town or village

Heshbon

• Today Tell Hesban
• Location disputed

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History

Heshbon is identified with Tell Hesban in Jordan, a high hill about 20 km southwest of Amman and north of Madaba, at the edge of the plateau where the land drops toward the Jordan valley. The Heshbon Expedition of Andrews University dug there from 1968 to 1976, led first by Siegfried Horn and then by Lawrence Geraty, and work has continued under the Madaba Plains Project. No Late Bronze Age town has been found on the hill, and only scattered remains of the twelfth and eleventh centuries BC, so whether Tell Hesban is the Heshbon of Sihon or that town stood elsewhere is disputed.

In Numbers, Heshbon is the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had taken the land of Moab as far as the Arnon. Israel defeated him and dwelt in Heshbon; the children of Reuben built it, it marked the border of Gad, and it became a city of the Levites. Jephthah later reminded the Ammonites that Israel had dwelt in Heshbon for three hundred years. In Isaiah and Jeremiah it is a town of Moab, and Jeremiah also bids Heshbon howl in his oracle against Ammon. The Song of Songs likens the beloved's eyes to the fishpools in Heshbon.

On Tell Hesban a large reservoir was cut and plastered in the Iron Age, and the town of the later Iron Age has yielded Ammonite pottery. In the Hellenistic period a fortress stood on the summit. Josephus lists Heshbon among the towns of Moab held by the Jews at the end of the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, says that Herod settled chosen horsemen in Hesebonitis in Perea, and records that in AD 66 Jewish bands laid waste Sebonitis together with other neighbouring districts.

Under Rome the town, now called Esbus, struck its own coins, and a temple and other public buildings stood on the summit. Early in the fourth century Eusebius describes Esbus as a famous city of Arabia in the mountains opposite Jericho, twenty miles from the Jordan. In the Byzantine period two basilica churches with mosaic floors were built on the hill.

Scripture: Num 21:25–26; Num 21:34; Num 32:37; Josh 13:26; Josh 21:39; Judg 11:26; Isa 15:4; Isa 16:8–9; Jer 48:2; Jer 48:34; Jer 49:3; Song 7:4

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (37)

Num 21:25

And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof.

Num 21:26

For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon.

Num 21:27

Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared:

Num 21:28

For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon.

Num 21:30

We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba.

Num 21:34

And the LORD said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.

Num 32:3

Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon,

Num 32:37

And the children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kirjathaim,

Deut 1:4

After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:

Deut 2:24

Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.

Deut 2:26

And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,

Deut 2:30

But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.

Deut 3:2

And the LORD said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.

Deut 3:6

And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city.

Deut 4:46

On this side Jordan, in the valley over against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they were come forth out of Egypt:

Deut 29:7

And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:

Josh 9:10

And all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth.

Josh 12:2

Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half Gilead, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

Josh 12:5

And reigned in mount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, unto the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

Josh 13:10

And all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, unto the border of the children of Ammon;

Josh 13:17

Heshbon, and all her cities that are in the plain; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon,

Josh 13:21

And all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses smote with the princes of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, which were dukes of Sihon, dwelling in the country.

Josh 13:26

And from Heshbon unto Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim unto the border of Debir;

Josh 13:27

And in the valley, Beth-aram, and Beth-nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, Jordan and his border, even unto the edge of the sea of Chinnereth on the other side Jordan eastward.

Josh 21:39

Heshbon with her suburbs, Jazer with her suburbs; four cities in all.

Judg 11:19

And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place.

Judg 11:26

While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?

1 Chr 6:81

And Heshbon with her suburbs, and Jazer with her suburbs.

Neh 9:22

Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

Song 7:4

Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.

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