신명기 3:11의 유대 사상

Apart from other motivations mentioned in connection with Moses' request to Sichon to allow passage through his land, the purpose of recording it here is to teach future generations that though the request was couched in imperious language, it was peaceful in content. Although G'ds instructions had been to make war, Moses offered Sichon peaceful means of avoiding war without impairing his sovereign existence. The major difference between the approach to Edom and that to Sichon was the use of the word "please" in the request to Edom. Reviewing the total defeat of Sichon and Og, is to underline that during the stewardship of Moses, and in accordance with G'ds promise to him, no remnant of these two nations was to be left. Israel inherited their land by right, there being no survivors who could lay claim to any part of those lands.

What Scripture says about Og, “Behold, his bedstead was an iron bedstead, nine cubits its length,” etc. (Deut.), does not belong to this class of figures, for the bedstead (eres, comp. arsenu, Song of Sol. 1:16) is never exactly, of the same dimensions as the person using it; it is not like a dress that fits round the body; it is always greater than the person that sleeps therein; as a rule, is it by a third longer. If, therefore, the bed of Og was nine cubits in length, he must, according to this proportion, have been six cubits high, or a little more. The words, “by the cubit of a man,” mean, by the measure of an ordinary man, and not by the measure of Og; for men have the limbs in a certain proportion. Scripture thus tells us that Og was double as long as an ordinary person, or a little less. This is undoubtedly an exceptional height among men, but not quite impossible.