Edrei

Edrei is a town of Bashan that stands at the center of Israel's defeat of Og and afterward becomes part of the Transjordanian inheritance of Manasseh. It is named only in connection with that battle and the territorial allotment that follows from it.

The Battle with Og

The first appearance of Edrei is the battlefield. As Israel turns toward Bashan, Og marches out to engage them: "And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei" (Nu 21:33). The Speech of Yahweh promises Moses the outcome before the engagement: "And [the Speech of] Yahweh said to Moses, Don't fear him: for I have delivered him into your hand, and all his people, and his land; and you will do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon" (Nu 21:34). The battle ends in total defeat: "So they struck him, and his sons and all his people, until there was left him none remaining: and they possessed his land" (Nu 21:35).

Deuteronomy retells the same engagement in the first person and locates Og's seat at Ashtaroth, naming Edrei as the place of the encounter: "after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtaroth, at Edrei" (De 1:4). The fuller retelling repeats the battlefield, the divine word of assurance, and the outcome: "Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. And [the Speech of] Yahweh said to me, Don't fear him; for I have delivered him, and all his people, and his land, into your hand; and you will do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon. So Yahweh our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we struck him until none was left to him remaining" (De 3:1-3).

Allotted to Manasseh

After the conquest, Edrei is assigned with Ashtaroth and the rest of Bashan to the half-tribe of Manasseh — specifically to the sons of Machir: "and half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh, even for the half of the sons of Machir according to their families" (Jos 13:31). The town that had been Og's stronghold becomes a Manassite possession.