Deuteronomychapter 3
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
which the Sidonians call Sirion but the Amorites call Senir—
It stands in Og of Bashan and his iron bedstead, verses 1 to 11.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Og king of Bashan defeated. Sixty cities walled with high walls, gates, and bars; all taken. Og's bedstead of iron. Nine cubits by four. Was still in Rabbath of the children of Ammon. The land east of Jordan given to Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, with the charge that they cross armed before their brethren until all have their inheritance. Moses pleads to cross himself: ‘I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan’. The LORD's answer: ‘speak no more unto me of this matter … get thee up into the top of Pisgah’. Joshua charged; the people will follow him in.
Context
Law · Moses · Deuteronomy overview
The world behind this chapter
Deuteronomy 3The history
Moses speaks as the commander who fought the battle and as the man who divided the ground afterward. The chapter is his record of both, given to the people who received the allotment.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
Bashan was known country. Its soil grew heavy wheat and fattened cattle, and later prophets used its bulls and its oaks as bywords for anything large and well fed. John Gill records that Gilead and Bashan were famous for pasturage, which is why the tribes with much cattle asked for them.
The sixty cities of the Argob region are described with high walls, gates and bars. Albert Barnes records that the stone doors of Bashan survive and that their height points to a people of great stature, and that the deserted cities of that country still stand.
Og's bed is given as nine cubits by four, which John Wesley converts to four and a half yards by two. Albert Barnes reads the iron of it as the black basalt of that country, which carries about twenty percent iron and was itself called iron. The notice works as a museum label, since the thing was still at Rabbah and anyone who doubted could go and look.
Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh asked to stay east of the river because the land suited livestock. The terms Moses set were that their fighting men cross armed ahead of their brothers and stay until the west bank had rest, while the families and herds remained in the towns already taken.
Hermon closes the northern border. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown identify it as Jebel-es-Sheikh, a cluster of peaks almost always under snow, and Albert Barnes records that its Baal sanctuaries made it the religious centre of early Syria and gave it a name before the exodus.
What it meant to them
For the eastern tribes this chapter was their deed and their obligation in one breath. They had their inheritance early, and for that reason they owed the campaign across the river.
For everyone else it was the proof. Two Amorite kings with walled cities had already fallen to them, which is the evidence Joshua is charged on at verse 21.
Sources cited
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament , 1748 to 1763, on Deuteronomy 3:19
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments , 1832 to 1869, on Deuteronomy 3:5, 3:9 and 3:11
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament , 1765, on Deuteronomy 3:11
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible , 1871, on Deuteronomy 3:9
Where the chapter sits
Deuteronomy 3 falls in First sermon, retrospective (chapters 1–4). Moses rehearses the wilderness: Horeb, the spies, the forty years, the defeat of Sihon and Og. ‘Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves.’
After it: Second sermon, the law restated, chapters 5–26.
The whole shape of Deuteronomy→The structure of this chapter
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Og of Bashan and his iron bedstead
1. (vv. 1-3)
Deuteronomy 3:1
“Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan,....”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Deuteronomy 3:1
“It was wonderful that he did not take warning by the ruin of Sihon, and send to desire conditions of peace; but he trusted to his own strength, and so was hardened to his destruction. Note, Those that are not awakened by the judgments of God upon others, but persist in their defiance of heaven, are ripening apace for the like judgments upon themselves, Jer. iii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 3:2
“The Lord said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand--Og's gigantic appearance and the formidable array of forces he will bring to the field, need not discourage you; for, belonging to a doomed race, he is destined to share the fate of Sihon [Nu 21:25].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 3:3
“So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also the king of Bashan, and all his people,.... As well as Sihon king of Heshbon: and we smote him, till none was left to him remaining; or left alive, all were slain with the sword; See Gill on Num 21:35.”
Then we turned and went up: The account runs close to Numbers 21:33-35, down to the words Fear him not and the promise that Og will go the way Sihon went. What Numbers reports as narrative Moses here says in the second person to the children of the men who died in the wilderness, so the battle is being handed over as evidence rather than filed as record. Edrei sat at the southern edge of Bashan, and Og came out to meet Israel in the open field instead of holding his walls.
