Kings Og’s Iron Bed

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In Moses’ famous speech that comprises most of Deuteronomy, he describes the Israelite conquest of two kingdoms east of the Jordan—Heshbon, led by a king named Sihon, and Bashan, led by a king named Og. King Og alone survived— “Only Og the King of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim” (Deuteronomy 3:11). Then we are told that King Og had a bed of iron that is displayed in Rabbah of the Ammonites. It was a very big bed:

“His iron bed is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, measured by a man’s forearm” (Deuteronomy 3:11).

Although there is some difference of opinion about the length of the cubit, we cannot be far off we accept the view that the common cubit, which seems to be referred to here, is 44.5 cm or about 17.5 inches.¹ This would make the bed about 13 feet long and nearly 6 feet wide, an impressive size even today with our so-called king-size beds. King Og may have had such a large bed as a sign of prestige, or perhaps as the result of a royal whim. But the more likely explanation is that he needed a large bed because he was so tall. As we have seen, the text tells us that Og was one of the few Rephaim left; the Rephaim were a race of giants²—or perhaps very tall people.

The more puzzling question is why the biblical text should preserve such a notice about King Og’s iron bed. This has troubled many scholars who have concluded that what the text is really referring to is not an iron bed, but a stone sarcophagus,³ a more likely candidate for public display and literary commemoration. Accordingly, if you look at the United Bible Society’s Good News Bible, you will see the text refers to King Og’s “coffin made of stone.” Footnotes tell us that the first word is “coffin or bed” and the last word is “stone or iron.” The 019New English Bible tells us that Og had a “sarcophagus of basalt,” with a footnote “or iron” for basalt. Other translations, like the New International Version, reverse the process and place a footnote at “bed” that says “or sarcophagus.”

With the help of archaeology, we are now in position to explain what the text is likely to refer to when it says bed of iron and why the alternative translations involving a coffin of stone should be rejected.

The Hebrew phrase is eres barzel, bed of iron. For a bed to serve also as a bier is understandable, both the practically and semantically; however both practically and semantically; however, both Hebrew and Phoenician use a different word (‘rn) for the different object, the coffin or sarcophagus which enclosed the body. There is not really any evidence that the semantic range of eres extends so widely as to include a coffin.

Scholars who transformed iron (barzel) into stone have been equally imaginative. One prominent exegete urged that by barzel “is meant probably the black basalt of the country, which actually contains a proportion of iron (about 20 percent).”⁴ This claim has often been repeated. Several stone sarcophagi have been found in Transjordan, some of them quite large.⁵ Another scholar recalled that he had “often heard basalt called iron in Hauran” (a section of southern Syria).⁶ Some scholars even identified Og’s eres with “a dolmen of basalt blocks,” a type of funeral monument visible in the region even today.⁷

What lay behind these strained efforts to pour new meanings into two seemingly clear Hebrew words was that these scholars couldn’t quite understand why the Bible would preserve this notice about Og’s iron bed.

Yet the text can be understood in the light practices known from the ancient Near East.

First, we should not think of Og’s bedstead as being of solid iron. Most likely, it was decorated with iron. The situation with ivory is an obvious analogy. The Hebrew Bible contains references to “a throne of ivory” (kisse sen, 1 Kings 10:18; 2 Chronicles 9:17), to “beds of ivory” (mittot sen, Amos 6:4) and even “a house” and “palaces of ivory” (bet hassen, 1 Kings 22:39; hekle sen, Psalm 45:8). Cuneiform texts also mention ivory furniture, best known being Sennacherib’s list of tribute paid by Hezekiah, king of Judah, which included “beds of ivory.“⁸ Archaeological discoveries at Samaria and in Assyrian towns have demonstrated that this furniture was not made of ivory, any more than Ahab’s house was; rather, the ivory served as decoration, plating, veneer and paneling. The same could be true of Og’s bed of iron.

Assyrian texts even record “a bed of silver”⁹ and other furniture of precious metal. Here, too, the object was not solid metal. The reference is to a 020method of enhancing wooden pieces, so that, in some cases, the woodwork might be completely covered. A chair and a bed of wood overlaid with ivory in this way were recovered from a tomb at Salamis in Cyprus, dated to about 800 B.C.¹⁰

An “iron bed” in an ancient Near Eastern context, therefore, is surely to be understood as a bed adorned with iron.

But, you may ask, why should a bed be decorated with a dull, utilitarian metal like iron? And even if it were, why should it merit special mention, almost like an interruption in the text? Why should the reader be directed to view the object still at Rabbah? And why was it on display anyway?

