region

Plains of Moab

Today Moab

History

The plains of Moab, in Hebrew arboth Moab, are not the Moabite plateau but the lowland at the north-eastern corner of the Dead Sea, where the Jordan valley widens before the river enters the sea, “on this side Jordan by Jericho”. The camp stretched “from Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim”, several kilometres along the foot of the hills north of the lake shore, watered by the streams coming down from the Moabite heights. The plateau above had been Moab's and then Sihon's; Israel took it from the Amorites, which is why the plain bears Moab's name though it was not Moabite land when Israel came.

Here the wanderings ended. While Israel camped on these plains, Balak king of Moab sent for Balaam; here, at Shittim, “the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab” and the plague followed; here Moses and Eleazar took the second census, the war against Midian brought its captives “unto the camp at the plains of Moab”, and the laws of the cities of refuge and of Zelophehad's daughters were given, “the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab”. Deuteronomy is Moses' farewell spoken “in the land of Moab”, and its covenant is set “beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb”. Moses went up from the plains to Nebo and died, and “the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days”. Joshua's spies left from Shittim, and from here the people crossed the Jordan.

Josephus places Moses' last assembly at Abila, a place full of palm trees, sixty furlongs from the Jordan; Eusebius still knew a village Isimouth opposite Jericho, ten miles to the south by the Dead Sea, and put Shittim near Mount Peor. The plain is dotted with mounds of the Bronze and Iron Ages: Tall el-Hammam, the largest, Tell Iktanu, Tall Nimrin and Tall el-Kafrayn, several of them proposed for Abel-shittim or Beth-jeshimoth, none proven. Today it is the Jordan Valley district around South Shuna and Sweimeh in Jordan, irrigated farmland and Dead Sea hotels, with Mount Nebo looking down on it from the east and Jericho across the river.

Scripture: Num 22:1; Num 25:1; Num 26:3; Num 31:12; Num 33:48–50; Num 35:1; Num 36:13; Deut 1:5; Deut 29:1; Deut 34:1; Deut 34:5–8; Josh 2:1; Josh 3:1; Josh 13:32

Sources

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 4.176 (Moses assembles the people at Abila, “a place full of palm-trees”); 5.4 (from Abila to the Jordan, sixty furlongs)
Eusebius, Onomasticon, s.v. Bethasimuth; Sattim
N. Glueck, Explorations in Eastern Palestine IV (Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 25-28, 1951)
K. Prag, 'Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Tell Iktanu, Jordan, 1987', Levant 21 (1989)
J. W. Flanagan, D. W. McCreery and K. N. Yassine, 'First Preliminary Report of the 1989 Tell Nimrin Project', Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 34 (1990)
S. Collins, C. M. Kobs and M. C. Luddeni, The Tall al-Hammam Excavations, vol. 1 (2015)
B. MacDonald, “East of the Jordan”: Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures (2000)

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

Verses (12)

Num 22:1: And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho.
Num 26:3: And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,
Num 26:63: These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.
Num 31:12: And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.
Num 33:48: And they departed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.
Num 33:49: And they pitched by Jordan, from Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab.
Num 33:50: And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,
Num 35:1: And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,
Num 36:13: These are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.
Deut 34:1: And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,
Deut 34:8: And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
Josh 13:32: These are the countries which Moses did distribute for inheritance in the plains of Moab, on the other side Jordan, by Jericho, eastward.

King James Version