Verse 1
Chapter three is a continuation of Moses' historical prologue, which is the principle feature of his first address. The slaughter of Og king of Bashan and his people is recounted, along with an interesting comment on the size of Og's bed. The territories of the two defeated kings were distributed among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and Moses specifically reminded the tribes settling east of the Jordan that they were solemnly obligated to give themselves unreservedly to the conquest of the rest of Canaan.
Moses then spoke of his prayer to God for permission to enter the Promised Land and of the fact that God denied his request but did allow him to view it from afar before his death. At the same time, God ordered the commissioning of Joshua to lead the people over Jordan. All of these matters are mentioned in Numbers, some in less detail, some in more, and it is a hopeless task to seek out the exact synchronization of these accounts, due to human ignorance of many of the place-names, and also to a number of inferences by the speaker which were clear enough to the Israelites but which, here and there, leave us somewhat in the dark.
"Then we turned, and went up by the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, unto battle at Edrei. And Jehovah said unto me, Fear him not; for I have delivered him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon. So Jehovah our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining. And we took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we took not from them; threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan."
The defeat of those two mighty kings, Og and Sihon, was a tremendous event in Israelite history. This twin victory delivered all of Trans-Jordania into the hands of Israel, securing both their rear and their right flank against any military operation whatever. Also, the total amount of the cattle and the spoil of all those cities amounted to an almost incredible store of wealth for Israel. They never forgot these great victories nor the means by which they had won, not in their own power, but in the power of God. They always gave God the full credit for these mighty victories, as witnessed by the hymnology of the nation:
I know that Jehovah is great,
And that our Lord is above all gods.
...
Who smote many nations,
And slew mighty kings,
Sihon king of the Amorites,
And Og king of Bashan,
And all the kingdoms of Canaan.
(Also see a similar passage in Psalms 136:17-21.)
Blair gives the following neat summary of how the extensive territories of Sihon and Og were distributed:
"The conquered territories were assigned to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Reuben received the southern half of Sihon's kingdom, and Gad received the northern half; and the half-tribe of Manasseh received the kingdom of Og."[1]
"Battle at Edrei ..." This stronghold was apparently about halfway between the southern boundary of Og's domain and Mount Hermon in the north. "It was a city located on one of the tributaries of the Yarmuk, and was apparently one of the royal residences of Og."[2] This army of Israel which slaughtered these kings and all of their subjects was actually one of the most terrible military forces ever to appear in human history. They took no prisoners, but slaughtered man, woman, and child without mercy. They did this, of course, under divine orders, and, in this, we are able to read the utter abhorrence in which God beholds sin. When Israel relented in this policy and absorbed rather than destroyed the conquered peoples, they soon were corrupted by their pagan subjects, being seduced by their gods. When this happened, Israel lost "their land," and were removed from their status of being "God's chosen people." They themselves, in turn, suffered the same fate that they had at first imposed upon others.
"All the region of the Argob ..." "Some think that it was this region of the Argob that was later called Trachonitis."[3] This was that portion of Palestine of which Herod Philip was tetrarch at the beginning of Jesus' ministry (Luke 3:1).
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