region

Bashan

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History

Bashan is the broad tableland east of the Sea of Galilee and north of the Yarmuk, stretching from Mount Hermon and Geshur in the north-west to the hills of the Hauran in the east; its rich volcanic soil made it the granary and pasture of the region. Its cities were Ashtaroth and Edrei, the royal seats of Og, Salcah on the Hauran, and Golan, a city of refuge. The Bible speaks of its oaks, its "rams of the breed of Bashan", its "strong bulls" and its "kine of Bashan", Amos' name for the pampered women of Samaria, and of "the hill of Bashan", perhaps Hermon or the volcanic cones of the Hauran.

Og, "king of Bashan", came out against Israel at Edrei and was destroyed, and his land, "all the region of Argob" with "threescore cities" fenced with high walls, fell to the half-tribe of Manasseh; Jair took Argob and named the towns Havoth-jair. Og alone "remained of the remnant of giants", and his iron bedstead was shown at Rabbah. Solomon's officer in Ramoth-gilead governed Argob, and the Levites held Golan and Ashtaroth. Hazael of Damascus took Bashan with Gilead, and in 732 BC Tiglath-pileser III, taking Damascus, made it Assyrian. The prophets promise that Israel will feed again "on Carmel and Bashan".

In Greek and Roman times the land was known by its districts: Gaulanitis in the west, Batanaea, the old Bashan, in the centre, Trachonitis on the lava fields of the Leja and Auranitis in the Hauran. Augustus gave them to Herod the Great, and after him they were the tetrarchy of Philip, named by Luke as tetrarch "of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis"; Philip rebuilt Paneas as Caesarea Philippi, where Peter confessed Jesus to be the Christ. Agrippa II held them until his death towards the end of the first century AD, after which they passed to the province of Syria and the Hauran to Arabia, whose capital Bostra lay at its edge.

The black basalt villages and churches of the Hauran, many of them from the Roman and Byzantine centuries, are among the best preserved of late antiquity. Today Bashan is divided: the Golan Heights, taken by Israel from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981, a step not recognised by the United Nations; and the Syrian provinces of Daraa, the ancient Edrei, and Suwayda in the Hauran.

Scripture: Num 21:33–35; Deut 3:1–5; Deut 3:10–14; Deut 32:14; Deut 33:22; Josh 13:29–31; Josh 20:8; 1 Kgs 4:13; 2 Kgs 10:32–33; Ps 22:12; Ps 68:15; Isa 2:13; Jer 50:19; Ezek 27:6; Ezek 39:18; Amos 4:1; Mic 7:14; Nah 1:4; Zech 11:2; Matt 16:13–16; Luke 3:1

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (53)

Num 21:33

And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.

Num 32:33

And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, with the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of the country round about.

Deut 1:4

After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:

Deut 3:1

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.

Deut 3:3

So the LORD our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.

Deut 3:4

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.

Deut 3:6

And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city.

Deut 3:10

All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, unto Salchah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

Deut 3:11

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.

Deut 3:13

And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.

Deut 3:14

Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashan-havoth-jair, unto this day.

Deut 4:43

Namely, Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites.

Deut 4:47

And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;

Deut 29:7

And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:

Deut 32:14

Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

Deut 33:22

And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion’s whelp: he shall leap from Bashan.

Josh 9:10

And all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth.

Josh 12:4

And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,

Josh 12:5

And reigned in mount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, unto the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

Josh 13:11

And Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maachathites, and all mount Hermon, and all Bashan unto Salcah;

Josh 13:12

All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants: for these did Moses smite, and cast them out.

Josh 13:30

And their coast was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, threescore cities:

Josh 13:31

And half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were pertaining unto the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even to the one half of the children of Machir by their families.

Josh 17:1

There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh; for he was the firstborn of Joseph; to wit, for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead: because he was a man of war, therefore he had Gilead and Bashan.

Josh 17:5

And there fell ten portions to Manasseh, beside the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side Jordan;

Josh 20:8

And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

Josh 21:6

And the children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.

Josh 21:27

And unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the other half tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Beesh-terah with her suburbs; two cities.

Josh 22:7

Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given possession in Bashan: but unto the other half thereof gave Joshua among their brethren on this side Jordan westward. And when Joshua sent them away also unto their tents, then he blessed them,

1 Kgs 4:13

The son of Geber, in Ramoth-gilead; to him pertained the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; to him also pertained the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, threescore great cities with walls and brasen bars:

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King James Version