Og King of Bashan the Survivor and the Cubits of the Giants

"For only Og king of Bashan" (Deuteronomy 3:11). Every place where "only" is stated, it indicates a diminution, because Og was lesser and inferior to all the Rephaim who lived in his days, and he remained from the remnant of the Rephaim, from those whom Amraphel and his companions had killed, as it is stated, "and they smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim" (Genesis 14:5); and concerning him it is stated, "And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew" (Genesis 14:13) — and this was Og. And why did he call him "one that had escaped" (palit)? Because he was not reckoned like the rest of the Rephaim. As in the baraita that we learned: "escaped olives" (peletei zeitim) which are not ripened. "Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron." He recounted the greatness and might of the Holy One, blessed be He, that a mighty one such as this He delivered into their hand. "Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon?" Because he knew that the Holy One, blessed be He, had commanded concerning the children of Ammon that they should not provoke them, therefore He placed his bedstead there. "Nine cubits." From here we learn that a giant ('anak) is nine hundred high [i.e., nine cubits], and the rest of the people are four cubits, each one according to his own cubit. "After the cubit of a man" — by the cubit of Og. And therefore Goliath was called "ish ha-benayim," "the champion" (the in-between man) (1 Samuel 17:4), because a giant is greater than nine cubits, and he was middling, for he was only six cubits and a span (ibid.); by two cubits and a span he was greater than another man, and by two cubits and a span he was less than a giant.