BASHAN, If:)B and jtjB71; Samaritan Vers. ; Targ. pml, Ps. lxviii. 15, also /inn ; the latter Buxtorf suggests may have originated in the mistake of a transcriber, yet both are found in Targ. Jon. ; Dent. xxxiii. 22 ; v. Lex. Talm. col. 370; Sept. Bacrdv and Baccukris ; Josephus and Eusebius, Baravafa. El Bottein is the modern name. The word probably denotes the peculiar fertility of the soil : in the ancient versions, instead of using it as a proper name, a word meaning fruitful or fat is adopted. Thus in Ps. xxii. 13, for Bashan, we find in Sept. roves ; Aquila, Xerrapof ; Symmachus, ; and Vulg. Pinguis (Ps. lxvii. 16) (lxviii. 15) for hill of Bashan; Sept. bpos j Jerome (v. Bochart, Flierozoicon, pars i. col. 531), moos The sacred writers include in Bashan that part of the country eastward of the Jordan which was given to half the tribe of Manasseh, situated to the north of Gilead. Bochart incorrectly places it between the rivers Jabbok and Amon • and speaks of it as the allotment of the tribes of Reuben and Gad (Num. xxxii. 33). The first notice of this country is in Gen. xiv. 5. Che dorlaomer and his confederates smote the Re phaims in Ashtaroth Karnaim.' Now Og, king of Bashan, dwelt in Ashtaroth, and `was of the remnant of the Rephaim ' (` giants ' Auth. Vers.), Joshua xii. 4. When the Israelites invaded the Promised Land, Argob, a province of Bashan, contained ' sixty fenced cities, with walls and gates and brazen bars, besides unwalled towns a great many' (Deut. iii. 4, 5 ; 1 Kings iv. r3). These were all taken by the Israelites, and Og and his people utterly destroyed. Golan, one of the cities of refuge, was situated in this country (Dent. iv. 43 ; Josh. xx. S ; xxi. 27). rr) Barapezci& (Joseph. Antiq. iv. 7. sec. 4). Solomon appointed twelve officers to furnish the monthly supplies for the royal household, and allotted the region of Argob to the son of Geber (i Kings iv 13). Towards the close of Jehu's reign, Hazael in vaded the land of Israel, and smote the whole eastern territory, even Gilead and Bashan' (2 Kings x. 33 ; Joseph. Antiq. ix. S. sec. i) ; but after his
death the cities he had taken were recovered by Jehoash (Joash) (2 Kings xiii. 25), who defeated the Syrians in three battles, as Elisha had predicted (2 Kings xiii. 19 ; Joseph. Antiq. ix. 8. sec. 7). After the captivity the name Batanma was applied to only a part of the ancient Bashan; the rest being called Trachonitis, Auranitis, and Gaulanitis (v. Lightfoot's Choropuphical Notes upon the places mentioned in St. Luke : Works, vol. x. p. 282). All these provinces were granted by Augustus to Herod the Great, and on his death Batanna formed a part of Philip's tetrarchy (Joseph. De Bell. yid. ii. 6. sec. 3 ; Antiq. xviii. 4. sec. 6). At his de cease, A.D. 34, it was annexed, by Tiberius, to the province of Syria ; but in A.D. 37 it was given by Caligula to Herod Agrippa, the son of A ristobulus, with the title of king (Acts xii. r ; Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 6. sec. to). From the time of Agrippa's death, in A. D. 44, tO A. D. 53, the government again reverted to the Romans, but it was then restored by Claudius to Agrippa IL (Acts xxv. 13 ; Joseph. Antiq. xx. 7. sec. 1).
The richness of the pasture-land of Bashan, and the consequent superiority of its breed of cattle, are frequently alluded to in the Scriptures. We read in Deut. xxxii. 14, of rams of the breed (Heb. sons) of Bashan ;' and in Ezek. xxxix. IS, Rams, lambs, goats, and bullocks, all of them fatlings of Basilan.' The oaks of Bashan are mentioned in connection with the cedars of Lebanon (Is. ii. 13; Zech. xi. 2). In Ezekicl's description of the wealth and magnificence of Tyre it is said, Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars' (xxvii. 6). The ancient commentators on Amos iv. 1, ' the kine of Bashan,' Jerome, Theodoret, and Cyril, speak in the strongest terms of the exuberant fertility of Bashan (Bochart, Hierozoicon, pars i. col. 306), and modern travellers corroborate their assertions (v. Burckhardt's Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, pp. 286-288 ; Buckingham's Travels in Palestine, through the countries of Basilan and Gilead, London, 1822, vol. ii pp. 112-117).— J. E. R.