The answer is simple. At that time iron was a kind of precious metal! And Og’s bed was especially large.

The Late Bronze Age ended and the Iron Age began, according to the standard archaeological chronology, about 1200 B.C. That does not mean that before that particular time iron was unknown and after that time it was common. In the Late Bronze Age, although bronze was the common metal for tools and weapons, iron was also known.¹¹ Because it was difficult to work and obtain, however, it was highly prized. Indeed, it was used in jewelry.

In a famous cuneiform letter, a Hittite king named Hattusilis III (c. 1289–1265 B.C.) replied to a request for iron from someone who may have been the king of Assyria. The Hittite king replied by saying that the iron was not available at present in the amount required, but that it would be produced later. In the meantime, he was sending one dagger-blade of iron as a gesture of good intent.¹² That such a small amount would be adequate to establish good royal intentions indicates how highly valued iron was.

At the well-known site of Ugarit, on the Syrian coast, excavators found an axe from the 14th century B.C. with a bronze socket, inlaid with gold; the axe blade is of iron, a worthy complement to the precious socket.

In the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt, who died about 1327 B.C., was a dagger with a magnificent gold hilt and sheath. Its iron blade has not rusted.

A few less elaborate weapons and pieces of iron jewelry also survive from this period, and texts refer to more. Lists of treasure drawn up at various cities of the Levant include jewelry of iron and iron daggers, richly mounted like Tutankhamun’s.

Even in the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1950–1550 B.C.), cuneiform tablets from Mari in Mesopotamia tell us of iron used in rings and bracelets.

In southern Turkey an ivory box was unearthed from a level of the 18th century B.C. decorated with studs of gold, lapis lazuli and iron!¹³

From a Hittite text that can now be dated no later than the 16th century B.C., we find a reference to a “throne of iron” given as a gift by one ruler to another¹⁴ This is the closest any extra-biblical text approaches to supplying a record of a piece of iron furniture in some way comparable to Og’s bed, and this is half a millennium before the era of Og! Doubtless the iron throne referred to here was wooden, embellished with iron.

At a time when iron was hard to obtain, the product of a difficult technique, a bed or a throne decorated with it could be a treasure in a king’s palace, something for visitors to admire.

Iron did not come into common use until the beginning of the first millennium. After that time, a bed decorated with iron would hardly be remarkable; indeed, a king would not be likely to decorate his bed with iron. But the reference to Og’s iron bed occurs in connection with Israel’s wars on the way from Egypt to the Promised Land, about 1200 021B.C., at the end of the Late Bronze Age or beginning of the Iron Age, at a time when iron was still considered a precious metal.

This raises a final point. The reference to Og’s iron bed seems to interrupt the text. This notice is generally regarded as a gloss, an addition to the text inserted by a later editor and not part of the original composition.¹⁵ A similar judgment is often made concerning small pieces of information scattered through biblical narratives which add nothing to the main theme and seem to be insertions. The reference to Og’s iron bed is a good example. Yet it would make no sense to insert this reference after iron was in common use. On the contrary, its appearance in the text can now be shown by archaeological evidence to be consistent with an early date and inconsistent with a later date.

Indeed, we can now also show from cuneiform texts that such parenthetic remarks are not uncommon and are often an integral part of an original composition. Recording apparently parenthetical details incidental to their story was a way of writing the Israelites shared with other ancient authors—and with modern ones for that matter. Then as now, pieces of local color and unnecessary knowledge can stimulate the interest of readers or hearers; it is unlikely that any greater significance should be attached to their appearance. Simply because they appear to be parenthetical is no basis for concluding that they were inserted by a later editor.

This article is dedicated to the memory of Peter Craigie. It is adapted from a paper read at the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament Congress held in Jerusalem in 1986 and published in Ascribe to the Lord. Biblical and Other Studies in Memory of Peter C. Craigie, edited by Lyle Eslinger and Glen Taylor, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 67 (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1988). pp, 481–492. The writer believes that the memory of Peter Craigie is best maintained by the continuation of the positive study of the Bible which his work exemplified.

In Moses’ famous speech that comprises most of Deuteronomy, he describes the Israelite conquest of two kingdoms east of the Jordan—Heshbon, led by a king named Sihon, and Bashan, led by a king named Og. King Og alone survived— “Only Og the King of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim” (Deuteronomy 3:11). Then we are told that King Og had a bed of iron that is displayed in Rabbah of the Ammonites. It was a very big bed: “His iron bed is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, […]