Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Chavoux Luyt:

 

You wrote:  “The very text you quote gives the answer (Num.21:33): "Og went out against them..." this was simply the aftermath of essentially the same war as the one started when "Sihon", king of Cheshbon would not allow Israel to trek through his land on their way to Canaan (Num.21:21-23), but attacked them instead. There is no indication that it was the original plan to attack these kings (since as you mentioned, it wasn't part of the promised land as such), but in response to their aggression, Israel fought against them and took their land. No mystery here at all!”

 

Au contraire, there’s a tremendous mystery here.  Moses asked each region on the east side of the Dead Sea, south of Bashan, for permission to allow the Israelites to pass through the southern and central Transjordan peacefully on the route to the Conquest, which would take place west of the Jordan River, in Canaan.  Edom and Moab granted permission, but King Sihon and the Amorites of Gilead (south of Bashan) did not grant permission.  With Gilead being on the route that the Israelites were taking in order to embark on the Conquest of Canaan, Moses had to declare war on Gilead and defeat King Sihon.  Numbers 21: 21-26.  To finish up this part of the story first, in Numbers 32 the tribes of Gad and Reuben later ask permission to settle permanently in Gilead (south of Bashan).  Moses eventually grants them their wish, provided that first they must fully participate with the other tribes in the Conquest of Canaan west of the Jordan River.

 

So there’s no mystery as to what happened in the Transjordan south of Bashan, being territory that was on the route of the Conquest.  Edom and Moab granted permission to the Israelites to pass through peacefully, but Gilead didn’t, so Gilead had to be attacked and conquered.

 

But now we come to the big mystery.  Bashan, in the northern Transjordan east of the Sea of Galilee, was neither on the route of the Conquest (being too far north and east), nor was it part of the originally Promised Land of Canaan (since Bashan lies east of the Jordan River, whereas Canaan is west of the Jordan River).  So why then did Moses attack King Og and take his kingdom of Bashan?  King Og’s kingdom was headquartered at Ashtaroth, a city located east of the Sea of Galilee, which city was fairly close to Jabal al-Druze, an awe-inspiring, divine-like “desert”/XRB mountain just north of the eastern Transjordan, which marked the northeast corner of King Og’s kingdom of Bashan.

 

Since Bashan was not on the route of the Conquest, and was not part of the originally Promised Land of Canaan, there would seem to be no reason for Moses to have confronted King Og.  But he did.  Here’s why.  We can figure out [based on Exodus 3: 1 and Exodus 3: 12 and an historical analysis of the country name MDYN] that Moses had met YHWH at the burning bush at the “desert”/XRB mountain of Jabal al-Druze, located about 100 miles south of MDYN;  Biblical “Midian”/MDYN is historical Mitanni, the Late Bronze Age Hurrian state in eastern Syria.  Exodus 3: 1 tells us that Moses led his father-in-law’s flock from MDYN/Mitanni to an awe-inspiring, divine-like “desert”/XRB mountain.  That was Jabal al-Druze!  Pursuant to Exodus 3: 12, Moses was divinely commanded to “serve God” forevermore at that “desert”/XRB mountain [Jabal al-Druze].  So in order to be able to do that, the Israelites had to conquer and retain Bashan, which contained the site of the burning bush [Jabal al-Druze].

 

Once one recognizes that MDYN, which is a fine linguistic match to Mitanni, is in fact the Late Bronze Age Hurrian state of Mitanni in eastern Syria, then the geography becomes clear.  The burning bush was at Jabal al-Druze, located about 100 miles south of MDYN/Mitanni.  At Exodus 3: 1, Moses sensibly took Jethro’s flock over steppeland to Jabal al-Druze, rather than nonsensically attempting to traverse the horrible terrain of inland southern Sinai with his father-in-law’s flock.  Moses was divinely commanded to “serve God” forevermore on the “desert”/XRB mountain of Jabal al-Druze .   T-h-a-t  is why Moses insists that the Israelites conquer King Og’s Bashan, even though it was not on the route of the Conquest, and it was not part of the originally Promised Land of Canaan in the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 

 

All of the geography makes sense if and only if MDYN [Biblical “Midian”] = historical Mitanni, the Late Bronze Age Hurrian state in eastern Syria.  To confirm that, just look back at Exodus 3: 1.  There’s no way that Moses would drive his father-in-law’s flock 100 miles over terrible terrain to inland southern Sinai at Mt. Sinai.  Not.  Rather, Moses proceeded in due course about 100 miles across steppeland south of MDYN/historical Mitanni to Jabal al-Druze.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois