And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
We took all his cities - not 'captured,' as Colenso renders it, assuming that this result followed a close and protracted siege, but entered into the possession of them.
Threescore cities. 'These cities were of stone, with high walls, bars, and gates; and these very cities are still standing, and bearing testimony to the truth of God's word. Suppose that no one had ever yet traveled in the Hauran, on reading the different passages in the Old Testament which refer to that country, should we not, when we read the account of such prodigious numbers of stone have expected to find at least some remnant of them now? And when we read in this chapter of "threescore walled towns, and unwalled towns a great number," and we see how small a space Og's kingdom occupies on the map, we might almost feel tempted to think that some mistake with regard to the numbers of these places had crept into the text. But when we go to the very country, and find one after another great stone cities, walled and unwalled, with stone gates, and so crowded together that it becomes a matter of wonder how all the people could have lived in so small a tract of country; when we see houses built of such huge and massive stones, that no force that could ever have been brought against them would have been sufficient to batter them down; when we find rooms in these houses so large and so lofty, that many of them would be considered fine rooms in a large house in Europe; and lastly, when we find some of these towns bearing the very names that cities in that country bore before the Israelites came out of Egypt, I think we cannot help feeling the strongest conviction that we have before us the cities of the giant Rephaim. These cities have become gradually deserted as the Arabs of the desert have increased in number; and now, south and east of Salkhad (the ancient Salcah, which marked the southeast ern coast of Bashan) not one of these many towns is inhabited' (Cyril Graham, 'Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1858').
(See, for a further account of the monolithic habitations and cyclopean fortresses of the extinct Rephaim, the walls of whose houses and cities were composed of enormous polygonal blocks, Porter's 'Damascus,' 2:, 219-222; also p. 196, where he says, 'The huge doors and gates of stone, some of which are nearly 18 inches in thickness, and the ponderous bars, the places for which can still be seen, are in every way characteristic of a period when architecture was in its infancy, when manual labour was of little comparative value, and when strength and security were the great requisites. Time produces but little effect on such buildings as these. The heavy stone flags of the roofs, resting on the massive walls, render the whole structure as firm as if built of solid masonry; and the black basalt rock of which they are constructed is almost as hard as iron. I had sometimes turned to my atlas, where I found the whole of Bashan delineated, and not larger than an ordinary English county.
I was surprised; and though my faith in the divine record was not shaken, yet I thought some strange statistical mystery hung over the passage. That 60 walled cities, besides unwalled towns a great many, should be found at such a remote age, far from the sea, with no rivers, and little commerce, appeared quite inexplicable. Inexplicable and mysterious though it appeared, it was strictly true. On the spot, with my own eyes, I had now verified it. More than 30 of these I had myself either visited or observed, so as to fix their positions on the map. The Arabic lists of Eli Smith include about 500 names of inhabited places, either actually occupied or in ruins-tels or mounds, the relics of the fortified cities of the Rephaim. Of the high antiquity of these ruins scarcely a doubt can be entertained. Here, then, we have a venerable record, more than 3,000 years old, containing incidental statements and statistics which few would be inclined to receive on trust, and not a few to cast aside as glaring absurdities; yet which close examination shows to be minutely accurate,' (See further, Porter, 'The Giant Cities of Bashan,' p. 24; also 'Historico-Geographical Sketch of Bashan,' by the same author; 'Journal of Sacred Literature,' No. 12:, July, 1854; Trail's 'Josephus,' vol. 1:, p. 38, note on the sources whence those cities obtained supplies.)
All the region of Argob - or "country" (Deuteronomy 3:14) - х chebel (H2256), a rope, or cord, alluding to the Cyclopean wall of basaltic rocks which, like a cordon, encompasses and defines the Lejjah]. Some writers suppose that what is meant is rather a line of frontier cities extending northwards from Argob all along the borders. [Septuagint, panta ta perichoora Argob.] Argob (stony) was a district in Bashan whose cities were conspicuous for their lofty and fortified walls.