 3:29.

All the cities of the plain,.... There was a plain by Medeba, and Heshbon and her cities were in a plain, with some others given to the tribe of Reuben, Jos 13:16. and all Gilead; Mount Gilead, and the cities belonging to it, a very fruitful country, half of which fell to the share of the Reubenites, and the rest to the half tribe of Manasseh: and all Bashan; of which Og was king, called Batanea, a very fertile country, as before observed: unto Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan; which seem to be frontier cities of the latter: see Deu 1:4. The former, Adrichomius (p) says, was situated by the city Geshur and Mount Hermon, and was the boundary of the country of Bashan to the north; and according to Benjamin of Tudela (q), it was half a day's journey from Gilead: as Edrei seems to be its boundary to the south. (p) Thestrum Terrae Sanct. p. 94. (q) Itinerar. p. 57.

CONQUEST OF OG, KING OF BASHAN. (Deu. 3:1-20) we turned, and went up the way to Bashan--Bashan ("fruitful" or "flat"), now El-Bottein, lay situated to the north of Gilead and extended as far as Hermon. It was a rugged mountainous country, valuable however for its rich and luxuriant pastures. Og the king of Bashan came out against us--Without provocation, he rushed to attack the Israelites, either disliking the presence of such dangerous neighbors, or burning to avenge the overthrow of his friends and allies.

The different portions of the conquered land were the following: המּישׁר, the plain, i.e., the Amoritish table-land, stretching from the Arnon to Heshbon, and in a north-easterly direction nearly as far as Rabbath-Ammon, with the towns of Heshbon, Bezer, Medeba, Jahza, and Dibon (Deu 4:43; Jos 13:9, Jos 13:16-17, Jos 13:21; Jos 20:8; Jer 48:21.), which originally belonged to the Moabites, and is therefore called "the field of Moab" in Num 21:20. "The whole of Gilead," i.e., the mountainous region on the southern and northern sides of the Jabbok, which was divided into two halves by this river. The southern half, which reached to Heshbon, belonged to the kingdom of Sihon (Jos 12:2), and was assigned by Moses to the Reubenites and Gadites (Deu 3:12); whilst the northern half, which is called "the rest of Gilead" in Deu 3:13, the modern Jebel Ajlun, extending as far as the land of Bashan (Hauran and Jaulan), belonged to the kingdom of Og (Jos 12:5), and was assigned to the Manassite family of Machir (Deu 3:15, and Jos 13:31; cf. v. Raumer, Pal. pp. 229, 230). "And all Bashan unto Salcah and Edrei." All Bashan included not only the country of Hauran (the plan and mountain), but unquestionably also the district of Jedur and Jaulan, to the west of the sea of Galilee and the upper Jordan, or the ancient Gaulonitis (Jos. Ant. xviii. 4, 6, etc.), as the kingdom of Og extended to the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi (see at Deu 3:14). Og had not conquered the whole of the land of Hauran, however, but only the greater part of it. His territory extended eastwards to Salcah, i.e., the present Szalchat or Szarchad, about six hours to the east of Bozrah, south of Jebel Hauran, a town with 800 houses, and a castle upon a basaltic rock, but uninhabited (cf. v. Raumer, Pal. p. 255); and northwards to Edrei, i.e., the northern Edrei (see at Num 21:33), a considerable ruin on the northwest of Bozrah, three or four English miles in extent, in the old buildings of which there are 200 families living at present (Turks, Druses, and Christians). By the Arabian geographers (Abulfeda, Ibn Batuta) it is called Sora, by modern travellers Adra or Edra (v. Richter), or Oezraa (Seetzen), or Ezra (Burckhardt), and Edhra (Robinson, App. 155). Consequently nearly the whole of Jebel Hauran, and the northern portion of the plain, viz., the Leja, were outside the kingdom of Og and the land of Bashan, of which the Israelites took possession, although Burckhardt reckons Ezra as part of the Leja.