Charles Ellicott Commentary Deuteronomy 3:11

"(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.)" — Deuteronomy 3:11 (ASV)

Of the remnant of giants —that is, of the nation of Rephaim in this region. (See Note on Genesis 14:5.)

His bedstead. —The word may mean either bedstead or coffin. Both the word for “bedstead” and the word for “iron” have given rise to some discussion and difficulty. An iron bedstead and an iron coffin are almost equally improbable.

Basalt has been suggested as an alternative. But although there is basalt in Argob, there is none in Rabbath-Ammon. Conder, who has recently explored Rabbath, has discovered a remarkable throne of stone on the side of a hill there, and he suggests that the Hebrew word rendered “bedstead,” which properly signifies a couch with a canopy, may apply to this.

The word for “iron” (b arz îl) in Talmudical language also means “a prince,” and this meaning has been suggested for the name Barzillai, which we find in the same district in later times. “His canopied throne was a princely one, and still remains in Rabbath of the Ammonites,” would be the meaning of the passage, on this hypothesis. The dimensions of the throne recently discovered are said to be nearly those given in this verse.

After the cubit of a man — Ish (not adam) is the distinctive and emphatic word for a man. Some think that the cubit of any man is meant; others that the man himself for whom it was made, namely Og, is intended. (Compare Revelation 21:17, according to the measure of a man—i.e., of an angel.)