Deuteronomy 3:4

3:4 Argob might be synonymous with Bashan or might refer to a heavily populated part of Bashan.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 4. All the region of Argob] כל חבל ארגב col chebel Argob, all the cable or cord of Argob; this expression, which is used in various other parts of Scripture, (see, in the original, Am 7:17; Mic 2:5; De 32:9; Ps 16:6), shows that anciently land was measured by lines or cords of a certain length, in a similar way to that by the chain among us, and the schoenus or cord among the Egyptians. Some think that it was the region of Argob that was afterwards called the region of Trachonites.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(4, 5) These details are not given in Numbers. Professor Porter, in the Griant Cities of Bashan, has well described the impression made upon him by verifying this description in detail. “The whole of Bashan,” he says, “is not larger than an ordinary English county.” That “sixty walled cities, ‘besides unwalled towns a great many,’ should exist in a small province, at such a remote age, far from the sea, with no rivers and little commerce, appeared to be inexplicable. Inexplicable, mysterious though it appeared, it was true. On the spot, with my own eyes, I had now verified it. A list of more than one hundred ruined cities and villages, situated in these mountains alone, I had in my hands; and on the spot I had tested it, and found it accurate, though not complete.” Many of the cities in the mountains are not ruins. Rooms, doors, bars are entire to this day. The region of Argob is distinctly marked out by its natural boundaries, and well described by the same writer.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. all the region of Argob] So Deuteronomy 13 f.; 1Ki_4:13 and nowhere else. The Heb. for region means a definitely measured or outlined piece of land, and ’Argob seems connected with regeb, clod, and analogous to our ‘glebe.’ The Targums take it as Trachonitis or the Trachon of the Greek period, now the Lejá, the mass of lava, 24 miles by 10 to 20, which lies on Ḥauran like an ebony glacier with irregular crevasses. Sharply marked off by its abrupt edge from the surrounding plain it holds considerable means of subsistence, with the ruins of many villages and towns, and might well have been, at this as at other periods, the centre or distinctive feature of a province or kingdom. The identification with ’Argob, accepted by many, is thus not unnatural; nor if we take ’Argob as meaning ‘clumpy’ is this an unsuitable name for the cleft masses of lava, like frozen mud, of which it is composed. But other parts of Ḥauran are also distinct from the rest, e.g. the fertile en-Ṇukra or ‘Hollow Hearth’ of the Arabs; or the almost as fertile W. slope of the Jebel Ḥauran. Both of these bear ruins of ancient towns, while some may be of immemorial antiquity. Nothing however has been discovered either there or throughout Bashan which is recognisable as older than the Greek period.—Euseb. and Jer. give Ragaba as a village near Geresa, in Gile‘ad, cp. Jos. XIII. Ant. xv. 5; and to-day Rajeb or Rujeb is the name of a Wâdy and village also in Gile‘ad. This is noteworthy in view of the fact that one O.T. tradition appears to connect Argob with Gile‘ad; see below.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And we took all his cities at that time,.... Not only Edrei where the battle was fought, and Ashteroth his capital city, but all the rest in his kingdom:

there was not a city which we took not from them; not one stood out, but all surrendered on summons; the number of which follows:

three score cities; which was a large number for so small a country, and shows it to be well inhabited:

all the region of Argob; which was a small province of

the kingdom of Og in Bashan: Aben Ezra and Jarchi observe, that it was called after a man, i.e. whose name was Argob; the Targum of Onkelos names it Tracona, and the Targum of Jonathan Targona, the same with Trachonitis in Josephus and other authors; see Luk 3:1, Jerom relates (h) that in his time, about Gerasa, a city of Arabia, fifteen miles from it to the west, there was a village which was called Arga, which seems to carry in it some remains of the ancient name of this country; and the Samaritan version, in all places where Argob is, calls it Rigobaah; and in the Misnah (i) mention is made of a place called Ragab, beyond Jordan, famous for its being the second place for the best oil.

(h) De loc. Heb. fol. 87. M. (i) Misn. Menachot, c. 8. sect. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Threescore cities - Probably the cities of Jair in Bashan described in Deu 3:14 as Bashan-havoth-jair.

