Page:Light and truth.djvu/115

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ancient cities and kingdoms.
113

Bethhoron. It is thought to be the city which is called by Ptolemy, Avara, and by Josephus, Orona.

Jahaz. (Num. xxi. 23.) A city on the northern frontier of the Moabites, in the vicinity of which, Moses defeated the army of Sihon, on his refusal to permit him to pass through it peaceably. (Josh. xiii. 18.) It is called by Ptolemy, Ziza.

Luhith, a city of Moab. (Isa. xv.5.) Its name in Josephus and Ptolemy, is Lyssa.

Mizpeh. (1 Sam. xxii. 3.) A town of Moab, where David placed his father and mother during his reverses.

Medeba, a city of Moab. (Numb. xxi. 30; Josh. xiii. 16.) It was destroyed about the days of Isaiah, and rebuilt some considerable time before the advent of our Lord.

The plains of Moab, (Num. xxii. 1; xxxiii. 48—50,) were situated east of Jordan and the Dead Sea, on both sides of the Arnon. The country belonged principally to the Amorites, north of the Arnon, where the Israelites encamped before the passage of the Jordan. Afterwards it fell to the lot of Reuben. The inhabitants were called Moabites, and the country derived its name from Moab.

Nimrim. (Isa. xv. 6.) A stream in the north part of Moab, near the village of Beth-nimrah, (Num. xxxii. 36,) the ruins of which now bear the name of Nimrein.

Kir, a city of Moab. Isa. xv. 1.) The bulwark or principal fortress of Moab, called Kirharesheth, (Isa. xvi. 7.) Kerek, or Karak, [the modern name of the same place,] is found south of the Dead Sea. Many of the ruins of the ancient fortress are discernible; and a traveller, who was there in 1822, tells us that the population consisted of four hundred Turks, and one hundred and fifty nominal Christians.

Kirjathaim. (Josh. xiii. 19.) One of the oldest towns eastward of Jordan. It was once the possession of the Emims, and was then called Shaveh, or the plain of Kiriathaim, (Gen. xiv. 5,) and is afterwards spoken of as a city of Moab. (Jer. xlviii. 23.) There was a town of this name in Naphtali. (1 Chron. vi. 76.)