Og of Bashan and the Netherworld

THE REPHAIM were remembered by Israel as giants, or at least as people who venerated the giants of the pre-Flood world. That’s why God marked them for destruction before Israel entered the Promised Land.This week, we discuss the history of the Israelites as told by Moses while the people camped in the Arabah, before they began their campaign to take Canaan from the Amorites.Moses reminded the Israelites that their fear of the Anakim had caused them to rebel against God, which led to forty years of wandering in the wilderness. We give our reasons for believing that this was in the vicinity of Petra in Jordan. Moses also noted that God used the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites to eliminate the Rephaim, and those allied with them like the Horites (Hurrians) and Amorites, from the Transjordan.Then we discuss Og of Bashan and why the location of his kingdom was considered the literal entrance to the netherworld. We bring in some Jewish traditions about Og, and later texts from Amorite and Phoenician sources that portray Og as a semi-mythical underworld entity connected to the deities Rapiu (“King of Eternity”) and Malik (Molech).