And Jehovah said to me, Fear him not; for into thy hand have I given him, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.
Og, king of Bashan, came out with all his people to fight Israel. Before the battle began, God spoke to Moses — and He spoke of it as already won.
The command not to fear is not unique to this moment. One writer traces it across Israel's whole history, and this verse sits inside that chain.
This word meets the ears of the people of God every time they have to do with the enemy. It came in Egypt (Ex. 14:13) and on the edges of the wilderness (Num. 14:9; Num. 21:34; Deut. 1:21; Deut. 3:2, 22; Deut. 7:18; Deut. 20:3; Deut. 31:6, 8). It came in Canaan under Joshua (Joshua 8:1; Joshua 10:8, 25; Joshua 11:6). It came even in the period of ruin which marked the kingdom of Israel (2 Chr. 20:17; 2 Chr. 32:7; Isa. 7:4), and in the period after the exile (Neh. 4:14). And when Israel lay in the "lowest pit" and cried to God in their distress, the Lord answered, "Fear not" (Lam. 3:57).
Og was no ordinary king. He was a giant, ruler of sixty walled cities — the very kind of enemy that had once frightened Israel out of the land altogether. Set beside God, his size counts for nothing.
In all the land of Canaan they could hardly expect to meet an enemy more powerful than Og. His bed was so enormous that Moses gave it special notice. But what was he in the presence of his Almighty Creator? Dwarfs and giants are all alike to Him. The great point is to keep God Himself always before our eyes. Then difficulties vanish.
The tense matters: God says He has given Og over. He announces the outcome as already decided, and Israel's part is to act on it.
Og and his people came out against Israel to battle, just as the ungodly would oppose the truth of the God of glory. The Lord encouraged Moses to have no fear, for He had decreed the defeat of this particular enemy (v.2). As God had promised, so He gave Og and all his people into the hands of Israel. No survivors remained (v.3).
God does not give a new argument; He points back to the last battle. That earlier win becomes the training ground for everything still ahead.
Moses gave these addresses only after two special enemies had been killed, Sihon and Og. The victory over these two enemies held the prediction of further victory in the land (v.4). Israel had been afraid of entering the land before because of such enemies (Og was a giant — Deut. 3:11); now God had given them an object lesson in experience that should encourage them.
Moses retells these battles for a reason. He is laying moral groundwork, and chapter 1 supplies the contrast.
Deuteronomy 1 lets us see the end of disobedience. Deuteronomy 2 and 3 show us just as clearly the result of obedience. Nothing could be more obvious than the moral groundwork Moses is laying for the rest of the book.
The verse promises Og the same end that Sihon met, and Israel left no survivors. Commentators answer this by placing such commands under God's government, not His grace.
The divine instructions about Og king of Bashan were exactly like those given in the previous chapter about Sihon the Amorite. To understand both, we must look at them only in the light of the government of God. That subject is little understood, though it is one of very deep interest and practical importance. We must carefully distinguish between grace and government. When we look at God in government, we see Him displaying His power in righteousness. He punishes evildoers, pours out vengeance on His enemies, overthrows empires, overturns thrones, destroys cities, and sweeps away nations, tribes and peoples. We find Him commanding His people to kill men, women and little children with the sword, to set fire to their houses, and to turn their cities into heaps of ruins.
The same writer refuses to compare this with human conquest. One thing separates them:
Will anyone dare to compare this with the Spanish invasion of South America? There is this grand and all-important difference: Israel had the direct authority of God for what they did to Sihon and Og, and the Spaniards could show no such authority for what they did. That changes the case completely. The introduction of God and His authority is the one perfect answer to every question.
Commentators differ on whether Og stands for something. One reads his name, his fertile land, his pasture-rich city and his monstrous bed together, and identifies him with "the spirit of luxury and effeminacy" — adding, "many a strong man has been cast down by him" (Numerical Bible Notes). Another draws back from the same territory:
Without doubt the cities spoken of here (v.10) are significant from a spiritual point of view, but it may be safer not to attempt an interpretation of this significance.
- Word first. God speaks before the battle. His word not to fear meets His people whenever they face the enemy — from Egypt to the return from exile.
- Gift second. God hands the enemy over before the fighting starts. He had already decreed this defeat, so Israel fights from a settled outcome, not toward one.
- Pattern third. God points back to Sihon. Yesterday's victory becomes today's courage — an object lesson for people who had once feared giants.
- Size irrelevant. Og's giant size counts for nothing against his Creator. Dwarfs and giants are alike to Him, and difficulties vanish when we keep God before our eyes.
- Authority answers. The destruction that follows belongs to God's government, not His grace. Israel's one defence is that God Himself gave the command.
And Jehovah our God gave into our hand Og the king of Bashan also, and all his people; and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.
Moses is retelling Israel's recent history, and the second of two victories won before they entered the land. Og, a giant king with walled cities, came out to fight, and Israel destroyed him. Who really won that battle? Why was the destruction total? And what was a dead giant meant to teach a nation still waiting outside the promised land?
The verse credits the win to God before it mentions a single blow struck by Israel. One writer walks through the sequence and keeps the order intact.
The history of Og's defeat is in Numbers 21:33-35. Moses recounts this. Og and his people came out against Israel to battle, just as the ungodly would oppose the truth of the God of glory. The Lord encouraged Moses to have no fear, for He had decreed the defeat of this particular enemy (v.2). As God had promised, so He gave Og and all his people into the hands of Israel with the result that no survivors remained (v.3).
Moses is not just recording military history. One writer reads these chapters against the chapter before them.
Deuteronomy 1 lets us see where disobedience ends. Deuteronomy 2 and 3 show us just as clearly what obedience leads to. Nothing could be plainer than the moral groundwork Moses is laying for the whole rest of the book.
Og was no ordinary opponent. He belonged to an ancient race of giants and held a kingdom of walled cities — and none of it slowed Israel down.
It had been a war of extermination. Israel cut off every man, woman, and child, and we do not read of one Israelite being wounded (Deut. 2:33-34; 3:6)... Og was one of the Rephaim, an ancient and very powerful race. Yet he found that his walled cities, with their high walls, gates, and bars, could give him no protection against the invading army. Israel spread over his land like a flood that carries everything before it.
"Until he had no survivor left" is the hardest phrase in the verse. One writer says we can understand it only under one heading — God's government, not His grace.
God's instructions about Og king of Bashan were exactly like the ones He gave in the previous chapter about Sihon the Amorite. To understand either of them, we must look at them only in the light of the government of God — a subject few people understand, though it is deeply interesting and practical. We must carefully distinguish between grace and government. When we look at God in government, we see Him showing His power in the way of righteousness. He punishes evildoers. He pours out vengeance on His enemies. He overthrows empires. He topples thrones, destroys cities, and sweeps away nations, tribes and peoples.
Israel's old fear had been giants. Now a giant lay dead.
Moses gave these addresses only after two special enemies had been killed — Sihon and Og. The victory over these two enemies was a prediction of further victory in the land (v.4). Israel had been afraid to enter the land before because of such enemies (Og was a giant — Deut. 3:11). Now God had given them an object lesson in experience that should encourage them.
The victories over Sihon and Og should have been Israel's pledge that every human power Satan used to stop them reaching and possessing their inheritance would be swept away. (Compare Deut. 2:24-25; Joshua 2:9-10; see also Psalms 135 and 136.) ... Fighting enemies outside us is not renouncing self. A sense of deliverance from outward foes does not always come with a sense of deliverance from self. In fact, the rest and ease that follow a victory over the enemy may lead to self-indulgence. Satan is quick to use such a position, and to bring the attractions of the world to bear on that state.
- Promised. God told Moses not to fear before the battle. This verse records that He kept His word: "as God had promised, so He gave."
- Given. God handed the win over; Israel's strength did not win it. Moses points to it as the visible result of obedience.
- Total. "No survivor left" belongs to God's government — His power used in righteousness against evil. Keep that distinct from His grace.
- Unstoppable. A giant king found that high walls, gates and bars gave him no protection. Israel swept over his land like a flood.
- Pledge. The very thing Israel once feared — giants — now lay dead. It was an object lesson that every power set against their inheritance would fall the same way.
And we took all his cities at that time there was not a town which we took not from them, sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
After Og fell, his whole kingdom fell with him. The verse raises two questions: what kind of place Argob was, and why God dealt with it as He did.
Argob was not vague territory. It had fixed borders, a name that fit its ground, and a later place in Israel's history.
A district lying to the south of Damascus which formed a part of Bashan, where the giants lived. It had at one time 60 cities, which Og ruled. Its name means "stony" and it forms a remarkable plateau of basalt, which rises some 30 feet above the surrounding fertile plain. The district runs 22 miles north to south and 14 miles east to west, and its boundary is marked in the Bible by the word chebel, which means "as by a rope." Moses conquered Og, and Jair of Manasseh took the fortified cities, and it became a part of Manasseh's lot. Later it was called Trachonitis.
These sixty cities were no cluster of villages. You can still see what they were built from.
The kingdom of Og in Bashan was a powerful kingdom. The cities had high walls with gates and bars. Their number was sixty. Archaeological research has proven that strong, fortified cities stood in that territory, and their ruins can still be seen. One writer describes the oldest houses and ruined towers of Bashan: "Simple, built of heavy blocks of basalt, cut rough, and as hard as iron, with very thick walls and very strong stone gates and doors. Many of the doors were about eighteen inches thick, and were once fastened with huge bolts, of which traces still remain."
Behind those walls stood an old and powerful people. Against Israel it counted for nothing.
Og, one of the Rephaim, an ancient and most powerful race, found that his fortified cities with high walls, gates, and bars could give him no protection against the invading army. Like a flood, which carries everything before it, Israel had spread over his land. Israel took all his cities. They killed all the inhabitants. They carried off all the cattle and spoil as plunder.
The killing of whole populations raises hard questions. One writer says there is only one right way to read it: as God acting in government, not in grace.
We must look at God's instructions about Og and Sihon purely in the light of the government of God. This subject is little understood, though it is of very deep interest and practical importance. We must accurately distinguish between grace and government. When we consider God in government, we see Him show His power in righteousness and punish evildoers... We find Him commanding His people to kill men, women and little children with the edge of the sword.
The same writer says one fact settles the matter:
Israel had the direct authority of God for what they did to Sihon and Og... The introduction of God and His authority is the one perfect answer to every question, the divine solution of every difficulty.
Israel had once refused to enter the land because of its inhabitants. Taking sixty fortified cities was the answer to that fear, delivered in advance.
Moses gave these addresses only after two special enemies had been killed — Sihon and Og. The victory over these two enemies predicted further victory in the land. Israel had been afraid of entering the land before because of such enemies (Og was a giant — Deut. 3:11); now God had given them an object lesson in experience that should encourage them.
Moses' order of telling carries its own message. Chapter 1 had shown what disobedience costs:
Deuteronomy 1 lets us see the end of disobedience; Deuteronomy 2 and 3 let us know just as clearly the result of obedience.
One writer reads the names of Og's land and cities as a picture of a particular sin:
He is king of Bashan, which means "the fertile," and his strong city is Edrei, "plenty of pasture." He lives in Ashtaroth, a city named after the Phoenician goddess Venus, whose worshippers honoured her with shameful rites... enough, it may be, to identify him with the spirit of luxury and self-indulgence... That this Og is a giant, sadly, we know too well: he has brought down many a strong man.
- Place — Argob was a stony basalt plateau in Bashan. Sixty cities stood there, and the district later fell to Manasseh.
- Strength — Their walls, gates and bars were massive. Ruins of those basalt houses can still be seen.
- Powerlessness — Not one of the sixty held. Walls, gates and bars gave Og no protection at all.
- Authority — This destruction belongs to God's government, not His grace. Israel acted under His direct command, and that sets it apart from ordinary conquest.
- Purpose — Sixty captured cities were an object lesson for a people once too afraid to enter Canaan. Chapter 1 shows the cost of disobedience; chapters 2 and 3 show the result of obedience.
All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides unwalled towns very many.
Moses is retelling how Israel took the kingdom of Og, and he stops to measure the enemy's defences. Why record an enemy's strength in such detail?
The description is not an exaggeration. Ruins in that region still show how strong these cities were.
The kingdom of Og in Bashan was a powerful kingdom. The cities had high walls with gates and bars. Their number was sixty. Archaeological research has proven that strong, fortified cities stood in that territory. Their ruins can still be seen. The oldest houses and ruined towers of Hauran (Bashan) are described in these words: "Simple, built of heavy blocks of basalt, roughly cut, and as hard as iron. The walls are very thick. The stone gates and doors are very strong. Many of them were about eighteen inches thick, and were once fastened with huge bolts. Traces of these still remain."
Writers also describe the district where those cities stood.
A district lying to the south of Damascus which formed a part of Bashan, where the giants resided. At one time it had 60 cities, which Og ruled. Its name means "stony." It is a remarkable plateau of basalt, rising some 30 feet above the fertile plain around it.
The point of listing the walls is what happened to them. Every one of the sixty cities fell, and the fortifications made no difference at all.
Og was one of the Rephaim, an ancient and very powerful race. His fortified cities, with their high walls, gates, and bars, could give him no protection against the invading army. Like a flood that sweeps everything before it, Israel had spread over his land. All his cities were taken.
Commentators read the opening chapters of Deuteronomy as a study in two opposite responses.
Deuteronomy 1 shows us where disobedience ends. Deuteronomy 2 and 3 show us just as clearly what obedience brings. Nothing could be plainer than the moral foundation Moses is laying for the rest of the book.
Faith looks at high walls and measures them against God.
Faith would say: even if the cities are walled up to heaven, our God is above them, for He is in heaven. What are great cities or high walls to Him who made the universe and holds it up by the word of His power?
Bashan was not the last enemy Israel would face.
Og king of Bashan had been conquered and his cities taken, a pledge of the full victory which the Lord would give over the nations of Canaan.
Moses also records the bed of the giant king he defeated.
Moses must have mentioned the bed of the slain giant for a reason. It was to remind the people of the great victory the Lord had given them, and to make them confident about taking the land. The Lord, who overthrew Og, would certainly not fail them when they entered the land and met the enemies there.
Stone walls are not the hardest strongholds to bring down.
To pull down strongholds of stone or iron is easy compared with two other tasks: dismantling strongholds of unbelief and of the powers of darkness, and casting down the empty reasonings of proud, self-satisfied minds that are in the dark. The aim is that the whole soul and mind, and every thought in that mind, is in subjection to God with a glad and ready obedience like the obedience of Christ.
- Counted — Moses measures the enemy's strength first: sixty walled cities, plus many open villages. Then he records that all of it fell.
- Useless — Og's high walls "could give him no protection." Sixty cities, and not one of them held.
- Obeyed — Chapter 1 shows where disobedience ends; chapters 2 and 3 show what obedience yields. The difference is not in the walls but in Israel.
- Pledged — The fall of Bashan was "a pledge of the full victory" waiting in Canaan. Carry the last victory into the next fight.
- Applied — Believers now face strongholds of unbelief and proud reasoning. Stone walls are the easier ones to pull down.
