Abila (Peraea)

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.

Abel-Shittim, (Hebrew meaning "Meadow of the Acacias"), is found only in Numbers xxxiii.49; but Ha-Shittim (Hebrew meaning "The Acacias"), evidently the same place, is mentioned in Numbers xxv.1, Joshua iii.1, and Micah, vi.5. It was the forty-second encampment of the Israelites, associated with Israelite cultural integration and inter-marriage with the Moabite residents, the heresy of Peor and the Covenant of Peace according to which God recognized the zeal of Phinehas and the permanence of the Aaronic priesthood. It was also the final headquarters of Joshua before he crossed the Jordan.

The location is translated as Shittim in the Geneva Bible, Jerusalem Bible, King James Version, New International Version and New Revised Standard Version. The Complete Jewish Bible and Orthodox Jewish Bible both translate as Sheetim. The Good News Translation has Acacia Valley and the New King James Version has Acacia Grove.

Josephus stated that there was in his time a town, Abila, full of palm trees, at a distance of sixty stadia from the Jordan, and described 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.

References

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

Attribution

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•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: