Bashan

Bay´shuhn; Heb., “smooth, soft earth”

The fairly level, very fertile, grain-producing plateau of south Syria extending across the Yarmuq to the foothills of Gilead. In pre-Israelite days, Bashan included the territory of King Og (Num 21:33; Num 32:33; Deut 1:4; Deut 3:4; Josh 9:10; Neh 9:22). The fat bulls and cows of Bashan were proverbial (Ps 22:12; Amos 4:1), as were rams, lambs, and goats, “all of them fatlings of Bashan” (Ezek 39:18).