Deuteronomy 3:11

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).

a man’s cubit i.e., a normal man’s cubit — thus indicating that he was twice an ordinary man’s size (it is implausible that Scripture meant his own cubit, because then Scripture would be telling us nothing about his size — and moreover, it would imply that he was not at all shaped like a human being).

FOR ONLY OG KING OF BASHAN REMAINED OF THE REMNANT OF THE REPHAIM; BEHOLD, HIS BEDSTEAD WAS A BEDSTEAD OF IRON etc. The purport of the verse is to tell that this Og was called the king of the Amorites because he ruled over them, but he himself was of the Rephaim. And in order to tell of his height and strength, since the Rephaim were a people great, and many, and tall as the Anakim, it states that his bedstead was a bedstead of iron, no bedstead of wood being able to support him as it does other people. It is in the city of Rabbah which was his dwelling place, and when the children of Ammon destroyed the Rephaim as is mentioned above,, Verse 21. and his city [Og’s capital, Ashtaroth] was captured, he alone was saved from the hands of the Ammonites. It is this which is stated, For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed was left there in Rabbah which now belongs to the children of Ammon, and the Ammonites preserved it as testimony that they destroyed a great and tall people; and the mighty man whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks — from him they captured his kingdom. This is the sense of the word behold [behold, his bedstead …], meaning: “behold, the proof of [Og’s strength] still exists; it is the iron bedstead, very long and wide, and is to be found in Rabbah of the children of Ammon,” since his bedstead, which was in Ashtaroth, was plundered and lost.

NINE CUBITS WAS THE LENGTH THEREOF [of Og’s bedstead], AND FOUR CUBITS THE BREADTH OF IT, AFTER THE CUBIT OF A MAN. The meaning of after the cubit of a ‘man’ is that of the biggest man [i.e., Og], just as the expression, be thou strong and show yourself a man [which means “a strong man”]. And in the opinion of Onkelos, after the cubit of ‘a’ man means “after the cubit of ‘the’ man,” and the translation thereof [in Aramaic] is “the king” [indicating that no ordinary man is meant here — “the” man means the king]. Similarly, eth hakeves echad [which literally means: “the one lamb” — should be eth hakeves ha’echad: “the one ‘specific’ lamb”]; balailah hu [should be: balailah hahu — “in ‘that’ night”]. There are many similar cases. That is to say, [after the cubit of a man means] after the cubit of [“the” man] — Og himself.

'כי רק עוג מלך הבשן וגו, because he had survived from the time when giants walked the earth, G’d told Moses not to be afraid of him. (verse 2)

הנה ערשו, his crib when he was still growing up;

ערש ברזל, he was already so strong when he was still quite young that when he stretched out his bed frame would collapse. As a result, they made an iron bedstead for him. An adult would not have needed this as he would have known how to move around in it without breaking it.

הלה היא ברבת עמון, it has still been preserved on the site where he had grown up in order for anyone seeing it to be amazed by it. One does not make a spectacle of the bedstead of an adult in one location as adults move around and sleep in many different beds at different times.

באמת איש, of a fully grown man. [the אמה is the length from one’s elbow to the fingertips. Naturally, this differed in length at different times in one’s adolescence. Ed.]

באמת איש; according what the Refaim had adopted as their standard cubit, i.e. a much longer one than that of average sized citizens. Such subjective, as opposed to standard. measurements, are mentioned in Isaiah 56,11 where the prophet speaks of איש לבצעו מקצהו, “every one has done his own thing.” The word איש also occurs describing such individual feats in Kings I 20,20 ויכו איש אישו, “each man struck the opponent facing him.” There are other verses in which the word איש does not mean “man,” but is a simile for the individual nature of something, No doubt there were many “cubits” other than the one described here as 9 times the length of the cubit of an average sized individual. The reason the Torah relates this historically hardly important information is to impress the reader with the extraordinary size of these Refaim. The strength of such giants can be imagined once we are aware of their size. The fact that the Ammonites had been able to defeat a nation whose warriors were of such proportions gives us a clear indication that it must have been G’d’s will that they were able to do so. (compare our commentary on 2,21).