2. (vv. 4-7)
Deuteronomy 3:4
“Argob was the capital of a district in Bashan of the same name, which, together with other fifty-nine cities in the same province, were conspicuous for their lofty and fortified walls. It was a war of extermination.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:4
“All the region of Argob - כל חבל ארגב col chebel Argob, all the cable or cord of Argob; this expression, which is used in various other parts of Scripture, (see, in the original, Amo 7:17; Mic 2:5; Deu 32:9; Psa 16:6), shows that anciently land was measured by lines or cords of a certain length, in a similar way to that by the chain among us, and the schoenus or cord among the Egyptians. Some think that it was the region of Argob that was afterwards called the region of Trachonites.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 3:5
“All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars,.... That is, all the cities in the kingdom of Bashan; and though they were, it hindered not their falling into the hands of the Israelites; and this might serve to encourage them against those fears they were possessed of by the spies, with respect to the cities in the land of Canaan; see Num 13:28. besides unwalled towns a great many; small towns and villages adjacent to the several cities, as is common.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:5
“Gates, and bars - literally, “Double gates and a bar.” The stone doors of Bashan, their height pointing to a race of great stature, and the numerous cities (deserted) exist to illustrate the statements of these verses.”
Deuteronomy 3:6
“And we utterly destroyed them,.... Not the cities, but the inhabitants of them: as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon; they did not destroy his cities, for they took them and dwelt in them; but the people that lived there, as follows here: utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city; see Deu 2:34.”
Deuteronomy 3:7
“But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities,.... The oxen and sheep, camels and asses; their gold and silver, and the furniture of their houses; their stores of corn, and of other fruits of the earth, even all their substance of whatsoever kind: we took for a prey to ourselves; made them their own property, and used them for their own profit and service, whereby they became greatly enriched.”
Threescore cities fall, all of them fenced with high walls, gates, and bars. The generation that refused the land had reported cities walled up to heaven at Numbers 13:28, and their children take sixty such cities before they reach Jordan. Verse 6 gives the extent of the destruction in plain words, the men, women, and children of every city, on the pattern already set at Heshbon in 2:34, while the cattle and the spoil of the cities were kept.
3. (vv. 8-10)
Deuteronomy 3:8
“And we took at that time out of the hands of the two kings of the Amorites,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:8
“Since he must not live to see the completing of their victory and settlement, God thus gives him a specimen of it. Thus the Spirit is given to those that believe as the earnest of their inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 3:9
“Hermon, the southern and culminating point of the range of Lebanon, was also the religious center of primaeval Syria. Its Baal sanctuaries not only existed but gave it a name before the Exodus. Hence, the careful specification of the various names by which the mountain was known. The Sidonian name of it might easily have become known to Moses through the constant traffic which had gone on from the most ancient times between Sidon and Egypt.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:9
“Hermon--now Jebel-Es-Sheick--the majestic hill on which the long and elevated range of Anti-Lebanon terminates. Its summit and the ridges on its sides are almost constantly covered with snow. It is not so much one high mountain as a whole cluster of mountain peaks, the highest in Palestine.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 3:10
“Salchah - Compare Jos 12:5; 1Ch 5:11, where it is named as belonging to the tribe of Gad. It lies seven hours’ journey to the southeast of Bostra or Bozrah of Moab. As the eastern border city of the kingdom of Bashan it was no doubt strongly fortified. Edrei - Compare Num 21:33 note.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:10
“All Gilead - Gilead is sometimes taken for all the Israelites possessions beyond Jordan, and so it comprehends Bashan; but here for that part of it which lies in and near mount Gilead, and so it is distinguished from Bashan and Argob.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the two kings of the Amorites: The territory is measured by its edges, from the river of Arnon unto mount Hermon, which is the whole eastern side of Jordan taken in one sentence. Verse 9 stops to give the mountain its other names, Sirion among the Sidonians and Shenir among the Amorites, and Psalm 29:6 uses Sirion for it. Albert Barnes points out that Hermon carried Baal sanctuaries and was a religious centre of old Syria, so the aside names a peak readers of several nations would have known under their own word for it.
