Coordinates: 32°40′52″N 35°52′11″E / 32.68111°N 35.86972°E Abila(Arabic: ابيلا) – also, Biblical: Abel-Shittim or Ha-Shittim (or simply Shittim) – was an ancient city east of the Jordan River in Moab, later Peraea, near Livias, about twelve km northeast of the north shore of the Dead Sea; the site is now that of Abil-ez-Zeit, Jordan.[1] Abel-Shittim (Hebrew meaning "Meadow of the Acacias"), is found only in Num. xxxiii.49; but Ha-Shittim (Hebrew meaning "The Acacias"), evidently the same place, is mentioned in Num. xxv.1, Josh. iii.1, and Micah, vi.5. It was the forty-second encampment of the Israelites and the final headquarters of Joshua before he crossed the Jordan. Josephus[2] states that there was in his time a town, Abila, full of palmtrees, at a distance of sixty stadia[3] from the Jordan, and describes it as the spot where Moses delivered the exhortations of Deuteronomy. There is to this day[when?] an acacia grove not far from the place, although the palms mentioned by Josephus are no longer there.
Notes
- ^ http://www.ancientlibrary.com/gazetteer/0004.html
- ^ Ant. iv.8, § 1; v.1, § 1
- ^ 9 kilometres (6 mi)
References
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
- This article incorporates text from the entry Abel-shittim in Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), a publication now in the public domain.
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