Deuteronomy 2:36

From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river Arnon.... Upon the border of Moab, and the principal city of it; see Jeremiah 48:19 and from the city that is by the river; or even the city that is in

Aroer was in the border of Moab, but now in the hands of the Amorites. By the river, Heb. in the river, wherewith it was encompassed, ,28 Joshua 12:2 13:9. He speaks exclusively, for this was Ar, which now was in the Moabites’ jurisdiction, above, .

(36) Aroer.—According to Conder, “the ruin ‘Ar ‘Air, on the north bank of Wâdy Môjib.” (But he makes the Aroer of Num 32:34 a different place, and marks it as unknown. Why?) The city that is by the river.—The description suggests Rabbath-ammon, but this cannot be referred to here.

Verse 36. From Aroer - by the brink of the river of Arnon] See Clarke on Numbers 21:13, &c.

36. From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon] The Naḥ ?al ’Arnon = Wβdy Mτjeb, see above Deuteronomy 2:24. Edge, Heb. lip. ‘Arτ‘er is frequently given in the O.T. as a S. limit:—e.g. of the territory taken by Israel from Sξḥ ?τn (here, and Deuteronomy 3:12, Deuteronomy 4:48, Joshua 12:2; Joshua 13:9; Joshua 13:16); of the kingdom of Israel (2 Samuel 24:5 emended after LXX; 2 Kings 10:33). ‘I built,’ says Mesha (Moabite Stone, 27), ‘‘Arτ‘er and made the high-way by the ’Arnon.’ Jeremiah 48:19 connects ‘Arτ‘er with a high-road. Eusebius describes it as above ’Arnon, ‘on the eyebrow of the hill.’ To-day the Khirbet ‘Arβ‘er, ruins of a walled town on the N. edge of the W. Mτjeb, here nearly 2000 feet deep, with an ancient zig-zag road down the precipitous slopes to the bed of the Wβdy (Tristram, Moab, 125 ff.; Musil, Moab, 331, with plan and views). It lies nearly 2 miles E. of the Roman road, the present high road across ’Arnon, and must not be confounded with the ruins called ‘Aḳ ?raba close to the latter (cp. Brόnnow, Provincia Arabia, i. 31; and the present writer, PEFQ, 1905, 41); an error into which several travellers have fallen. the city that is in the valley] The valley or naḥ ?al is, of course, the ’Arnon or Wβdy Mτjeb, the S. frontier of Sξḥ ?τn’s kingdom. The site of the unnamed city is uncertain. Its frequent association with ‘Arτ‘er as on a S. frontier (e.g. here, Joshua 13:9; Joshua 13:16, 2 Samuel 24:5) may imply that it lay close under ‘Arτ‘er on the stream; where to-day ruins stand with the name Khreibet ‘Ajam1[113]; in which case the city has been added to ‘Arτ‘er in order to define the exact border as the stream, and its namelessness is explicable by its having been a mere suburb or the toll-town of ‘Arτ‘er. Or else, since ‘Arτ‘er lay towards the W. end of the S. frontier of Sξḥ ?τn’s kingdom formed by the ’Arnon, the city in the valley lay further up the ’Arnon and so defined the E. extremity of the S. border. Musil suggests Medeyyneh on the upper stretch of ’Arnon, now the W. Sa‘ideh or Sa‘ξdeh (Moab, 328 ff.). It lies on a projection of the plateau into the Wβdy, and might well be described as the city in, or in the midst of, the naḥ ?al. This is the same site as Musil proposes for ‘Ar or ‘Ir of Mo‘ab, also given as a limit (see on Deuteronomy 2:18); the identification of which had already been made on Biblical data alone (Dillm. in loco). [113] There are other ruins a little further E. up the stream at its confluence with that from the S. and these Grove (Smith’s D.B. 1st ed.) takes as the city in question.even unto Gilead] E, Numbers 21:24, defines more exactly unto the Jabboḳ ?, the next great natural frontier N. of Arnon. Gile‘ad lay on both sides of Jabboḳ ?, which divided it into halves.

Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon - Aroer stood on the north bank of the river, and was assigned Joshua 13:9, Joshua 13:16 to the tribe of Reuben, of which it formed the most southerly city.

36. From Aroer — This city was on the north bank of the Arnon, and was given to the tribe of Reuben. Joshua 13.