And we utterly destroyed them, as we had done to Sihon the king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every city, men, women and little ones.
Moses looks back at how Israel dealt with the cities of Og, king of Bashan, just as it had dealt with Sihon. The verse raises hard questions: what does "devoted to destruction" mean, and why did God command the killing of women and children?
The phrase translates a specific Hebrew term with a legal history behind it. One writer traces it back to the law of vows, where a thing given over to God in this way could never be bought back:
Here we learn what could be set apart for God in this way. There were two ways to vow living things to Him. A person could consecrate them to Him in life, or, under certain conditions, devote them to Him for ever. This second kind of vow is called cherem. Men, animals and fields could be devoted in this way, and no one could buy them back. For people, such a vow was probably meant only for the enemies of God and of Israel. Their death was the only possible way to fulfil it. The Canaanites are an example of this, as well as the Amorites under Sihon and Og, east of the Jordan.
Commentators place this act under God's government of the world, not His grace. They do not soften what it involved.
The divine instructions about Og king of Bashan matched those given in the previous chapter about Sihon the Amorite. To understand both, we must look at them in the light of the government of God. We must be careful to distinguish between grace and government. When we look at God in government, we see Him displaying His power in righteousness. He punishes evildoers and pours out vengeance on His enemies. He overthrows empires, upturns thrones, destroys cities, and sweeps away nations, tribes and peoples. We find Him commanding His people to kill men, women and little children with the edge of the sword.
Two things stand behind the command: the land these nations held, and the evil they practised.
The races of Canaan occupied the land that the Lord intended for Israel. Nor was that all. They were notoriously vile, most of all the cities of the plain, whose wickedness was not to be named... But the cup of the Amorites became full. The land had become so unclean that the Lord had to visit its iniquity. Then He was pleased to make Israel the executioner of His vengeance. What could be more righteous in itself? What wiser for His people, the destined heirs of it? All unnatural evils as well as idolatries had become their "customs," and Israel had to be kept from them. It was no question of cruelty. Israel was at fault for not wiping them out as completely as the Lord commanded. The ones Israel spared went on to trap and corrupt the chosen people into the same shameful evil.
The killing of children is the hardest part. One writer answers it with questions of his own.
Now the question is: are we competent to understand these ways of God in government? Is it any part of our business to sit in judgment on them? Are we able to unravel the deep and awful mysteries of divine providence? Can we — are we even called to — account for the tremendous fact of helpless babies being caught up in the judgment of their guilty parents? Unbelief may sneer at these things. Unhealthy sentiment may stumble over them. But the true believer, the pious Christian, the reverent student of Holy Scripture will meet them all with one simple, safe and solid question: "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
Moses is not just reporting history. The shape of chapters 1 to 3 carries a lesson.
Deuteronomy 1 lets us see the end of disobedience. Deuteronomy 2 and 3 show us just as clearly the result of obedience. Nothing could be plainer than the moral groundwork Moses is laying for the rest of the book.
The thoroughness of the defeat was itself the encouragement. Israel had once refused the land because of its giants; Og was a giant, and he fell.
Moses gave these addresses only after two special enemies had been killed: Sihon and Og. The victory over these two enemies held the prediction of further victory in the land. Israel had been afraid of entering the land before because of such enemies — Og was a giant. Now God had given them an object lesson in experience that should encourage them.
- Devoted. "Devoted to destruction" translates cherem. It means a thing handed over to God for good, which no one can buy back.
- Government. This command belongs to God's government of the earth, not His grace. In government He punishes evildoers and overturns nations.
- Ripened. The judgment fell only when the sin of these nations was full. Israel carried out a sentence God had passed. This was not a land grab.
- Limits. Commentators answer objections to the killing of women and children with a question, not an explanation. Will the Judge of all the earth not do right?
- Pledge. Chapters 2 and 3 show the result of obedience. The fall of a giant king proved to Israel that the land ahead could be taken.