11. only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of
giants--literally, "of Rephaim." He was not the last giant, but the
only living remnant in the trans-jordanic country
(Jos 15:14),
of a certain gigantic race, supposed to be the most ancient inhabitants
of Palestine.
behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron--Although beds in the
East are with the common people nothing more than a simple mattress,
bedsteads are not unknown. They are in use among the great, who prefer
them of iron or other metals, not only for strength and durability, but
for the prevention of the troublesome insects which in warm climates
commonly infest wood. Taking the cubit at half a yard, the bedstead of
Og would measure thirteen and a half feet, so that as beds are usually
a little larger than the persons who occupy them, the stature of the
Amorite king may be estimated at about eleven or twelve feet; or he
might have caused his bed to be made much larger than was necessary, as
Alexander the Great did for each of his foot soldiers, to impress the
Indians with an idea of the extraordinary strength and stature of his
men [LE
CLERC].
But how did Og's bedstead come to be in Rabbath, of the
children of Ammon? In answer to this question, it has been said, that
Og had, on the eve of engagement, conveyed it to Rabbath for safety. Or
it may be that Moses, after capturing it, may have sold it to the
Ammonites, who had kept it as an antiquarian curiosity till their
capital was sacked in the time of David. This is a most unlikely
supposition, and besides renders it necessary to consider the latter
clause of this verse as an interpolation inserted long after the time
of Moses. 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].
JFB.
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