Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 3:11
(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.)
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, recounting the completed conquest of the Transjordan plateau, Gilead, and Bashan. He identifies Og as the last surviving ruler of the region to ground the upcoming land division in Deuteronomy 3:12 in verified military fact.
The words — The Hebrew נִשְׁאָר (nish'ar) means "he survived" or "remained," marking Og as the final member of his lineage. The term רַק (rak) translates to "only," isolating him from the rest of the Rephaites who had already been defeated.
The thread — The Rephaites are first recorded as defeated in Genesis 14:5, while the city housing Og's bed, Rabbah of the Ammonites, is later captured in 2 Samuel 12:26 and condemned in Jeremiah 49:2. This verse links a specific historical artifact to a recurring biblical motif of divine judgment against entrenched Transjordanian powers.
Why it lands — The text reports a surviving giant king and a documented iron bed to verify the conquest's reality. It requires the reader to treat the subsequent land allocation as a settled historical transaction rather than a theoretical promise.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.
Cross-references
- Genesis 14:5 In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
- 2 Samuel 12:26 Meanwhile, Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal fortress.
- Jeremiah 49:2 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sound the battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a heap of ruins, and its villages will be burned. Then Israel will drive out their dispossessors, says the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 2:11 Like the Anakites, they were also regarded as Rephaim, though the Moabites called them Emites.
- Deuteronomy 2:20 (That too was regarded as the land of the Rephaim, who used to live there, though the Ammonites called them Zamzummites.
- 1 Samuel 17:4 Then a champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was six cubits and a span in height,
- 2 Samuel 11:1 In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.
- Ezekiel 21:20 Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites, and another against Judah into fortified Jerusalem.
- Amos 1:14 So I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah to consume its citadels amid war cries on the day of battle and a violent wind on the day of tempest.
- Amos 2:9 Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, though his height was like that of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks. Yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below.