‘ And the border of Og king of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, who dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, and ruled in Mount Hermon and in Salecah and in all Bashan to the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.'
“And the border of” finalises the description of Sihon's kingdom as ending where Og's kingdom started and the area of Og's kingdom is now described. He was of the remnant of the Rephaim, who could be compared in stature to the Anakim (Deuteronomy 2:21). Bashan was called ‘the land of the Rephaim' (Deuteronomy 3:13). These races of unusually large men were held in awe by their contemporaries. The name Rephaim was later applied to the ghosts of the dead which suggests that they might have been looked on by some as coming from a source that was ‘other worldly' (compare the comparison of the Anakim with the Nephilim - Numbers 13:33). They did, however, suffer defeat at the hands of Chederlaomer (Genesis 14:5) and were not looked on as anything extraordinary by God (Genesis 15:20).
They were called the Emim by the Moabites (Deuteronomy 2:10-11) who seemingly either drove them out of Moab, or destroyed them, as the Ammonites destroyed the related Zamzummim (Deuteronomy 2:20-21). The valley of Rephaim near Jerusalem witnesses to their presence there at one time. While tall they were clearly not powerful as was often the case with over tall men, although there were always exceptions. Og's basalt sarcophagus was no direct indication of the size of the man (Deuteronomy 3:11-12) although it may have affected people's views about him afterwards. In the present day we can partially compare the Zulus.
Og ruled over the northern half of Gilead to the Yarmuk, and over Bashan which is north of the Yarmuk to the foot of Mount Hermon, and bounded on the west by the territory of the Geshurites and the Maacathites (Joshua 13:11; Deuteronomy 3:14). He had palaces in Ashtaroth and Edrei. He also ruled Mount Hermon territory and Salecah. Salecah was seemingly a semi-independent border city (Joshua 13:11; Deuteronomy 3:10 makes clear it was a city) under his rule. It may be modern Salhad, on a southern spur of the Hauran.
Ashtaroth was presumably a centre for the worship of the Canaanite goddess Ashtaroth and is probably Tell Ashtarah thirty kilometres (eighteen miles) east of the Sea of Galilee (Chinneroth). It is also probably to be identified with the ‘strt' of the records of Tuthmosis III, the ‘astarte' of the Amarna letters and the ‘astartu' of Assyrian inscriptions. Edrei is probably modern Der‘a. It occupies a key point for communications in the Bashan area and has remains dating from the early bronze age. Bashan as a whole was famous for good pasturage (Micah 7:14), fat cattle (Ezekiel 39:18) and strong oaks (Isaiah 2:13).