Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. And the LORD said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon. So the LORD our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining. And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a great many. And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city. But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves.
In the late-9th century BCE, the cities of Bashan were taken by Hazael, monarch of the Syrian kingdom of Aram-Damascus (2 Kings 10:33), but were soon after reconquered by Jehoash (2 Kings 13:25) who overcame the Syrians in three battles, according to the prophecy of Elisha (2 Kings 13:19).
From this time, Bashan almost disappears from history, although there are biblical references to the wild cattle of its rich pastures (see Ezekiel 39:18, Psalm 22:12 and Amos 4:1), the oaks of its forests (Isaiah 2:13; Ezekiel 27:6; Zechariah 11:2), the beauty of its extensive plains (also in Amos 4:1),[5]Jeremiah 50:19), and the rugged majesty of its mountains (Psalm 68:15). Bashan is also mentioned in 1 Chronicles 5:16: "[The Gadites] lived in Gilead, in Bashan and its outlying villages, and on all the pasturelands of Sharon as far as they extended."
Later periods
The Bashan was ultimately conquered and pillaged by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which held onto it from 732 to 610 BCE. It later saw security and prosperity under the Achaemenid Empire; its settlements became better developed and culturally Aramaized.
Ugarit
In some Semitic languages bashan (bšn) means serpent. In Ugaritic, masculine and feminine forms are available, bashanim and bashanat are male and female snakes.[6]
MacDonald, Burton (2000). "Settlement of the Israelite Tribes East of the Jordan". In Matthews, Victor (ed.). East of the Jordan: Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures. American Schools of Oriental Research.
Porter, Rev. J. L. (1867). The Giant Cities of Bashan; and Syria's Holy Places.
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