or BASAN, one of the most fertile cantons of Canaan, which was
bounded on the west by the river Jordan, on the east by the mountains of
Gilead, on the south by the brook of Jabbok, and on the north by the
land of Geshur. The whole kingdom took its name from the hill of Bashan,
which is situated in the middle of it, and by the Greeks is called
Batanæa. It had no less than sixty walled towns in it, beside villages.
It afforded an excellent breed of cattle, and stately oaks, and was, in
short, a plentiful and populous country. Og, king of the Amorites,
possessed this country when Moses made the conquest thereof. In the
division of the Holy Land, it was assigned to the half tribe of
Manasseh. Of the present state of this portion of the ancient
possessions of the Israelites, Mr. Buckingham, in his Travels, gives the
following account: “We ascended the steep on the north side of the
Zerkah, or Jabbok; and, on reaching the summit, came again on a
beautiful plain, of an elevated level, and still covered with a very
rich soil. We had now quitted the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites,
and entered into that of Og, the king of Bashan, both of them well known
to all the readers of the early Scriptures. We had quitted too, the
districts apportioned to the tribes of Reuben and of Gad, and entered
that part which was allotted to the half tribe of Manasseh, beyond
Jordan eastward, leaving the land of the children of Ammon on our right,
or to the east of the Jabbok, which, according to the authority before
quoted, divided Ammon, or Philadelphia, from Gerasa. The mountains here
are called the land of Gilead in the Scriptures, and in Josephus; and,
according to the Roman division, this was the country of the Decapolis,
so often spoken of in the New Testament, or the province of Gaulonitis,
from the city of Gaulon, its early capital. We continued our way over
this elevated tract, continuing to behold, with surprise and admiration,
a beautiful country on all sides of us: its plains covered with a
fertile soil, its hills clothed with forests; at every new turn
presenting the most magnificent landscapes that could be imagined. Among
the trees, the oak was frequently seen; and we know that this territory
produced them of old. In enumerating the sources from which the supplies
of Tyre were drawn in the time of her great wealth and naval splendour,
the Prophet says, ‘Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars,’
Ezek. xxvii, 6. Some learned commentators indeed, believing that no oaks
grew in these supposed desert regions, have translated the word by
‘alders,’ to prevent the appearance of inaccuracy in the inspired
writer. The expression of ‘the fat bulls of Bashan,’ which occurs more
than once in the Scriptures, seemed to us equally inconsistent, as
applied to the beasts of a country generally thought to be a desert, in
common with the whole tract which is laid down in our modern maps as
such between the Jordan and the Euphrates; but we could now fully
comprehend, not only that the bulls of this luxuriant country might be
proverbially fat, but that its possessors, too, might be a race renowned
for strength and comeliness of person. The general face of this region
improved as we advanced farther in it; and every new direction of our
path opened upon us views which surprised and charmed us by their
grandeur and their beauty. Lofty mountains gave an outline of the most
magnificent character; flowing beds of secondary hills softened the
romantic wildness of the picture; gentle slopes, clothed with wood, gave
a rich variety of tints, hardly to be imitated by the pencil; deep
valleys, filled with murmuring streams and verdant meadows, offered all
the luxuriance of cultivation; and herds and flocks gave life and
animation to scenes as grand, as beautiful, and as highly picturesque as
the genius or taste of a Claude could either invent or desire.”
bounded on the west by the river Jordan, on the east by the mountains of
Gilead, on the south by the brook of Jabbok, and on the north by the
land of Geshur. The whole kingdom took its name from the hill of Bashan,
which is situated in the middle of it, and by the Greeks is called
Batanæa. It had no less than sixty walled towns in it, beside villages.
It afforded an excellent breed of cattle, and stately oaks, and was, in
short, a plentiful and populous country. Og, king of the Amorites,
possessed this country when Moses made the conquest thereof. In the
division of the Holy Land, it was assigned to the half tribe of
Manasseh. Of the present state of this portion of the ancient
possessions of the Israelites, Mr. Buckingham, in his Travels, gives the
following account: “We ascended the steep on the north side of the
Zerkah, or Jabbok; and, on reaching the summit, came again on a
beautiful plain, of an elevated level, and still covered with a very
rich soil. We had now quitted the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites,
and entered into that of Og, the king of Bashan, both of them well known
to all the readers of the early Scriptures. We had quitted too, the
districts apportioned to the tribes of Reuben and of Gad, and entered
that part which was allotted to the half tribe of Manasseh, beyond
Jordan eastward, leaving the land of the children of Ammon on our right,
or to the east of the Jabbok, which, according to the authority before
quoted, divided Ammon, or Philadelphia, from Gerasa. The mountains here
are called the land of Gilead in the Scriptures, and in Josephus; and,
according to the Roman division, this was the country of the Decapolis,
so often spoken of in the New Testament, or the province of Gaulonitis,
from the city of Gaulon, its early capital. We continued our way over
this elevated tract, continuing to behold, with surprise and admiration,
a beautiful country on all sides of us: its plains covered with a
fertile soil, its hills clothed with forests; at every new turn
presenting the most magnificent landscapes that could be imagined. Among
the trees, the oak was frequently seen; and we know that this territory
produced them of old. In enumerating the sources from which the supplies
of Tyre were drawn in the time of her great wealth and naval splendour,
the Prophet says, ‘Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars,’
Ezek. xxvii, 6. Some learned commentators indeed, believing that no oaks
grew in these supposed desert regions, have translated the word by
‘alders,’ to prevent the appearance of inaccuracy in the inspired
writer. The expression of ‘the fat bulls of Bashan,’ which occurs more
than once in the Scriptures, seemed to us equally inconsistent, as
applied to the beasts of a country generally thought to be a desert, in
common with the whole tract which is laid down in our modern maps as
such between the Jordan and the Euphrates; but we could now fully
comprehend, not only that the bulls of this luxuriant country might be
proverbially fat, but that its possessors, too, might be a race renowned
for strength and comeliness of person. The general face of this region
improved as we advanced farther in it; and every new direction of our
path opened upon us views which surprised and charmed us by their
grandeur and their beauty. Lofty mountains gave an outline of the most
magnificent character; flowing beds of secondary hills softened the
romantic wildness of the picture; gentle slopes, clothed with wood, gave
a rich variety of tints, hardly to be imitated by the pencil; deep
valleys, filled with murmuring streams and verdant meadows, offered all
the luxuriance of cultivation; and herds and flocks gave life and
animation to scenes as grand, as beautiful, and as highly picturesque as
the genius or taste of a Claude could either invent or desire.”