Og

For the record label, see Og Music.

Og is the name of an object-relational database mapping library used in Nitro and written in Ruby

According to several books of the Old Testament, Og (/ɒg/ or /ɔːg/; meaning "gigantic"; Hebrew: עוג - /ʕog/) was an ancient Amorite king of Bashan who, along with his sons and army, was slain by Joshua and his men at the battle of Edrei (probably modern day Daraa, Syria). The internal chronology of the Deuteronomistic History and the Torah would place Og's overthrow and the conquest of Canaan by Israel around c. 1500 or 1200 B.C., although these books were written no earlier than the 6th century BC and are considered by some to be of uncertain historical accuracy.

Og, the giant of the Amorites, is equally considered a folk legend, around whom gathered many Jewish legends: according to some traditions he lived to be 3,000 years old and strolled behind Noah's ark during the Deluge. In Islamic lore he is referred to as ʕUj ibn ʕUnq, evidently one of the giants mentioned in the Qur'an (jababirat or jabbirun).

Og is mentioned in Jewish folklore as being alive from the time of Noah up until the time of his death in battle with the Jews. It is also written in the Midrash that he had a special compartment in Noah's Ark just for him.

An Amorite king

Og is first mentioned in the book of Numbers, specifically the 1st and 3rd chapters. He was an Amorite, not unlike his neighbor Sihon of Heshbon, of whom Moses had previously conquered at the battle of Jahaz. He ruled a very considerable and fertile land, which extended from the fork of the Yarmuk river to the undefined basaltic lands of Hauran to the east. Bashan, which contained some "sixty walled cities" with great bars and gates and many unwalled towns, had capitols at Ashtaroth and Edrei in the region of Argob. Being an Amorite, he likely embraced the customs and clothing of his people. Perhaps he stylized the full beard, shaved upper lip, and colorfully woven tunics so accustomed to many Amorite Kings who resided at the ancient center of Mari. His capitol at Ashtaroth was also a worship center to the fertility goddess, and this city is probably modern Tell Ashareh an existing 70-foot mound.

Battle with Israel

According to the account in Numbers 21:33, Og marched toward the people of Israel and pitched the battle at Edrei nearly 18 miles southeast of Ashtaroth where he met their resistance and his ultimate fate. Deut. 3:1-13 mentions the capture of his land by Moses and proclaimed that they slew every man, woman, and child of his cities and took the spoil for their bounty. The land of Bashan was famous for its prized cattle and oak groves. Lions also once roamed the area in ancient times. Og's kingdom was given to the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh (Num. 21:32-35; Deut. 3:1-13). Og's destruction is chanted in ballads of praise and song in (Ps. 135:11; 136:20) as one of many great victories for the nation of Israel. In the book of Amos 2:9 there seems to be a symbolic reference to Og as "The Amorite" whose height was like the height of the cedars and whose strength was like the oaks.

A remnant of the Rephaim

In Deut. 3:11 and later in the book of Numbers and Joshua, Og is pronounced as the last of the Rephaim. Rephaim is a Hebrew word for giants and that is exactly how king Og is described. Deut. 3:11 declares that his "bedstead" of iron is "nine cubits in length and four cubits in width", according to the standard cubit of a man. It goes on to say that at the royal city of Rabbah of the Ammonites, his giant bedstead could still be seen as a novelty in those days. It is noteworthy that the region north of the river Jabbok, or Bashan, "the land of Rephaim", contains thousands of megalithic stone tombs dating from the 5th to 3rd centuries BCE. In 1918, Gustav Dalman discovered in the neighborhood of Amman Jordan (Amman is built on the ancient city of Rabbah of Ammon) a noteworthy dolmen which matched the approximate dimensions of Og's bed as described in the Bible. Such ancient rock burials are seldom seen west of the Jordan river, and the only other concentration of them are found in the hills of Judah in the vicinity of Hebron, where the giant sons of Anak were said to have lived.

Og in non-Biblical inscriptions

A reference to "Og" appears in a Phoenician inscription from Byblos (Byblos 13) published in 1974 by Wolfgang Rölling in "Eine new phoenizische Inscrift aus Byblos," (Neue Ephemeris für Semitische Epigraphik, vol 2, 1-15 and plate 1). It appears in a damaged 7-line funerary inscription that Rölling dates to around 500 BCE, and appears to say that if someone disturbs the bones of the occupant, "the mighty Og will avenge me." The 500 BCE date for the inscription matches the approximate era in which the Biblical texts which mention Og were first written.

A possible connection can also be made with the much older Ugaritic text KTU 1.108, which uses the term "king" in association with the root /rp/ or "Rapah" (the Rephaim of the Bible) and geographic place names that probably correspond to the cities of Ashtaroth and Edrei in the Bible, and with which king Og is cleary associated (Deuteronomy 1:4; Joshua 9:10; 12:4; 13:12, 31).

See also

• Gilgal Refaim
• Bergelmir
• Moses in rabbinic literature