What Does Deuteronomy 3:11 Mean?
For only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. Look, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? Nine forearms was its length, and four its breadth, by the forearm of a man.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.THE KEY
The passage makes survival tangible by measuring the object associated with its sole survivor.
THE MEANING
You encounter one survivor, and the verse gives his scale through an iron bedstead measured at nine cubits by four. Its location in Rabbath makes the object part of a visible record, holding the figure as both a remnant and a measurable presence. The word “remained” carries the sense of what is left over.
THE ROOT
נִשְׁאַר
nish'ar
GROWS FROM
שאר
sha'ar
Remain; be left over.
The Hebrew word for “remained” grows from the same root as words for a remainder or remnant. The verse names Og not only by who he is, but by what is left: the one remaining from the Rephaim.
ALSO GROWS
she'ar: Remainder; what is left.
שְׁאָר
This branch makes the verse’s “remained” part of a wider idea: a survivor is what remains from a diminished whole.
she'erit: Remnant; surviving portion.
שְׁאֵרִית
This branch carries the same root into the word “remnant,” linking Og’s survival to the remainder he survives from.
THE PATTERN
A remnant makes survival visible after a larger whole has been reduced.
And it will come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and the escape of the house of Jacob, will no longer keep leaning their full weight upon the one who struck them, but they will lean their full weight upon the LORD, the Set-Apart One of Israel, in truth.And the remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.So also now, in this present season, there is a remnant left behind, picked out by favor.THE THREAD
And God sent me before you to set for you a remnant in the land, and to keep you alive by a great escape.The word translated “posterity” is שְׁאֵרִית (she’erit), “remnant,” from the same root שאר (sha’ar), “remain; be left over,” as “remained” here. Genesis makes the remnant something preserved in the land; Deuteronomy shows the word’s other face in the one who is left from a people.
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