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Numbers 21:31–35, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Numbers 21:31–35
Og of Bashan Is Defeated without Survivors
From Amorite ground Israel turns toward Bashan
Israel dwells in the land of the Amorites. Moses sends to spy out Jaazer; they take its villages and drive out the Amorites there. They turn and go up by the way of Bashan. Og the king of Bashan comes out against them, he and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.
No survivor remains in the report, then the land is possessed
The LORD says to Moses, Fear him not: I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land. Israel smites him, his sons, and all his people, until none is left him alive, and they possess his land.
The report is totalizing: king, sons, people, no survivor, then possession. Fear is answered with a promise of delivery. The language does not authorize genocide, the killing of children, ethnic cleansing, or a present deed to Bashan. Speculation about giants is not this unit's work.
How this should shape us
Read a no-survivor sentence as a hard claim in an ancient war report, not as a command for anyone now. Do not hunt giants, and do not baptize the erasure of a people with 'fear not.'
Teach it back
Explain Numbers 21:31–35 in your own words. Include its place in Numbers' movement from Sinai to Moab, both movements within this thought unit, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one use the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters dispute historicity, rhetoric, source layers, scope of destruction, place identifications, moral evaluation, and relationship to other conquest accounts. Archaeology does not prove every campaign, and literary shaping does not erase victims in the text. For “Og of Bashan Is Defeated without Survivors,” confidence is strongest in the received unit's stated sequence and literary function; source, date, demography, geography, mechanism, archaeology, and historical reconstruction remain probable, plausible, or uncertain as the evidence warrants.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Numbers 21:31–35, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 21:31–35
Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, ritual, legal, number, name, poetic, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.
NET Bible Numbers PDF, complete 134-page PDF, translation and translator notes attached to 21:31–35
Supports: Final-form movement, wilderness setting, census and camp, complaint, leadership, composition, and ethical framing.
Yale Bible Study, Numbers Part 1, complete study guide sections “Introduction,” “At Sinai (1:1–10:10),” “From Sinai to Moab (10:11–22:1),” and “Composition,” applied to Numbers 21:31–35
Supports: Raised-serpent scene, material-object background, later cultic reception, and uncertainty about mechanism and history.
TheTorah, “Nehushtan: The Copper Serpent—Its Origins and Fate,” complete sections on Numbers 21, ancient serpent objects, 2 Kings 18, and later interpretation, applied to Numbers 21:31–35
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Numbers 21:31–35, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Numbers
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project
Open Scriptures, release 2.2, 2021
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 21:31–35
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Numbers with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, source files dated 2026-08-08
Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, ritual, legal, number, name, poetic, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Numbers PDF, complete 134-page PDF, translation and translator notes attached to 21:31–35
Open source ↗modern critical open study guide
Numbers Part 1
Yale Bible Study
Yale Divinity School, 2023 course edition
Supports: Final-form movement, wilderness setting, census and camp, complaint, leadership, composition, and ethical framing.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Numbers Part 1, complete study guide sections “Introduction,” “At Sinai (1:1–10:10),” “From Sinai to Moab (10:11–22:1),” and “Composition,” applied to Numbers 21:31–35
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open text archaeology and reception study
Nehushtan, the Copper Serpent: Its Origins and Fate
Richard Lederman
TheTorah.com, 2017
Supports: Raised-serpent scene, material-object background, later cultic reception, and uncertainty about mechanism and history.
Exact location: TheTorah, “Nehushtan: The Copper Serpent—Its Origins and Fate,” complete sections on Numbers 21, ancient serpent objects, 2 Kings 18, and later interpretation, applied to Numbers 21:31–35
Open source ↗