Og: the O.G. Giant
But I figured, if I'm going to finally start taking seriously my Og Blog, I probably should make one of the first posts be about Og, the giant of Bashan. He's the original O.G. giant, so that pretty much fits the name too.
So who was king Og? Most people have never heard of him. If they know any giants in the Bible at all, it is Goliath, mostly because he is the villain king David so famously fought. But in earlier days, Og was the king of the giants, quite literally. His name is of unknown etymology, but the Exhaustive Dictionary of Bible Names gives a couple of interesting possible meanings. One is "long-necked." that certainly fits the idea of a giant. Another is "circle."
Now, Og was king of the land of Bashan in the Bible. Bashan in Ugaritic means "serpent." So, Bashan is the place of the serpent. Curiously, ten miles east of the Sea of Galilee, there is a huge megalithic stone circle that became known to modern archeologists only in the 1960s after an air survey of the region was undertaken. About a dozen years ago, I was searching around on Google Earth near this circle and to my astonishment, I saw a huge serpentine figure located just a tenth of a mile north of it. But that's for another post or two. I'm currently writing a book on this serpent mound with Dr. Judd Burton, but plenty is known about this stone circle which has been called Gilgal Rephaim or the Wheel of the Giants.
Gilgal Rephaim. Screenshot from my new documentary Angel and Giants: The Watchers and the Nephilim
The point here is not to go into detail even about the Wheel, but rather to say that it is far older and Abraham and that king Og ruled the very land in which it was erected. Curious later stories about Og being born before the Flood and living through it by hitching a ride on Noah's Ark are found in Jewish mythology, so who knows? Maybe he even built the thing?
But what we know about him is found mostly in the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. After giving us a full chapter of giant clans that were defeated by the surrounding nations (Deuteronomy 2), we learn the most interesting thing about Og: he has a "bed" of iron that was at some point on display in Rabbah of the Ammonites that was nine cubits long and four cubits wide, or thirteen and a half feet long x six feet wide. The point seems to be two-fold. On one hand, it impresses upon our minds that Og was truly a giant, descended as the Scripture says, from the Rephaim (and in turn, the Nephilim). On the other, it links him directly to the gods, for these happen to be the exact dimensions of the famous bed of Marduk, the god-king of Babylon. In this way, Og is linked to his fathers--the sons of God or Watchers--through his bed.
Of course, the reason the story of his king is in the Bible is because of Moses. God tells him to offer Og peace and let them pass through his land. But God hardened Og's heart so that he will not let them pass. Moses then defeats Og, sending shockwaves and a warning throughout the land of Canaan: The True God is coming. At the end of the day, this is really among the earliest stories of the Seed Wars predicted in Genesis 3:15. Og's lineage as a Rephaim-Nephilim makes him a seed of the serpent. Moses is the seed of the woman. Together, this is an amazing type of the greater war to come, when Jesus defeats Satan at his death and resurrection. To find out more, check out my newly revised Giants: Sons of Gods Revised and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition. With it's older counterpart, they have over 500 reviews now at Amazon and nearly a 5 star rating.
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