Hebrew word · H709

אַרְגֹּב

'argo

Argob

A place name for a district in Bashan (Deut 3:4, 13, 14; 1 Kgs 4:13). The same form is a personal name in 2 Kgs 15:25. It is often traced to regeb, 'clod of earth' (Job 21:33; 38:38), giving 'clod-land' or 'stony ground', but that is a guess based on the sound of the word.

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Argob = "heap of clods"

a district or area in Bashan

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Deuteronomy 3:4

Range of meaning

A place name for a district in Bashan (Deut 3:4, 13, 14; 1 Kgs 4:13). The same form is a personal name in 2 Kgs 15:25. It is often traced to regeb, 'clod of earth' (Job 21:33; 38:38), giving 'clod-land' or 'stony ground', but that is a guess based on the sound of the word.

Against the English

English versions simply transliterate it as 'Argob'. The ancient versions interpreted it: Targum Onkelos renders it as Trachona, that is, Trachonitis, the rugged lava field later called the Lejah.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Kgs 4:13 places 'the district of Argob in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars' under Solomon's officer Ben-geber. Joshua 13:30 counts 'sixty towns' of Jair in Bashan. Targum Onkelos and later Jewish tradition identify Argob with Trachonitis.

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 3

  1. Deuteronomy 3:4 אַרְגֹּ֔ב Argob

    At that time we captured all sixty of his cities. There was not a single city we failed to take—the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

    Here: Name of a district within Bashan. It is often linked to regeb, 'clod of earth', which would make it the 'clod' or 'stony' district. That origin is uncertain, and so is the exact location (see debates).

  2. Deuteronomy 3:13 הָֽאַרְגֹּב֙ <the> Argob

    To the half-tribe of Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og. (The entire region of Argob, the whole territory of Bashan, used to be called the land of the Rephaim.)

  3. Deuteronomy 3:14 אַרְגֹּ֔ב Argob

    Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. He renamed Bashan after himself, Havvoth-jair, by which it is called to this day.

1 Kings · 1

  1. 1 Kings 4:13 אַרְגֹּב֙ Argob

    Ben-geber in Ramoth-gilead (the villages of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead belonged to him, as well as the region of Argob in Bashan with its sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 15:25 אַרְגֹּ֣ב Argob

    Then his officer, Pekah son of Remaliah, conspired against him along with Argob, Arieh, and fifty men of Gilead. And at the citadel of the king’s palace in Samaria, Pekah struck down and killed Pekahiah and reigned in his place.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.