A region located east and northeast of the Sea of Galilee. Its exact boundaries are unclear, but it extended about 35 to 40 miles (55 to 64 kilometers) from the foot of Mount Hermon in the north to the Yarmuk River in the south. It stretched around 60 to 70 miles (97 to 113 kilometers) eastward from the Sea of Galilee.
The region (also called “Hauran,” in Ezekiel 47:16, 18) is mostly a fertile tableland 1,600 to 2,300 feet (488 to 701 meters) above sea level. Its rich volcanic soil is well watered because the low hills of southern Galilee to the west allow rains to reach farther inland than in most other places along the Palestinian coast. Today, as in ancient times, it is a productive agricultural region. In New Testament times, it was a grain-producing area of the Roman Empire. Bashan was known for its high-quality cattle and sheep (Dt 32:14; Ez 39:18; Am 4:1).
In the patriarch Abraham’s day, Bashan’s inhabitants were giantlike people called Rephaim (Genesis 14:5). Og, the last of the Rephaim, was an enemy of the Israelites when they were trying to enter Canaan after leaving Egypt and wandering in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 29:7). Og was defeated and killed by the Israelites (Numbers 21:33–35).
Bashan's prosperity at that time is shown by the fact that one of its provinces, Argob, had 60 large walled cities (Deuteronomy 3:4–5). The main cities of Bashan were:
After the Israelites conquered the land east of the Jordan River, Bashan was given to the half-tribe of Manasseh (Joshua 13:29–30). Golan and Ashtaroth, two cities in Bashan, were set aside for the Levites (1 Chronicles 6:71). Ben-geber of Ramoth-gilead managed Argob, a region in Bashan, for King Solomon (1 Kings 4:13).
In the days of Jehu (841–814 BC), King Hazael of Syria conquered the area (2 Kings 10:33). Tiglath-pileser III later incorporated Bashan into the Assyrian Empire in the eighth century BC (2 Kings 15:29). The Nabateans held it in the second century BC, and Herod the Great (37–4 BC) ruled over it at the time of Jesus’s birth.