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BASHAN
Region east and northeast of the Sea of Galilee. The exact boundaries of Bashan are difficult to determine, but it extended approximately 35 to 40 miles (55 to 64 kilometers) from the foot of Mt Hermon in the north to the Yarmuk River in the south, and stretched some 60 to 70 miles (97 to 113 kilometers) eastward from the Sea of Galilee.
The region (“Hauran,” Ez 47:16, 18) is mostly a fertile tableland 1,600 to 2,300 feet (488 to 701 meters) in altitude. Its rich volcanic alluvium is well watered because the low hills of southern Galilee to the west allow the rains to sweep farther inland than in most other places along the Palestinian coast. Today, as in ancient times, it is an agriculturally productive region. In NT times it was a grain-producing area of the Roman Empire. Bashan was known for the quality of its cattle and sheep (Dt 32:14; Ez 39:18; Am 4:1).
In the patriarch Abraham’s day, Bashan’s inhabitants were giantlike people called Rephaim (Gn 14:5). Og, the last of the Rephaim, was an enemy of the Israelites as they sought to enter Canaan after their Egyptian bondage and wilderness wandering (Dt 29:7). Og was defeated and slain by the Israelites (Nm 21:33-35). Bashan’s prosperity at that time is indicated by the fact that one of its provinces, Argob, had 60 great walled cities (Dt 3:4-5). The chief cities of Bashan were Edrei, Ashtaroth, Golan, and Salecah. After Israel conquered the territory east of the Jordan River, Bashan was given to the half-tribe of Manasseh (Jos 13:29-30). Golan and Ashtaroth, two cities in Bashan, were reserved for the Levites (1 Chr 6:71). Ben-geber of Ramoth-gilead administered Argob (a region in Bashan) for King Solomon (1 Kgs 4:13). In the days of Jehu (841–814 BC), King Hazael of Syria conquered the area (2 Kgs 10:33). Tiglath-pileser III incorporated Bashan into the Assyrian Empire in the eighth century BC (15:29). The Nabateans held it in the second century BC, and Herod the Great (37–4 BC) ruled over it at the time of Jesus’ birth.