The Cubit of Og

Towards the end of parshat Devarim, we hear about Og, and possibly his dimensions:

יא כִּי רַק-עוֹג מֶלֶךְ הַבָּשָׁן, נִשְׁאַר מִיֶּתֶר הָרְפָאִים--הִנֵּה עַרְשׂוֹ עֶרֶשׂ בַּרְזֶל, הֲלֹה הִוא בְּרַבַּת בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן: תֵּשַׁע אַמּוֹת אָרְכָּהּ, וְאַרְבַּע אַמּוֹת רָחְבָּהּ--בְּאַמַּת-אִישׁ.

11 For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.--

But what is meant by "after the cubit of a man"? I would suggest straight-off that the cubit was a standard measurement, and that different cubits developed for different purposes. Indeed, we see even in the gemara that there were two cubits, one made of six tefachim and one made of five tefachim. And this amah used in this verse might be different from the one used for certain construction purposes, and so the unit of measurement is defined.

But Onkelos maintains that this means the amah of the king:

"Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron: is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon, nine cubits its length, and four cubits its breadth, in the cubit of the king?"

This, again, might merely be a way of specifying the particular unit, given that Ish means someone special and might by extension convey royalty, such that the royal cubit is the measure here. However, given that Og was the king of Bashan, as we see in this very pasuk, it is possible that it means beAmat Og.

Targum Pseudo-Yonatan has a similar idea, in which the cubit is explicitly his own. Thus:

For only Og king of Mathnan remained of the remnant of the giants who perished in the deluge. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; behold, it is placed in the archive‑house in Rabbath, of the Beni Ammon, nine‑cubits its length, and four cubits its breadth, in the cubit of his own (stature).

Rashi echoes this idea, but since it seems quite possible that Targum Pseudo-Yonatan was composed some time after Rashi, he would likely have gotten it from an interpretation of Targum Onkelos. Rashi writes:

according to the cubit of a man: I.e., according to the cubit of Og [from the elbow to the end of the middle finger].

באמת איש: באמת עוג:

Ibn Ezra disagrees. He writes:

באמת איש -

באמת כל אדם והנה הוא כפול.

ולא יתכן להיות באמתו, כי מה בא הכתוב ללמד?!ק

ועוד: שלא יהיה בצלם אדם כלל

"In the cubit of man" -- in the cubit of every person, and behold it is doubled {language}. And it is not possible that it is in his own cubit, for then what would the verse be informing us of?! And furthermore, he would not be in the form of a human being at at.

His point is two-fold. First, that if the point is to measure the bed and thus to measure Og, and yet the measurements are in Og's measurements, then we don't learn anything at all. For a "cubit" here can mean anything, and Og was about 9 of this arbitrary measurement tall! This indeed tells us nothing. Secondly, these dimensions are not the dimensions of a human. Perhaps because 9 high and 4 across does not accord with human dimensions. But also, if I may expand with my own thought here, because a person's armspan (fingertip to fingertip) is the same as his height. This means that, given an amah as elbow to middle-finger, a person is about 3 cubits high. If his height was that much greater (3X) than what we would expect it to be, then his dimensions are quite strange, and non-human. (Though see this.)

Perhaps I can suggest a way in which the pasuk would be informing us something. The verse does say, after all, where the bed is. If someone would travel to Rabbat Bnei Ammon, he could see Og's bed. Then, knowing that the height is 9 cubits, he could deduce Og's cubit, and based on that, deduce Og's height. But that does not seem to be the intent of the pasuk. Rather, it is to describe to someone not traveling to Rabat Bnei Ammon just how big Og's bed is.

Rashbam explains that it means the measure of a regular human being, though a fully grown one. He understands arso to refer to Og's crib, such that even as a baby, he was this big, and all the more so once he had grown. And that is why one would refer to ish, a fully grown human:

הנה ערשו -

עריסה של קטן כשהיה תינוק בירצי"ל בל"א.

באמת איש -

שהגדיל כל צרכו.

