Sihon, King of the Amorites

Mighty Brother of Og

While much of the attention of the war between the Israelites and Amorites is focused on Og, the king of the Amorites proper was actually Sihon. This is curious because Og is not actually listed as the “primary” king, but rather the king of Bashan, a northern province, not actively under focus on settlement by the Israelites. This means Og felt a need to come to the aid of Sihon, implying some sort of deeper relationship. According to Rabbeinu Bahya, there is a tradition that both Og and Sihon were actually brothers which would make Sihon also a Rephaim: “we have a tradition that Og and Sichon were brothers”.¹

Bahya continues with the obvious question “The problem with this Midrash is that seeing that Sichon and Og were brothers and only Og had survived the deluge and we have a tradition that only eight people survived the deluge, i.e. Noach, his three sons and his wife and their respective wives, where did Sichon originate? How could he have been a brother of an antediluvian Og?”² Indeed, how were these two brothers if one of them was born before the flood? Either, Sihon was also born before the flood and survived, or Og wasn’t actually the same figure as the one who survived the flood - perhaps “Og” was a descendant of the informant of Abraham who remains nameless?

Returning to Rabbeinu who reaffirms our questions “If the sages describe Og and Sichon as brothers and they mean “biological brothers sharing the same father and mother,” Moses should have been afraid of both of them as the merit of their ancestor would protect both of them. We must assume therefore that they were half-brothers sharing only the same mother so that Sichon who was not fathered by a direct descendant of the original Og would not be able to count on the merit from the original Og.”³ Simple explanation, Sihon and Og were brothers through their mother, and Og, king of Bashan, was the son of the Rephaim king Og who latched onto the ark. Og was a giant, and not Sihon, but both were potentially Amorite through their shared mother.

Easy. Or, it would be if there were contradictory Midrash we also learn from Bahya who seems to share many of the same questions we would have on the subject. Rabbeinu says “I have found a Midrash that both Og and Sichon were sons of Mechazael, who was one of the people described in Genesis 6,2 as בני האלו-הים (compare Niddah 61). According to this Midrash Mechazael had sexual relations with the wife of Cham shortly before they entered the ark and Sichon was born while Noach and family were in the ark. This would explain why Cham had intercourse with his wife while in the ark (although it had been forbidden) so as to clear his wife from suspicion of infidelity. According to the opinion of our sages that Og and Sichon were biological brothers we must assume that Sichon was also extraordinarily old at that time. G’d had a special reason why He granted both these individuals such a long life. Who can fathom what G’d had had in mind?”⁴ Not only are we given the names of Og and Sichon’s father, but a suspicious story about Ham’s wife becoming pregnant by a “Bene Elohim” - another term for the giants known as Nephilim - and birthing Sichon on the ark.

This would strike me as extremely unlikely if it wasn’t for Rabbeinu Bahya (ben Asher, not ibn Paquda) being a reliable and verified source from the 12th century. The problem with this story is that it doesn’t really explain Og. The assumption the story leaves us with is that Og was born before the flood to the same father as Sichon, but a different mother, and clung to the ark as other Midrash state, and perhaps this would be why Noah felt some camaraderie toward Og feeling the need to feed him. Again, this inverts the other story where they share a mother, claiming they share the same father.

Now, given that Bahya only cites a Midrash that doesn’t frequently appear in commentary and is rarely cited within Rabbinic literature it’s highly probable something went awry in the retelling. The dual claims of different mothers, and different fathers is already odd, but the attempt to explain Sichon and Og as brothers with a lengthy story about Ham’s wife’s infidelity is already an overly complicated reasoning. The linkage of both of them to a descendant of the Bene Elohim named Mechazael is also questionable given there are no other sources even containing such a name. We will fully address the concept of Bene Elohim being angelic creatures who procreate with the children of Adam, but for now this question isn’t critical given the medieval 12th century obsession with angelology making it probable there are many such angelic names we simply have no modern record for due to their mystical tendency to get hidden away.

Either helpfully, or unhelpfully (I will leave this up to reader interpretation) we are given another identification for the fathers of both Sichon and Og from the Kitzur Baal HaTurim: “Sihon and Og were the sons of Shamhazai and Azazel, and they fell from the sky during the days of the Flood.”⁵ Good grief does this complicate things given this reaffirms not only the fallen - read Nephilim in Hebrew - background for these kings fathers, but actually provides two separate fathers for the brothers implicitly hinting they shared a mother. This is actually the most cogent argument yet since it squares away with the belief that Og was born before the flood, but it throws into question Sichon’s birth since the Bene Elohim, sons of the Nephilim, were born in the period before the flood. How did Sichon survive if he was ‘brother’ of Og? Either Og was born after the flood, or Sichon was born before under all of the frameworks we have seen so far - and none of them satisfy the explanation.

The citation on this actually comes from a higher source than Bahye potentially ruling out the Midrash of Bahye and even if it was written by a Talmudic Sage, it was not included directly in the Talmud itself making its validity questionable. “The Gemara asks: Now, Sihon and Og were brothers, as the Master said: Sihon and Og were sons of Ahijah, son of Shamhazai.”⁶ This is gonna get dikduk (fine, hairsplitting), but stick with me.

