ערי ממלכת עוג בבשן....כי רק עוג מלך הבשן נשאר, the reason why he ruled in that district was because he was the only one remaining from the Refaim of old. Ever since the war between Amrafel and his allies who defeated the Refaim on their way to Sodom at Ashterot Karnayim (Genesis 14,5), there were numerous individual Refaim remaining. These defeated the Ammonites as mentioned in 2,21. During that war against the Ammonites only Og survived. Seeing that he was a famous hero, equaling the combined power of all the other Refaim, he was the one who ruled.

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).

ואת ידך החזקה, demonstrated by overriding well known laws of nature. No one but the Creator of the universe is able to do this. Moses credits G’d with having done all this only in order to be able to bring the Jewish people to the Holy Land. In view of the length to which G’d had gone to do this it behooves the people to do everything in order to justify their remaining in that land.

אעברה נא, in order to exterminate all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan in order that the Jewish people will never be exiled from that land. (compare our author on 1,34)

ואראה את הארץ הטובה, let me see it so that I can bless it with the blessing that its goodness be at the Jewish people’s service for ever.

ויתעבר ה' בי למענכם, G’d was angry at me for trying to ensure your permanent stay in that land while He had already decreed that at a certain point in history your descendants would be exiled among the gentiles.