And Ramban presents two ideas (I think)

וטעם באמת איש -
הגדול בבני אדם, כמו וחזקת והיית לאיש (מ"א ב ב).

ועל דעת אונקלוס:

באמת איש, באמת האיש, ותרגום מלך.

וכן את הכבש אחד (במדבר כח ד), בלילה הוא (בראשית יט לג), וכן רבים, כלומר באמת עוג עצמו

, one in which it means "the largest of humans," and one based on Onkelos in which it refers to the cubit of Og himself.

I think that Ibn Ezra is correct, but then what do we make of Og's dimensions? Let us say that an amah is between 1 1/2 and 2 feet. 9 cubits then is between 13.5 and 18 feet. Other midrashim, of course, place Moshe at 10 cubits tall and Moshe only 1/3 up to Og's ankle, but we are not considering the midrash but the pasuk. Based on derech hateva -- and it seems that for the Refaim, derech hateva should be in play here -- this does not seem a possible height for a human being.

There seem to be various approaches one can take here. For example, it seems that archaeologists have the architecture in particular in ancient Canaan was on a massive scale. Thus, for example, the gates of the towns were built as if for giants. Maybe this indicates the actual presence of giants, or maybe it indicates that this was their mode and style of construction, for other purposes. It certainly could act to scare away invaders. Look at how the scouts noted that the cities were betzurot until the heavens. This was a guzma, but not by much when compared with the reality.

The pasuk does not state Og was X tall and Y wide. Rather, it refers to the bed, or cradle of Og. Why mention that it was of iron? The point is to show his great power. He was a mighty king, who slept on an iron bed; or else, even his cradle was of iron. Did the bed reflect his dimensions? Perhaps, but perhaps they reflected his might; and perhaps they were part of an effort to increase his prestige and frighten his enemies.

Even if it did somehow accord with his dimensions, Og did not necessarily match the dimensions of his bed precisely. A midrash explains the practice of the Sodomites of stretching guests or amputating guests to match their assigned beds precisely. But that Og slept in a king-sized bed does not mean that he was precisely 4 cubits wide. There would be room for him to roll around, and perhaps room for his wife or wives. Similarly, this does not mean that he was precisely 9 cubits tall. He might have been much taller than we might expect, but not necessarily out of the bounds of possibility. So 9 cubits might have ended up as 8 cubits.

Also -- though this might annoy some people -- how big is an amah? Yes, halachically, it has a definition. But if an amah is a description of arm length, and arm length correlates to height, and an amah is amat ish, a typical person's amah, that of a beinoni, then just how tall was the average Israelite?

According to this website, pretty small. Despite claims by the Chazon Ish that people must have shrunk because the niskatnu hadoros:

What was the average height of an Israelite during the time of the judges (14th to 11th centuries B.C.)? The roof height of excavated houses of that period suggests the typical Israelite was only about 5 feet tall.

While our about 6-foot people have about 3 cubits, such that each cubit is 2 feet, a five-foot tall Israelite would have each cubit as 5/3 = 1.6666 feet. But this is an overestimate, I think. But shrink the average height, and perhaps shrink the amah. And maybe this amah did not extend to the end of the middle finger, but to the wrist. My point in all this speculation is that if we change the amah, we change the overall height. With shorter humans and a shorter portion of the arm, it is quite plausible to have an amah as a foot or smaller. And he is not entirely equal to his bed. Which would make Og very tall, but not necessarily impossibly so.

One final point. If Ibn Ezra were looking for pesukim to label as possibly by Yehoshua, this would be a good candidate. (Alternatively, stated by Moshe and perhaps invoking prophecy, if needed.) It seems targeted, like a tourist guide, at an audience who has not or experienced Og's might and/or stature. This would not be the Israelites of the wilderness. Rather, a people who did not witness the might and downfall of Og firsthand would need to know Og's dimensions, and so the pasuk describes it; and can learn more by going to Rabbat Bnei Amon and seeing his crib or bed. Sort of like the ad hayom hazeh, it seems targeted to a later audience.

There are other points to make about this, but enough for now.