4. (v. 11)
Deuteronomy 3:11
“In Rabbath - Where it might now be, either because the Ammonites in some former battle with Og, had taken it as a spoil: or because after Og's death, the Ammonites desired to have this monument of his greatness, and the Israelites permitted them to carry it away to their chief city. Nine cubits - So his bed was four yards and an half long, and two yards broad.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:11
“Giants - Or Rephaim: see the marginal reference note. A bedstead of iron - The “iron” was probably the black basalt of the country, which not only contains a large proportion, about 20 percent, of iron, but was actually called “iron,” and is still so regarded by the Arabians. Iron was indeed both known and used, principally for tools (see e. g. Deu 19:5 and compare Gen 4:22 note), at the date in question by the Semitic people of Palestine and the adjoining countries; but bronze was the ordinary metal of which weapons, articles of furniture, etc., were made.”
Deuteronomy 3:11
“To avoid this, some eminent critics take the Hebrew word rendered "bedstead" to mean "coffin." They think that the king of Bashan having been wounded in battle, fled to Rabbath, where he died and was buried; hence the dimensions of his "coffin" are given [DATHE, ROOS].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
(For only Og king of Bashan: Og is called the remnant of giants, the Rephaim, the people Genesis 14:5 places at Ashteroth Karnaim and Genesis 15:20 lists among the nations of the land promised to Abraham. The bedstead is given as nine cubits by four after the cubit of a man, near thirteen feet by six, and the writer sends the reader to Rabbath of the children of Ammon to look at it, which is a claim a reader of the time could go and check. Albert Barnes reads the iron as the black basalt of that country, which carries about a fifth part iron and is still called iron there, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report that Dathe and Roos took the Hebrew word for coffin rather than bed. Whether the measurement gives the man's stature or the size of a royal piece of furniture is where readers have divided, and the verse itself supplies the dimensions and the address and stops.
B. Dividing Gilead and Bashan
1. (vv. 12-13)
Deuteronomy 3:12
“And this land, which we possessed at that time,.... Or took possession of, having conquered it; for it still remained in their possession: from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon: on the borders of Moab, from thence as far as Gilead was the land which was taken from Sihon king of Heshbon, Deu 2:36. and half Mount Gilead, and the cities thereof: which were taken from Og king of Bashan, Deu 3:10. gave I unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites; at their request, on certain conditions to be performed by them, afterwards repeated.”
Deuteronomy 3:13
“And the rest of Gilead,.... The other half of the mount, with the cities belonging to it: and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; see Num 32:33. all the region of Argob, with all Bashan; the region of Trachonitis, in Bashan; see Deu 3:4, which was called the land of giants; or of Rephaim; this Jarchi says is the country of the Rephaim given to Abraham, Gen 15:20.”
The land east of Jordan is parcelled out before the land west of it is entered, and Numbers 32 records the negotiation that produced the arrangement. Reuben and Gad take from Aroer by the Arnon with half mount Gilead, and the half tribe of Manasseh takes the rest of Gilead and all Bashan. Verse 13 adds that Bashan was called the land of giants, the Rephaim of verse 11, so the tribe is settled on ground that carried that name before Israel arrived.
2. (vv. 14-15)
Deuteronomy 3:14
“Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob,.... Or Trachonitis; the small towns belonging to Gilead, as in Num 32:41. unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; these were little kingdoms in Syria, on which the country of Argob bordered, and had kings over them in the time of David, and came not into the possession of the Israelites; see Jos 13:13. and called them after his own name, Bashanhavothjair, unto this day; see Num 32:41.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:14
“These Geshurites held territory adjoining, if not included within, Bashan. They are not to be confounded with those mentioned in Jos 13:2, who were neighbors of the Philistines 1Sa 17:8. The exact position of Maachah like that of Geshur cannot be ascertained; but it was no doubt among the fastnesses which lay between Bashan and the kingdom of Damascus, and on the skirts of Mount Hermon. Unto this day - This expression, like our “until now,” does not, as used in the Bible, necessarily imply that the time spoken of as elapsed is long.”