All the region of Argob - The Hebrew word here rendered “region,” means literally “rope” or “cable”; and though undoubtedly used elsewhere in a general topographical sense for portion or district (e. g. Jos 17:5), has a special propriety in reference to Argob (mod. Lejah). The name Argob means “stone-heap,” and is paraphrased by the Targums, Trachonitis Luk 3:1, or “the rough country;” titles designating the more striking features of the district. Its borders are compared to a rugged shore-line; hence, its description in the text as “the girdle of the stony country,” would seem especially appropriate. (Others identify Argob with the east quarter of the Hauran.)

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Country. Hebrew, "the line" with which lands were measured, chap. xxxii. 9. --- Argob may signify rich and fertile; "all that fertile region, the kingdom of Og." Vatable thinks that Basan, Argob, and Trachonitis, denote the same country. But Cellarius observes, that the last mentioned country was ill cultivated and very poor, the inhabitants living mostly in the caverns of rocks, whereas Argob or Basan was adorned with 60 cities.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Argob; a province within Bashan, or at least subject and belonging to Bashan, as appears from Deu 3:13; 1Ki 4:13; called Argob possibly from the name of a man, its former lord and owner.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. Threescore cities, all the region of Argob — In every instance in which Argob is mentioned there is accompanying it the descriptive word חבל, rope. Our translators have rendered it “region” in one place and “country” in another. It evidently means a sharply defined border, as if measured by a line or rope. Porter’s Giant Cities of Bashan says: “It thus describes with singular accuracy and minuteness the rocky rampart which encircles the Lejah,” the modern name of Argob. The Argob is a vast field of basalt placed in the midst of a fertile plain. Its surface has an elevation of about thirty feet, and its border is clearly defined by a bank of broken cliffs. In this region were the sixty cities mentioned in the text.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Threescore cities; probably the same as the Bashan-havoth jair, afterwards mentioned (ver. 14). The region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. The region of Argob comprised the kingdom of Og, and Bashan was another name for the same country; extending from the Jabbok to Hermon, and embracing both the northern part of Gilead, and what was afterwards in a stricter sense Bashan, viz. the land north of the Wady Zerka (hod. Jebel Ajlan) to Hermon. The name Argob is supposed by some to be given to the district from a town of that name, fifteen Roman miles eastward from Gerasa, a city of Arabia (Eusebius); but more probably it is derived from the character of the district, either as deep-soiled (from bgr, a clod), or as rugged and uneven (bwOgr, from bgr; akin to r; to heap up), just as the neighboring district to the east and northeast received the name Traohonitis (from tracwn, rough, rugged); in the Targum, indeed, Trachona (anwkrf) is the name given here for Argob. This district is now known as the province of El-Lejah (The Retreat). It is described as oval in form, about twenty-two miles long by fourteen wide; a plateau elevated about thirty feet above the surrounding plain. Its features are most remarkable. It is composed of a thick stratum of black basalt, which seems to have been emitted in a liquid state from pores in the earth, and to have flowed out on all sides till the whole surface was covered. It is rent and shattered as if by internal convulsion. The cup-like cavities from which the liquid mass was projected are still seen, and also the wavy surface such as a thick liquid generally assumes which cools as it is flowing. There are deep fissures and yawning gulfs with rugged, broken edges; and there are jagged mounds that seem not to have been sufficiently heated to flow, but which were forced up by some mighty agency, and then rent and shattered to their centers. The rock is filled with air-bubbles, and is almost as hard as iron. (Dr. Porter, in Kitto, "Biblical Cyclopaedia," 3:1032; see also the same author"s "Five Years in Damascus," 2:240, etc.; and "The Giant Cities of Bashan"; Burckhardt, "Travels in Syria," p. 110, etc.; Wetstein, "Reisebericht fib. Hauran," p. 82, etc.; a paper by Mr. Cyrill Graham in the Cambridge Essays for 1858; and Smith"s "Dictionary," art. "Trachonitis.") The entire trans-Jordanic region was thus captured by the Israelites.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

חבל ארגב [ALL] THE LINE OF ARGOB — We render this in the Targum by בית פלך טרכונא Now I have seen that the Jerusalem Targum of the Scroll of Esther terms a palace טרכונין. I learn from this that חבל ארגב signifies “the province of the Royal Palace”, denoting that the province is called after its name (after the name of the palace). Similarly, also the term ארגוב found in the Book of Kings (2 15:25) where the meaning is that Pekah the son of Remaliah slew Pekahia the son of Menahem near the king’s palace (את ארגוב), I learn that thus (after the palace) was the province named.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.