Deuteronomy Chapter 3
From The Open Bible Project
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.
- (a) Therefore aside from the commandment of the Lord, they had just cause to fight against him.
3:2 Yahweh said to me, "Don't fear him; for I have delivered him, and all his people, and his land, into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon."
3:3 So Yahweh our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we struck him until none was left to him remaining.
3:4 We took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we didn't take from them; sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
3:5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides the unwalled towns a great many.
- (b) As villages and small towns.
3:6 We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones.
- (c) Because this was God’s appointment, therefore it may not be judged cruel.
3:7 But all the livestock, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves.
3:8 We took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon;
3:9 ([which] Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir;)
3:10 all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
3:11 (For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; isn't it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, after the cubit of a man.)
- (d) The more terrible this giant was, the greater reason they had to glorify God for the victory.
3:12 This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead, and its cities, gave I to the Reubenites and to the Gadites:
3:13 and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, gave I to the half-tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim.
3:14 Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, to this day.)
- (e) Meaning, when he wrote this history.
3:15 I gave Gilead to Machir.
3:16 To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and the border [of it], even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;
- (f) Which separates the Ammonites from the Amorites.
3:17 the Arabah also, and the Jordan and the border [of it], from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.
3:18 I commanded you at that time, saying, "Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it: you shall pass over armed before your brothers the children of Israel, all the men of valor.
- (g) That is, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half Manasseh, as in (Numbers 32:32).
3:19 But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), shall abide in your cities which I have given you,
3:20 until Yahweh gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God gives them beyond the Jordan: then you shall return every man to his possession, which I have given you."
3:21 I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, "Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings: so shall Yahweh do to all the kingdoms where you go over.
- (h) So that the victories did not come by your own wisdom, strength or multitude.
3:22 You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God, he it is who fights for you."
3:23 I begged Yahweh at that time, saying,
3:24 "[5] Lord [See Deuteronomy Footnotes 5] Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness, and your strong hand: for what god is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to your works, and according to your mighty acts?
- (i) He speaks according to the common and corrupt speech of those who attribute power to idols that only belongs to God.
3:25 Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon."
- (k) He means Zion, where the Temple should be built, and God honoured.
3:26 But Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and didn't listen to me; and Yahweh said to me, "Let it suffice you; speak no more to me of this matter.
3:27 Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes: for you shall not go over this Jordan.
- (l) As before he saw by the spirits of prophecy the good mountain which was Zion: so here his eyes were lifted up above the order of nature to behold all the plentiful land of Canaan.
3:28 But commission Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see."
3:29 So we abode in the valley over against Beth Peor.
