O is for Og

O is for Og, the high King of Bashan.
In death--as in life--a very tall man.

Portia: While wandering in the wilderness, Moses and the Israelites turned and went up the road to Bashan; and King Og of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. But the Lord said to Moses, 'Do not be afraid of him; for I have given him into your hand, with all his people, and all his land. You shall do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon.' So they killed him, his sons, and all his people, until there was no survivor left; and they took possession of this land" (Numbers 21:33-35).

Deuteronomy 3 notes that King Og was of the remnant of the Rephaim, a word which may be translated as "giants." Og's bed, "an iron bed, can still be seen in Rabbah of the Ammonites. By the common cubit it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide (v. 11). Some translations, like the Contemporary English Version, translate bed as "coffin."

 Thomas: The illustration is in tribute to Robert Ripley's "Believe It or Not" comic strip. The other illustrations refer to the unbelievable stories Balaam and his donkey in Numbers 22 and the coin in the fish's mouth in Matthew 17.


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