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.