Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.
We turned, and want up the way to Bashan (cf. Numbers 21:33-35). Bashan-fruitful or flat-now El-Bottein, lay situated to the north of Gilead, and extended as far as Hermon. It was a rugged, mountainous country, valuable, however, for its rich and luxuriant pastures.
Og the king of Bashan came out against us. Without provocation, he rushed to attack the Israelites, either disliking the presence of such dangerous neighbours, or burning to avenge the overthrow of his friends and allies.
At Edrei. It was in the western side of Argob, and about midway between its northern and southern limits, that the capital city, the city of Edrei, at a distance of scarcely more than 300 yards from the plain, was built, actually among the black basalt rocks, on a promontory which projects from the south west corner of the Lejjah, and thus held a very strong position. The Rephaim, no doubt, considered all their cities to be of such extraordinary strength that none but a very powerful army could take them. But these cries of Argob, above all, were deemed utterly impregnable. The children of Israel, it seems, were permitted to advance a long way across the plain of Bashan before they met with any determined resistance. They may, indeed, have had skirmishes with Og's people; but, at all events, no account of any pitched battle is given. On the contrary, the Rephaim, probably, like most people who build strong places, liked fighting behind walls, and preferred engaging the invading army within the rocks of Argob, where, if they once became entangled, they might be harassed with impunity, to meeting them in battle in the open field. And, besides, however lightly they may before have been inclined to treat this Hebrew army, now, since the conquest of the Amorites, they must have felt some fear of them.
The Israelites still continued their march northward until they found themselves before the capital, Edrei. 'Had Og remained within the city, humanly speaking, it would have been impossible for the Israelites to have conquered him. The only hope they would have had of taking the place would be by a long siege, and that would hardly have been possible to maintain, because they could not, without great difficulty, invest the city. The western side, next the plain, they might watch, and cut off all supplies from that quarter-the most fruitful, indeed, in that part of Bashan; but to reach the eastern side of Edrei they must have penetrated some distance among the rocks; and not only would this have been too dangerous a work to attempt, but, even were they able to watch ever so well on that side, the people of Argob, knowing all the winding ways within the rocks, could always have managed to bring provisions to the city without being seen.
The only real hope of taking the city was by drawing the Rephaim out into the plain. Whether some ruse was employed to entice the people from their stronghold, or whether Og, in full confidence of his great strength and invulnerability, planned a sudden attack, or, as we should now say, a sortie, on the Israelites as they lay before the city, we are not told. Either would be difficult. It would require no small amount of skill to entice these people from behind walls; and it is more improbable that such a people should of their own free will risk a battle in the open plain. There must have been some almost miraculous interference in favour of the Israelites. And, from casual notice in another place (Joshua 24:12), we find that God sent a special scourge among these Rephaim in the shape of swarms of hornets, which, we may suppose, harassed them so much in their stone houses that they were driven out of their towns, and preferred the alternative of meeting the Israelites to perishing from the stings of these creatures. So, forced from his city, Og met the Israelites in the plain, and in a pitched battle he was defeated, and Edrei taken' ('Cambridge Essays,' 1858, art. 'The Ancient Bashan and the Cities of Og,' by Cyril Graham).