 | Devarim |  |
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| | 3:11 |
Of all the Rephaim, only Og had survived. His bed was made of iron. It is in the Ammonite city of Rabbah, nine standard cubits long and four cubits wide.
Ki rak-Og melech haBashan nish'ar miyeter haRefa'im hineh arso eres barzel haloh hi berabat beney Amon tesha amot orkah ve'arba amot rochbah be'amat ish. |
| 3:12 |
Of the land that we then captured, I gave the Reubenites and Gaddites [the territory] between Aro'er on the Arnon Gorge and the [southern] half of the Gilead highlands, along with the cities there.
Ve'et-ha'arets hazot yarashnu ba'et hahi me'Aro'er asher-al nachal Arnon vachatsi har-haGil'ad ve'arav natati la-Re'uveni vela-Gadi. |
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Commentary:
bed
Eres in Hebrew. Or, 'cradle' (Rashbam; HaKethav VeHaKabbalah).
| Rabbah
Cf. Joshua 13:25. Or, Rabbath, cf. 2 Samuel 12:26, Jeremiah 49:2, Ezekiel 21:25 (Targum). This was the capital city of Ammon, some 22 miles east of the Jordan, and 18 miles north of the Dead Sea. In Roman times it was known as Philadelphia (cf. Josephus, Wars 1:6:3), and it is the present Amman, capital of Jordan. The Septuagint translates Rabbah as akra, Greek for a chief city, citadel or extremity.
| standard
Literally, (at the end of the verse), 'the cubit of a [normal] man.'
| and four cubits wide
The bed was thus 13 1/2 ' x 6'. Since a bed is usually one third longer than the person, this would indicate that Og was some 6 cubits or 9 feet high (Moreh Nevukhim 2:47).
| Of the land...
(Saadia; Ramban). Or, 'We thus occupied that land at that time' (Rashi).
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