Bible Discussion Thread

This chapter retells the taking of Bashon and conquering Og, a Rephaim giant and king of the region, perhaps even peoples over the Jordan as well.

Numbers 21 says that the people of Moab served the idol Chemosh (which is the same as Molech) which involved sacrificing children by passing them through fire to be burned at the idol statue of Chemosh. This idol statue was huge, perhaps because the people of this area were giants and Sihon and Og even bigger giants than those further mixed with normal people and giants. The text in verse 29 says that this idol, Chemosh had failed the Moabites and given many of the sons and daughters of the leaders of Moab over to be slaves of Sihon, who had defeated the king of Moab and taken the land from the Moabites. The Moabites had turned away from the true God to hideous idols.

After taking all of the land and destroyed the cities and people of the kingdom of Sihon, the LORD leads the people to take over the land of Bashan of Og. First, they sent out spies to look over the land strategically. As they marched towards Og's stronghold, Og came out against them with all of his people. The land was known as the Valley of giants, so most likely most of the people of Bashan were giants. God promised Moses that they would do to Og what they did to Sihon, king of the giant Amorites. Moses lead Israel into battle and smote Og and his sons, and all the people until none were left alive, taking all the fortified cities, leaving no inhabitants alive. Again, they kept the cattle for themselves along with all the spoil of the cities. They took possession of the land of Bashan.

After explaining the boundaries and various areas of the land east of the Jordan that the Israelites now possessed, it is said that Og was the last of the Raphaim. There still were many giants in the land of Canaan, but it seems that Sihon and Og may have been two of the original Raphaim that emerged post flood, from whom the giants descended.