The Kitzur gives the two fathers for Sichon and Og as Shamhazai and Azazel respectively. The Gemara says Sichon and Og were, quite importantly, “sons” of Ahijah, who was himself a son of Shamhazai. The Gemara is saying they had the same father, who was a descendant of the Nephilim - fallen angel, Rephaim, or Bnei Elohim - known as Shamhazai. Furthermore, it’s pretty clear the name Azazel is awfully similar to Mech-aza(z)el explaining Bahya’s usage of the name. This would make both of them giants, but question where the Kitzur and Bahye came up with Azazel.

Thankfully there is a simple explanation from Midrash where we learn of an association between Azza and Shamhazai - Shamhazai’s proper name often being Samyaza. Potentially both Azazel and Shamhazai are linked figures, maybe even the same angel under different names explaining why the Kitzur lists Samyaza along with Azazel; they are the same figure.⁷ A potential cause of this might be in the name Shamhazai itself, with the prefix “Sham” meaning “name” in Hebrew being removable from the term leaving Yaza, or Hazai as leftovers for the full term “named Yaza/Hazai”.

The only mention of this Shamhazai from classical literature is actually this one reference to him as grandfather of Sichon and Og, with Og’s claim of descent from the Rephaim being the only verifiable information linking Shamhazai with the ‘fallen angels’ known as Nephilim.⁸ There is the apocryphal ‘Book of Enoch’ that expands upon Samyaza as leader of the band of angels known as the Bnei Elohim, or ‘Sons of God’ known also through other non-canonical texts such as the Book of Giants and Book of Jubilees who categorizes them among the Watchers. We will leave a discussion of these different giant groups for the next section.

Before we close out, we actually still have answered almost nothing. Who even is Ahijah? The only Ahijah mentioned prior to Israelite conquest is Ahijah, son of Bela ben Beor, first Edomite king. This Ahijah seemingly is different from Ahijah ben Shamhazai, with little further literature to explain an origin for the father of Sichon and Og.

If Sichon and Og are brothers, how did they share an angelic father when only Og survived the flood? Them being brothers implies Sichon must have survived as well, but there are seemingly competing Midrashic traditions for everything. Some do not believe they are brothers, some feel Og, brother of Sichon, is different from the Og who informed Abraham, and a minority do not even believe Og survived the flood! Reiterating an earlier point, Og is absolutely mysterious and one of the more challenging figures to interpret.

Finishing off with my own interpretation, I would agree that Og survived the flood, possibly being the same figure that informed Abraham of Lot’s capture. I do not think Og was the direct son of Nimrod, but I do believe he was the son of another giant who was born before the flood, a ‘Bene Elohim’, most probably named Shamhazai - whose alternative name was Azza, Azazel, or even Mechazael. Is it possible the tradition linking Nimrod and Og as Nimrod’s son is found among the mystery of Ahijah, or might be explained by Nimrod being a son of Cush through a mother herself descended from the Bene Elohim?

I would assert the claim that Og was multiple figures, potentially like the figure of Nimrod, who acted as more of an “Og-ite royal dynasty” in the region leading the local Amorites specifically as antediluvian giant heroes. Remember, if Nimrod was Amraphel, and Amraphel is linked to Hammurabi who was himself a royal Amorite, then it’s very likely these Amorite Kings all were linked to the same pre-Flood dynasty of mighty heroes; being giant in their own right.

I do not think Og and Sihon were full brothers through this figure named Ahijah, but were the half-brother sons of Ahijah through two different mothers with one of those mothers being Sichon’s Amorite mother, and the other potentially being one of the wives, or daughters of Nimrod accepted into his royal harem as a sign of political allegiance. It does not appear they shared a mother, given their very different physical qualities. This would explain why Sichon was not as mighty in stature as Og both lacking the purity of giant bloodline, but also lacking his more noble ancestry linked to the mighty king Nimrod who was greatest among even the giants.

Sadly this only provides one explanation that still doesn’t square away competing traditions of Og as an immortal giant from before the Flood with the Gemara stating both Sichon and Og were sons of Ahijah. What would synthesize these might actually be that strange story of Ham’s wife being pregnant with Sichon while on the ark. While sharing the same father, Ham’s wife was the mother of Sichon, and Og was the born of a different mother - again possibly related to a bene Elohim woman from Nimrod’s dynasty - before the ark. Under this framework Ham’s wife would be Nimrod’s grandmother, since his father was Cush, making Cush direct brothers with Sichon. This also positions Nimrod related to Sichon, with Sichon being his uncle. Sichon is brothers with Og through a shared father, but a different mother, and therefore different grandmother than Nimrod.

1. Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 21:34:1

2. Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 21:34:4

3. Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 21:34:2

4. Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 21:34:5

5. Kitzur Baal HaTurim 6:4:1

6. Niddah 61a:17

7. Ginsberg, The Legends of the Jews III, 17

8. Kosior, Wojciech (2021-01-01). "'The Affair of Uzza and Azael' (b. Yoma 67b). The Creation of Demons and the Myth of the Fallen Angels in the Babylonian Talmud". Henoch. Historical and Textual Studies in Ancient and Medieval Judaism and Christianity.