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1Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan. Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 2Yahweh said to me, “Don’t fear him; for I have delivered him, with all his people and his land, into your hand. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

3So Yahweh our God also delivered into our hand Og, the king of Bashan, and all his people. We struck him until no one was left to him remaining. 4We took all his cities at that time. There was not a city which we didn’t take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, in addition to a great many villages without walls. 6We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. 7But all the livestock, and the plunder of the cities, we took for plunder for ourselves. 8We took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon. 9(The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.) 10We took all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11(For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its width, after the cubit of a man.) 12This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites; 13and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh—all the region of Argob, even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim. 14Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, to this day.) 15I gave Gilead to Machir. 16To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and its border, even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon; 17the Arabah also, and the Jordan and its border, from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.

18I commanded you at that time, saying, “Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it. All of you men of valor shall pass over armed before your brothers, the children of Israel. 19But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), shall live in your cities which I have given you, 20until Yahweh gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then you shall each return to his own possession, which I have given you.”

21I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, “Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings. So shall Yahweh do to all the kingdoms where you go over. 22You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God himself fights for you.”

23I begged Yahweh at that time, saying, 24“Lord Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness, and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or in earth that can do works like yours, and mighty acts like yours? 25Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that fine mountain, and Lebanon.”

26But Yahweh was angry with me because of you, and didn’t listen to me. Yahweh said to me, “That is enough! Speak no more to me of this matter. 27Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes; for you shall not go over this Jordan. 28But commission Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see.” 29So we stayed in the valley near Beth Peor.

Place

Mount Hermon

Type
Mountain
Location
33.416, 35.858

The Transfiguration of Jesus on Mt. Hermon

Site Study | Daniel G Garland • Hershel Wayne House

Matthew's reference to a high mountain in Matt 17:1 probably refers to a spur of Mt. Hermon, which rises about 9,400 feet above sea level, and may be the same high mountain to which he took Jesus during his third temptation in Matt 4:8.  Mt. Hermon is in the upper Golan in the vicinity of Caesarea Philippi. Since it is by far the highest mountain in the area, its selection for the transfiguration is probably a more likely location than Mt. Tabor, the traditional site in lower Galilee, which is less than 1,900 feet in elevation. If Mt. Hermon were the location of both the temptation and transfiguration of Christ, it would account not only for Matthew’s choice of the same phrase to describe them, but also provide a satisfying symmetry:  The glory of this world’s kingdoms that Jesus refused to seize apart from the Father’s good pleasure and timing, is the glory with which He will one day return as the beloved Son with whom the Father is well pleased (cf., Matt 16:27; 17:5)!

After Peter's affirmation in Matt 16:16 that Jesus was the Messiah, Son of God, something that could only come from God's revelation, Jesus said that upon this confession Jesus would build His church. The spectacular appearance of Jesus on Mt. Hermon, in which He appeared as the sun (reflecting the Shekinah glory of Yahweh to Moses in the bush that was burning but not consumed in Exod 3:6), was in combination with the representative of the Law and the Prophets, Moses and Elijah (also see Luke 24:27 statement of the risen Messiah). 

After Peter's expression to building tents for the three of them, God speaks from heaven (similar to the statement at Jesus' baptism, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him" (Matt 3:17; see Ps 2:7; Isa 42:1). God's latter statement may reflect Deut 18:15).

The Galilee in Israel with Mt Hermon in Background

The Galilee in Israel with Mt Hermon in Background

Mt. Hermon in the Summer (with Sign)

Mt. Hermon in the Summer (with Sign)

Mt. Arbel from the Sea of Galilee

Mt. Arbel from the Sea of Galilee

The Transfiguration on Mt. Hermon

Site Study | Daniel G Garland

The phrase translated high mountain is found only in reference to the unnamed locations from which Satan showed Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (Matt 4:8 NKJV), and where Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John (Matt 17:1; Mark 9:2).  Since Mt. Hermon is by far the highest mountain in the area, with peaks above 9,000 feet, it has been suggested as a more likely location for the transfiguration than Mt. Tabor, the traditional site in lower Galilee which is less than 1,900 feet in elevation.  If Mt. Hermon were the location of both the temptation and transfiguration of Christ, it would account not only for Matthew’s choice of the same phrase to describe them, but also provide a satisfying symmetry:  The glory of this world’s kingdoms that Jesus refused to seize apart from the Father’s good pleasure and timing, is the glory with which He will one day return as the beloved Son with whom the Father is well pleased (cf., Matt 16:27; 17:5)!

Mt. Hermon

Person & place data: Theographic Bible Metadata by Robert Rouse (Viz.Bible), CC BY-SA 4.0.