3:1-7 - Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei. The Lord said to me, "Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon."
So the Lord our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors. At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them— the whole region of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan. All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages. We completely destroyed1 them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city— men, women and children. But all the livestock and the plunder from their cities we carried off for ourselves.
Og has been mentioned in passing the introduction to the book of Deuteronomy in 1:4. Fleshed out now for the first time, nothing in this narrative explains what circumstances led him to engage in battle against Israel.2 For the first time since the command to GenA on the eve of their aborted conquest at Kadesh Barnea (1:21, 29) Israel is commanded, "Do not be afraid . . ." 3:2). The accompanying promise ("for I have given him into your hands") and command ("Do to him what you did to Sihon") is followed by the report of Yahweh's largesse (v4a) and Israel's obedience (v4b-6). Unlike their parents this generation is not afraid, not even when "all the cities were fortified with high walls" (v5; do they reach to the sky?). Neither did the bolted gates stop them. And they did to Og just as they did to Sihon and thus fulfilled Yahweh's promise of comprehensive victory. Og, like Sihon, may march out with "all his people," but Israel "took all his cities," "all of Argob" (v4), "destroyed every city" (v6); she "left no survivors" (v3), and "there was no town that we did not take" (v4). As with the conquest of Sihon's land, even in the one act that might possibly be construed of as contravention of the cherem, the culpability of guilt was again neutralized by the act of explict acknowledgement (v7). For GenB, perched on the edge of a new conquest—the conquest—this recounting serves to remind them again of the power that comes to a people who will trust and abide in Yahweh.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, rev., 2021