The high green tableland of Bashan in spring, strewn with black volcanic stones, cattle grazing far off and the snowy shoulder of Mount Hermon on the horizon.

The Book of

Deuteronomy 3

The giant king of Bashan falls, the land east of the Jordan is shared out, and Moses asks God for the one thing he cannot have.

29 verses≈ 6 min3 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–4Remember the wayFrom Horeb to MoabChapter 3
5–11Love the LORDThe heart of the covenant
12–26Laws for the landWorship, justice, neighbor
27–30Blessing and curseChoose life
31–34Moses' farewellA song, a blessing, a death

The Defeat of Og

Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his whole army came out to meet us in battle at Edrei. But the LORD said to me, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, along with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”

So the LORD our God also delivered Og king of Bashan and his whole army into our hands. We struck them down until no survivor was left.

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We devoted them to destruction, as we had done to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city.

But all the livestock and plunder of the cities we carried off for ourselves.

At that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites the land across the Jordan, from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon— which the Sidonians call Sirion but the Amorites call Senir— all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilead, and all of Bashan as far as the cities of Salecah and Edrei in the kingdom of Og.

(For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

Stylised map · locations approximate

Where it happened

Two kings east of the Jordan

Sihon ruled the tableland from Heshbon; Og ruled Bashan, and met Israel at Edrei. Israel took their land from the Arnon to Mount Hermon, and Moses gave it to Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh. Og’s iron bed was kept at Rabbah, the Ammonite city (modern Amman). Edrei’s site is probable, not certain.

Question

Quick question

At Kadesh the people had refused to go up because the cities had walls ‘up to the heavens’. Here their children met the same kind of cities in Bashan.

How many of Og’s cities did Israel capture?

Land Division East of the Jordan

So at that time we took possession of this land. To the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the land beyond Aroer along the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead, along with its cities.

To the half-tribe of Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og. (The entire region of Argob, the whole territory of Bashan, used to be called the land of the Rephaim.) Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. He renamed Bashan after himself, Havvoth-jair, by which it is called to this day.

To Machir I gave Gilead, and to the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead to the Arnon Valley (the middle of the valley was the border) and up to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites. The Jordan River in the Arabah bordered it from Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) with the slopes of Pisgah to the east.

At that time I commanded you: “The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor are to cross over, armed for battle, ahead of your brothers, the Israelites. But your wives, your children, and your livestock—I know that you have much livestock—may remain in the cities I have given you, until the LORD gives rest to your brothers as He has to you, and they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then each of you may return to the possession I have given you.”

At dawn beside stone sheepfolds below a small walled town in Gilead, women, children and old men stand with the flocks, seen from behind, watching a long file of men walk away west toward the Jordan valley.

Deuteronomy 3:21–22

Reflect

He will fight for you

Moses told Joshua to look back before he looked ahead: “Your own eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings.” Then came the word for everything still to come: “Do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God Himself will fight for you.” What are you facing that you have been trying to fight alone? Write it down, and then write one thing God has already done for you that you can remember when you face it.

Moses Forbidden to Cross the Jordan

Moses

At that time I also pleaded with the LORD: “O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your greatness and power to Your servant. For what god in heaven or on earth can perform such works and mighty acts as Yours? Please let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that pleasant hill country as well as Lebanon!”

But the LORD was angry with me on account of you, and He would not listen to me.

God

“That is enough,” the LORD said to me. “Do not speak to Me again about this matter. Go to the top of Pisgah and look to the west and north and south and east. See the land with your own eyes, for you will not cross this Jordan.

From the bare ridge of Pisgah at evening, the Jordan valley far below with its green thread of river and the oasis of Jericho, and the hills of Canaan rising beyond into golden haze.

Joshua, a strong gray-bearded man in plain wool, seen from behind and to the side at the edge of the camp on the plains of Moab at dusk, looking west across the Jordan to the dark hills of Canaan.

But commission Joshua, encourage him, and strengthen him, for he will cross over ahead of the people and enable them to inherit the land that you will see.”

So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

0:13

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

When God says no

Moses asked to cross the Jordan and see the good land, and God said, “That is enough.” He did not leave Moses empty, though. He let him see the land from Pisgah, and gave him one more task: “commission Joshua, encourage him, and strengthen him.” Bring God a request He has not granted, and ask for the grace to trust Him with it. Then pray for the people who will carry on what you have begun, and ask how you can strengthen them.

From Horeb to Moab

Whiteboard

Forty years in six steps, and the same God at every one. Israel left Horeb for the land, refused it at Kadesh, wandered until that generation was gone, passed by the lands God had given Esau, Moab and Ammon, and saw Him give them Sihon and Og. Now they wait at the river: “So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth-peor.”

You’ve experienced

Deuteronomy 3

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A verse to carry with you

Do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God Himself will fight for you.

Deuteronomy 3:22

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