Deuteronomy 3:15
“I gave Gilead unto Machir--It was only the half of Gilead (De 3:12, 13) which was given to the descendants of Machir, who was now dead.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jair takes the country of Argob out to the borders of Geshuri and Maachathi and puts his own name on it, Bashan-havoth-jair, unto this day. Albert Barnes observes that unto this day fixes no particular length of time and by itself settles nothing about when the sentence was written. Machir receives Gilead through his descendants, since Numbers 32:40 makes the grant to the family, and Judges 10:3-4 later has a second Jair in Gilead with thirty sons and thirty cities under the same name.
3. (vv. 16-17)
Deuteronomy 3:16
“The sense is that the Reubenites and Gadites were to possess the district from the Jabbok on the north to the Arnon on the south, including the middle part of the valley of the Arnon, and the territory (“coast” or “border”) thereto pertaining.”
Deuteronomy 3:17
“The plain - The low country towards Jordan. The sea of the plain - That is, that salt sea, which before that dreadful conflagration was a goodly plain.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The borders are drawn by water, the Arnon on the south, the Jabbok on the line of Ammon, and Jordan running between Chinnereth and the salt sea. Chinnereth is the lake the Gospels call the sea of Galilee, and the salt sea is the Dead Sea, so both ends of this eastern strip are places a modern map still carries. Ashdoth-pisgah closes the list and names the slope Moses is sent up in verse 27.
C. Your families stay; your fighting men cross
1. (vv. 18-20)
Deuteronomy 3:18
“You - Namely, the Reubenites and Gadites. All that are meet - In such number as your our brethren shall judge necessary. They were in all above an hundred thousand.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 3:19
“But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle,.... These were to be left behind: for I know that ye have much cattle; which made the countries of Gilead and Bashan, so famous for pasturage, agreeable to them; see Num 32:1 these, under the care of servants, and also their wives and children: shall abide in your cities which I have given you; and which they rebuilt and repaired, Num 32:34.”
Deuteronomy 3:20
“Until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you,....”
The eastern tribes hold their land on terms, and the terms are that their fighting men cross Jordan armed ahead of their brethren while wives, children and cattle stay behind in the cities already given them. Numbers 32:20-22 is where those terms were struck, and Joshua 22:1-4 is where Joshua discharges the men and sends them home. The word that governs the whole arrangement is rest, until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, which makes one tribe's settlement wait on the nation's.
2. (vv. 21-22)
Deuteronomy 3:21
“And I commanded Joshua at that time,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:21
“We reproach our leader if we follow him trembling. The prayer which Moses made for himself, and the answer which God gave to that prayer. His prayer was that, if it were God's will, he might go before Israel over Jordan into Canaan.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 3:22
“Ye shall not fear them,.... On account of the numbers, strength, courage, and gigantic stature of the inhabitants, at least some of them; nor on account of their walled towns, and fortified cities: for the Lord your God he shall fight for you; as he did, particularly at Jericho, the walls of which city fell at the sound of rams' horns; and at Gibeon, when he cast down hailstones on their enemies, and more were slain by them than with the sword; and in all their battles it was he that gave them success and victory.”
Joshua is charged on the evidence of his own eyes, thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two kings. What happened to Sihon and Og is offered as the sample of what will happen to the kingdoms across the river, so two victories on the east bank become the ground of confidence for the campaign on the west. He shall fight for you repeats what Moses told the people at the sea in Exodus 14:14, and God gives Joshua the same charge himself at Joshua 1:5-9.
