the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Abel-Shittim
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or ("the meadow or moist place of acacias".) In the plains of Moab, the "Arboth Moab by Jordan Jericho," on the level of the Jordan, in contrast to "the fields" on the higher land. That is to say, it was in the Arabah or Jordan valley opposite Jericho, at that part which belonged to Moab, where the streams from the eastern mountains flourished many acacias. The last resting place of Israel before crossing Jordan (Numbers 33:49; Numbers 22:1; Numbers 26:3; Numbers 31:12; Numbers 25:1; Joshua 2:1; Joshua 3:1; Micah 6:5). Josephus names it: "Abila, 60 stadia from Jordan, embosomed amidst palms, among which Moses delivered Deuteronomy." The acacias still fringe with green the upper terraces of the Jordan. Near mount Peor, at Shittim, in the shade of the acacia groves, Israel was seduced to Baal Peor's licentious rites; and here also Israel's judges, by Moses' direction under God, slew all the men seduced by Midian and Moab under Balaam's Satanic counsel (24,000) into whoredom and the worship of Baal Peor (Numbers 25:1; Numbers 31:16).
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Abel-Shittim'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/a/abel-shittim.html. 1949.
