the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Heshbon
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or HESHBON is the modern Hesbân , finely situated close to the edge of the great plateau of Eastern Palestine. The extensive ruins, mainly of Roman times, lie on two hills connected by a saddle. The site commands views, E. and S., of rolling country; N., of hills, including e.g. that on which el-‘At (Elealeh) lies; and W., in the distance, of the hills of Judah, and nearer, through a gap in the near hills, of the Jordan valley, which lies some 4000 feet below, the river itself being barely 20 miles distant. Allotted to Reuben ( Joshua 13:17 ), Heshbon appears in the OT most frequently as being, or having been, the capital of Sihon (wh. see), king of the Amorites ( Deuteronomy 2:26 and often), or, like many other towns in this neighbourhood, in the actual possession of the Moahites ( Isaiah 15:4; Isaiah 16:8 f., Jeremiah 48:2; Jeremiah 48:34 f.), to whom, according to Numbers 21:26 , it had belonged before Sihon captured it. Jeremiah 49:3 , which appears to make Heshbon an Amorite city, is probably corrupt (cf. Driver, Book of the Prophet Jeremiah ). According to Josephus ( Ant . XIII. xv. 4), it was in the hands of the Jews in the time of Alexander Jannæus (b.c. 104 78). The pools in Heshbon, mentioned in Song of Solomon 7:4 , were perhaps pools near the spring which rises 600 feet below the city, and in the neighbourhood of which are traces of ancient conduits.
G. B. Gray.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Heshbon'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/h/heshbon.html. 1909.
