Abila (Peraea)

Coordinates: 32°40′52″N 35°52′11″E / 32.68111°N 35.86972°E / 32.68111; 35.86972 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 an acacia grove not far from the place, although the palms mentioned by Josephus are no longer there.

Notes

1. ↑ http://www.ancientlibrary.com/gazetteer/0004.html
2. ↑ Ant. iv.8, § 1; v.1, § 1
3. ↑ 9 kilometres (6 mi)

References

• Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), p. 71.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Abel-shittim". Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.  Check date values in: |date= (help)

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Abel-shittim". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.