According to several books of the Old Testament, Og (pronounced /ɒg/, /ɑg/, or /ɔːg/; meaning "gigantic") was an ancient Amorite king of Bashan who, along with his sons and army, was slain by Moses and his men at the battle of Edrei (probably modern day Dara, Syria). Scholars are divided as to the approximate date of Og's overthrow and indeed the conquest of Canaan by Israel, but most postulate c. 1500 or 1200 B.C. as the most likely candidates. Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh, but not Old Testament, because it does not recognize the concept of a New Testament. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... Amorite (Hebrew ’emōrî, Egyptian Amar, Akkadian Tidnum or AmurrÅ«m (corresponding to Sumerian MAR.TU or Martu) refers to a Semitic people who occupied the country west of the Euphrates from the second half of the third millennium BC, and also the god they worshipped (see Amurru). ... Bashan (meaning light soil) is a biblical place first mentioned in Genesis 14:5, where it is said that Chedorlaomer and his confederates smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth, where Og the king of Bashan had his residence. ... Moses or Móshe (מֹשֶׁה, Standard Hebrew Móše, Tiberian Hebrew Mōšeh, Arabic موسى Musa, Spanish Moisés, Ethiopic ሙሴ Musse) was a son of Amram and his wife, Jochebed, a Levite. ... Dara (fortress, compare Dura-Europos) was a Byzantine fort in Syria. ... For other uses, see Canaan (disambiguation). ...

Og, the giant of the Amorites, is equally considered a folk legend, around whom gathered many Jewish legends: according to some traditions he lived to be 3,000 years and strolled behind Noah's ark during the Deluge. In Islamic lore he is referred to as 'Uj ibn 'Unk, meaning Og of the Neck, evidently one of the Jabbarun (giants) mentioned in the Qur'an (sura v.25). The mythology and legends of many different cultures include mythological creatures of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. ... A painting by the American Edward Hicks (1780–1849), showing the animals boarding Noahs Ark two by two. ... The Deluge by Gustave Doré The story of a Great Flood sent by God or the gods to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution is a widespread theme in myths. ... Islam (Arabic: ; ( (help· info)), submission (to the will of God) is a monotheistic faith and the worlds second-largest religion. ... The Qurān (Arabic: recitation), also transliterated as Quran, Koran, and less commonly as Alcoran, is the holy book of Islam. ...

An Amorite king

Og is first mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy, specifically the 1st and 3rd chapters. He was an Amorite, not unlike his neighbor Sihon of Heshbon, of whom Moses had previously conquered at the battle of Jahaz. He ruled a very considerable and fertile land, which extended from the fork of the Yarmuk river to the undefined basaltic lands of Hauran to the east. Bashan, which contained some "sixty walled cities" with great bars and gates and many unwalled towns, had capitols at Ashtaroth and Edrei in the region of Argob. Being an Amorite, he undoubtedly embraced the customs and clothing of his people. Perhaps he stylized the full beard, shaved upper lip, and colorfully woven tunics so accustomed to many Amorite Kings who resided at the ancient center of Mari. His Capitol at Ashtaroth was also a worship center to the fertility goddess, and this city is probably modern Tell Ashareh an existing 70-foot mound. Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible. ... The Bible describes that as the Israelites in their Exodus came to the country east of the Jordan, king Sihon of the Amorites refused to let them pass through his country. ... Heshbon was a town in Ancient Israel. ... Wady Mandhur is one of the two main tributaries which enter the Jordan River between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. ... The Hauran refers to the southern region of modern-day Syria. ... ‘Ashtart, commonly known as Astarte (also Hebrew or Phoenician עשתרת, Ugaritic ‘ttrt (also ‘Attart or ‘Athtart), Akkadian dAs_tar_tú (also Astartu), Greek Αστάρτη (Astártê)), was a major northwest_Semitic goddess, cognate in name, origin, and functions with the east-Semitic goddess Ishtar. ... Argob, a region located east of the Jordan River, on an island of rock which was approximately 20 miles by 30 miles, and rose 20 or 30 feet above the table-land of Bashan. ... The Mari (also known as Cheremis in Russian and ÇirmeÅŸ in Tatar) are a Volga-Finnic people in the Volga area, the natives of Mari El, Russia. ...

Battle with Israel

According to the account in Exodus, Moses asked permission to pass through his territory but Og refused to allow this, and instead marched toward the people of Israel and pitched the battle at Edrei nearly 18 miles southeast of Ashtaroth where he met their resistance and his ultimate fate. Deut. 3:1-13 mentions the capture of his land by Moses and proclaimed that they slew every man, woman, and child of his cities and took the spoil for their bounty. Evidently the land of Bashan was famous for its prize cattle; oak groves and Lions also once roamed the area in ancient times. Og's kingdom was given to the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh (Num. 21:32-35; Deut. 3:1-13). Og's destruction is chanted in ballads of praise and song in (Ps. 135:11; 136:20) as one of many great victories for the nation of Israel. In the book of Amos 2:9 there seems to be a symbolic reference to Og as "The Amorite" whose height was like the height of the cedars and whose strength was like the Oaks. Exodus is the second book of the Torah (the Pentateuch) and also the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), and the Christian Old Testament. ... Cedars is: The name of a Virginia mansion, headquarters of The Fellowship Foundation. ...

A remnant of the Rephaim

In Deut. 3:11 and later in the book of Numbers and Joshua, Og is pronounced as the last of the Rephaim. Rephaim is a Hebrew word for Giants and that is exactly how king Og is described. Deut. 3:11 declares that his bedstead of iron is "nine cubits in length and four cubits in width", according to the standard cubit of a man. It goes on to say that in the royal city of Rabbah of the Ammonites, his bedstead could still be seen as a novelty in those days. All of this was written to affirm any doubts that he was indeed a gigantic man and feared by many. A better translation of his "bedstead" could be a "coffin" or "sarcophagus" and "iron" might refer to the fact that it was carved out of "ironstone" or a black Basalt which is common to that region. The "standard cubit of a man" likely refers to the ancient Hebrew common cubit of 17.5 inches in length - this would mean that his "bedstead" was over 13 feet in length and 6 broad. Some have hypothesized that Og was perhaps as tall as 12 feet, allowing an extra foot for clearance, but that conclusion is based solely on the length of the man's bedstead. Some sources say Og was taller than the wall Kotel. "Now, Moses was ten amot (15 feet) tall. He took a hammer ten amot long, jumped up ten amot and swung the hammer at Og's ankles, killing him." This entry incorporates text from Eastons Bible Dictionary, 1897, with some modernisation. ... Hebrew (עִבְרִית ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel with the West Bank, the United States, and Jewish communities around the world. ... The mythology and legends of many different cultures include mythological creatures of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. ... For the unit of information, see qubit Cubit is the name for the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian units of measure. ... This entry incorporates text from Eastons Bible Dictionary, 1897, with some modernisation. ... For the extinct mollusc see Ammonite. ... Basalt Basalt is a common gray to black volcanic rock. ...

Og in extrabiblical literature

Og is also the name of a cake or bread baked in ashes.

Links

• Jewish Encyclopedia: Og (section on Og in Rabbinical literature)
• Sihon, Amorite king.