Og

Og is the king of Bashan whose defeat secured Israelite possession of his kingdom and its cities east of the Jordan. The narrative places him among the rulers who confronted Israel and emphasizes both the scale of his territory and the completeness of his defeat.

King of Bashan

Og ruled Bashan, a region described through its cities and the surrounding land. When Israel turned toward Bashan, he went out with all his people to fight at Edrei. The account identifies him as a king who met Israel in battle rather than allowing its advance to pass unopposed.

Defeat and Territorial Consequences

Before the battle, God told Moses not to fear Og and declared that Og, his people, and his land had been delivered into Israel’s hand. Israel then defeated Og and his forces, leaving no survivors among his people, and took possession of the land.

The conquest extended beyond a single battlefield. Israel captured all sixty fortified cities of the region of Argob, described as having high walls, gates, and bars, as well as many unwalled towns. The account says that the cities and their inhabitants were destroyed and that the livestock and other spoil were taken. It summarizes the resulting territory as Bashan and the lands reaching from the Arnon valley toward Mount Hermon.

The Measure of Og

A brief detail sets Og apart from the other conquered rulers: he alone remained of the remnant of the Rephaim, and his iron bedstead was preserved as a measure of his extraordinary size. The text gives its dimensions as nine cubits long and four cubits wide, and locates it at Rabbah, among the Ammonites. This notice turns Og’s defeat into a remembered encounter with a ruler whose physical distinction survives in the account even after his kingdom has been taken.

Place in Israel’s Territorial Memory

The conquest of Og is paired with the earlier defeat of Sihon as the basis for Israel’s possession of territory east of the Jordan. The land taken from the two Amorite kings was assigned among the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh; those eastern groups were also instructed to cross armed with the rest of Israel until their fellow Israelites had received their own inheritance. Og’s defeat therefore functions both as a military victory and as part of the narrative explanation for the eastern tribes’ settlement.