BASHAN bā’ shən, bā’ shăn (בַּבָּשָֽׁן, always appearing with definite article as הַבָּשָׁ֑ן, “the Bashan”; fertile, fruitful, stoneless plain). The fertile tract of country on the E side of the upper Jordan, adjacent to the Sea of Galilee. Although it is impossible to determine its exact boundaries, Bashan appears to have been bounded by Mount Hermon on the N, Salecah on the E, Gilead on the S, Geshur and Maacah on the W. The Yarmuk River coursed through the southern area. Bashan included the regions of Argob (Deut 3:4) and Golan (4:43, also a city), and the cities of Edrei (3:1), Karnaim, Ashtaroth (1:4; Josh 9:10), and Salecah (Deut 3:10). In the Gr. period its cities included Hippos, Dion, Gamala, and Seleucia.
In the time of Moses the land was inhabited by a people of large and strong build, known as the Rephaim (cf. Gen 14:5). The last of its kings was Og, who slept on a bed 13 1/2 ft. long (Deut 3:11). He was defeated by the armies of Moses at Edrei (Num 21:33-35; Deut 3:1-9) and all of Bashan’s sixty cities were taken and destroyed (3:4-6). Bashan was part of the land assigned to the half-tribe of Manasseh (3:13). Golan was set apart as one of the three cities of refuge E of the Jordan (4:41-43). Among the thirteen cities given to the Gershonites, a family of Levites, were two cities of Manasseh in Bashan (Josh 21:6). Certain tribes of Gad also settled in Bashan (1 Chron 5:11, 12). The land was invaded by Tilgath-pilneser III (745-727 b.c.), king of Assyria, who carried many of the inhabitants away and resettled them in other cities of his empire (5:26).
Bashan was a broad, fertile plateau ranging from 1,600 to 2,300 ft. in height. It was well adapted for raising cattle (Ps 22:12; Ezek 39:18) and was celebrated for its sheep and goats (Deut 32:14), and great groves of oak trees (Isa 2:13; Ezek 27:6; Zech 11:2). Amos compared the sleek, pleasure-loving women of Samaria to the cows of Bashan (Amos 4:1). Jeremiah predicted that Israel would be restored after the Babylonian captivity and would feed again in Bashan (Jer 50:19).
Archeology has not yet unearthed any evidence of the Rephaim, although there is archeological confirmation that the area was continually occupied from the Early Bronze period (c. 3200-2300 b.c.). The Brussels texts (dating from the second part of the 19th cent.) mention Ashtaroth in Bashan. During the period of the divided monarchy, it was seized by Damascus. It became identified with Hauran at a later period.
The ancient name has survived in Batanea of Gr. and Rom. times and in the Arab. el-Bathaniyeh. The present area of Jolan, as well as Gaulanitis, the Gr. term for this area, can be traced to the city of Golan, though the exact site has not been found. It is most likely that the famous oaks of Bashan were situated in the Jolan area which is still wooded in places.
Bibliography A. Heber-Percy, A Visit to Bashan (1895); G. Ernest Wright, Biblical Archaeology (1957), 29, 48, 72, 73, 146, 184; M. Noth, The Old Testament World (1966), 63, 73; Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible (1967), 133.