Place · City
Edrei
Named in 8 verses across 3 books, first in Numbers 21:33.
In the Bible
All 8 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Numbers
- Numbers 21:33
Then they turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his whole army came out to meet them in battle at Edrei.
Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 1:4
This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and then at Edrei had defeated Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.
- Deuteronomy 3:1
Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his whole army came out to meet us in battle at Edrei.
- Deuteronomy 3:10
all the cities of the plateau, all of Gilead, and all of Bashan as far as the cities of Salecah and Edrei in the kingdom of Og.
Joshua
- Joshua 12:4
And Og king of Bashan, one of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei.
- Joshua 13:12
the whole kingdom of Og in Bashan, who had reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei and had remained as a remnant of the Rephaim. Moses had struck them down and dispossessed them,
- Joshua 13:31
half of Gilead; and Ashtaroth and Edrei, the royal cities of Og in Bashan. All this was for the clans of the descendants of Machir son of Manasseh, that is, half of the descendants of Machir.
- Joshua 19:37
Kedesh, Edrei, En-hazor,
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. Its geography and “modern” descriptions date from the 1890s. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
One of the chief towns of the kingdom of Bashan (Josh. 12:4, 5). Here Og was defeated by the Israelites, and the strength of the Amorites broken (Num. 21:33-35). It subsequently belonged to Manasseh, for a short time apparently, and afterwards became the abode of banditti and outlaws (Josh. 13:31). It has been identified with the modern Edr’a, which stands on a rocky promontory on the south-west edge of the Lejah (the Argob of the Hebrews, and Trachonitis of the Greeks). The ruins of Edr’a are the most extensive in the Hauran. They are 3 miles in circumference. A number of the ancient houses still remain; the walls, roofs, and doors being all of stone. The wild region of which Edrei was the capital is thus described in its modern aspect: “Elevated about 20 feet above the plain, it is a labyrinth of clefts and crevasses in the rock, formed by volcanic action; and owing to its impenetrable condition, it has become a refuge for outlaws and turbulent characters, who make it a sort of Cave of Adullam...It is, in fact, an impregnable natural fortress, about 20 miles in length and 15 in breadth” (Porter’s Syria, etc.). Beneath this wonderful city there is also a subterranean city, hollowed out probably as a refuge for the population of the upper city in times of danger.