D. Let me go over: speak no more of this
1. (vv. 23-25)
Deuteronomy 3:23
“And I besought the Lord at that time,.... When he was told he should die, and Joshua should succeed him; or when the two kings were slain, and their kingdoms conquered; this being the beginning, pledge, and earnest of what God had promised to do for the people of Israel; Moses was very desirous of living to see the work completed, and therefore sought the Lord by prayer and supplication: saying; as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:23
“I besought the Lord - We should allow no desire in our hearts, which we cannot in faith offer unto God by prayer.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 3:24
“O Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand,.... To give a specimen of the greatness of his power in subduing the two kings and their kingdoms, and delivering them up into the hands of the Israelites.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:24
“The prayer of Moses recorded in these two verses, and his own reflections on it, Deu 3:26, are very affecting. He had suffered much both in body and mind in bringing the people to the borders of the promised land; and it was natural enough for him to wish to see them established in it, and to enjoy a portion of that inheritance himself, which he knew was a type of the heavenly country. But notwithstanding his very earnest prayer, and God’s especial favor towards him, he was not permitted to go over Jordan!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 3:24
“Thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness - Lord, perfect what thou hast begun. The more we see of God's glory in his works, the more we desire to see. And the more we are affected with what we have seen of God, the better we are prepared for farther discoveries.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 3:25
“That goodly mountain - i. e., that mountainous district. The fiat districts of the East are generally scorched, destitute of water, and therefore sterile: the hilly ones, on the contrary, are of more tempered climate, and fertilized by the streams from the high grounds. Compare Deu 11:11. The whole of this prayer of Moses is very characteristic.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:25
“Let me go over - For he supposed God's threatening might be conditional and reversible, as many others were. That goodly mountain -Which the Jews not improbably understood of that mountain on which the temple was to be built. This he seems to call that mountain, emphatically and eminently, that which was much in Moses's thoughts, though not in his eye.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Moses asks once, and the prayer rests on what he has already been shown, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness. What God is there in heaven or in earth that can do according to thy works is put as a question, and it carries the request rather than decorating it. What he asks for is sight of the country, let me go over, and see the good land, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon, and Adam Clarke reads the plea as the wish of a man who had carried the people forty years to a border he was to stop at.
2. (vv. 26-27)
Deuteronomy 3:26
“Let it suffice thee - רב לך rab lach, there is an abundance to thee - thou hast had honor enough already, and may well dispense with going over Jordan. He surely has no reason to complain who is taken from earthly felicity to heavenly glory. In this act God showed to Moses both his goodness and severity.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:26
“But how was he wroth with Moses for the sake of Israel? Either, [1.] For that sin which they provoked him to; see Ps. cvi. Or, [2.] The removal of Moses at that time, when he could so ill be spared, was a rebuke to all Israel, and a punishment of their sin.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 3:27
“Get thee up into the top of Pisgah,.... Which was the highest eminence of Mount Nebo, and so a very proper place to take a prospect from; see Deu 32:49. and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward; to all the four points of the heaven, and to all the four quarters and borders of the land of Canaan: and behold it with thine eyes; even the land of Canaan, and particularly Lebanon, though it lay to the north of it, that mountain he had such a desire to see.”
Moses gives the reason he cannot enter three times in this book, at 1:37, here, and at 4:21, and all three times he says the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes. Numbers 20:12 gives the reason in other words, because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, and both accounts stand in the canon together. Let it suffice thee, speak no more unto me of this matter ends the asking, and the sight he wanted is granted on other terms, from the top of Pisgah in every direction, which is where Deuteronomy 34:1-4 finds him at the last.
3. (vv. 28-29)
Deuteronomy 3:28
“But charge Joshua, etc. - Give him authority in the sight of the people, let them see that he has the same commission which I gave to thee. Encourage him; for he will meet with many difficulties in the work to which he is called. And strengthen him - show him my unfailing promises, and exhort him to put his trust in me alone; for he shall go over before this people, and shall cause them to inherit the land; of this let him rest perfectly assured.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 3:29
“So we abode in the valley over against Bethpeor. In the plains of Moab, over against a temple built for Baalpeor upon a mountain, so called from that idol, or that idol from the mountain; this is the valley where Moses was buried, Deu 34:6.”
Three things are laid on Moses for his successor, charge him, encourage him, strengthen him, and the reason attached is that Joshua will cause the people to inherit the land Moses will only see. The chapter closes with the camp in the valley over against Beth-peor, the place where Israel joined itself unto Baal-peor in Numbers 25 and lost twenty and four thousand. Deuteronomy 34:6 puts the grave of Moses in a valley over against Beth-peor, so the ground this long speech is delivered from is the ground the speaker is buried in.
This page carries no textual note on Deuteronomy 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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