Deuteronomy 3 · a question people ask
Why does the Bible stop to tell us the size of Og's bedstead?
The verse is an aside, in brackets in the WEB: "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" (3:11). The text doesn't say why it is there. Every reading agrees on what the verse gives: Og was the last "of the remnant of the Rephaim", and his bedstead's measure "after the cubit of a man" (3:11). The two main readings below each rest on verses, and they are not exclusive of one another.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
It shows how great the enemy was
Those who hold this view read 3:11 beside what the spies feared: "The people are greater and taller than we" (1:28). Deuteronomy says of the Rephaim whom the Ammonites called Zamzummim that they were "a great people, many, and tall, as the Anakim" (2:20-21), and Og "remained of the remnant of the Rephaim" (3:11). Yet "the LORD our God also delivered into our hand Og" (3:3), and Moses tells Joshua, "Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings" (3:21). On this reading, the bedstead's size makes the point that the victory was the LORD's.
Deuteronomy 1:28 · Deuteronomy 2:20-21 · Deuteronomy 3:3 · Deuteronomy 3:11 · Deuteronomy 3:21-22
It is something the hearers could check
Those who hold this view start from the question in the verse: "Isn’t it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon?" (3:11). The chapter's other asides are of the same kind, names still in use when Moses spoke: "The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir" (3:9), and Jair called the region "Havvoth Jair, to this day" (3:14). On this reading, the bedstead is named as something that could still be seen.
Deuteronomy 3:9 · Deuteronomy 3:11 · Deuteronomy 3:14
The verses
“(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.)”