According to the catalogue of the Stations of the Exodus in Chapter 33 of the Book of Numbers, the forty-first and penultimate station was located in the Mountains of Abarim, in the vicinity of Mount Nebo:
And they removed from Almondiblathaim, and pitched in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. And they departed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. And they pitched by Jordan, from Bethjesimoth even unto Abelshittim in the plains of Moab. (Numbers 33:47-49)
The main Exodus narrative in Numbers 21, however, does not mention the Mountains of Abarim, though it does mention Pisgah:
And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ijeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising. From thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zared. From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab. And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves. And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah: And from Mattanah to Nahaliel: and from Nahaliel to Bamoth: And from Bamoth in the valley, that is in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looketh toward Jeshimon. (Numbers 21:11-20)
As we have seen, there is some overlap between these two accounts:
Pisgah and Nebo are generally considered to refer to one and the same mountain, an equation that is justified by a passage in Deuteronomy: And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. (Deuteronomy 34:1)
Bethjesimoth and Jeshimon may refer to one and the same place—possibly Khirbet es-Suweimeh, near the northeastern shore of the Dead Sea.
The locations and identities of Beer, Mattanah, Nahaliel, and Bamoth remain subjects of speculation and scholarly debate.
Abarim and Nebo
According to Louis Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews, Mount Abarim was another name for Mount Nebo, the mountain peak from which Moses glimpsed the Promised Land:
The place whence Moses looked upon the Holy Land was a mountain that bore four names: Nebo, Abarim, Hor, and Pisgah ... God’s command to Moses to betake himself to Mount Nebo, and there to die, was couched in the following words: “Get thee up into this mountain of Abarim.” (Ginzberg 443 ... 445)
This is also stated in the Midrash, rabbinic commentaries on the Hebrew Bible:
John McClintock and James Strong suggest that these synonyms may also have been names for the entire mountain range that lies to the east of the Dead Sea:
Numbers 21 and 33 can be reconciled with each other, therefore, if we accept the equation of Nebo and Abarim, identifying them with the modern Mount Nebo. Before descending into the Jordan valley opposite Jericho, the Israelite made their last halt somewhere on or at the foot of Mount Nebo.
From Almon Diblathaim to Mount Nebo
If Almon Diblathaim was located at Khirbet Deleilet esh-Sherqiyeh, then the journey to Mount Nebo would have been about 17 km long as the crow flies, or about 20 km on foot. If the Israelites were covering 24-32 km per day (Hoffmeier 120), they could quite easily have completed this leg of their Exodus in a single day. The distance from Mount Nebo to the River Jordan opposite Jericho is about 22 km as the crow flies and perhaps 32 km on foot—a journey which could also have been completed in a single day.
Sihon and Og
According to the Exodus narrative in Numbers 21, Moses and the Israelites did not simply pass through Northern Moab on their way to Canaan: they conquered it by defeating Sihon, the king of the Amorites. And that was not the extent of their conquests in Transjordan: we are also told that they defeated Og, whose kingdom of Bashan lay much further north:
And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king's high way, until we be past thy borders. And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness: and he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel. And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon: for the border of the children of Ammon was strong. And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof ... Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there. And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei. And the Lord said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon. So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left him alive: and they possessed his land. (Numbers 21:21-25 ... 31-35)
The conquest of Sihon’s kingdom in Northern Moab makes some sort of sense—Moses and the Israelites passed through Northern Moab on their way to Canaan—though the River Jabbok enters the River Jordan about 30 km north of Jericho. On the other hand, the conquest of Bashan at this stage of the Exodus makes little sense. Bashan lay beyond the Jabbok, extending as far north as Mount Hermon—176 km north of Jericho.
Sihon and Og were Amorite kings, so it is possible that a genuine tradition which recalled how the Israelites had fought against Amorites in Northern Moab grew in the telling until it was claimed that Moses had defeated all the Transjordanian Amorites and taken possession of their land. It is even possible that the conquest of Sihon’s kingdom was a later addition to a simpler narrative. At least one Biblical scholar—Rachel Havrelock—has suggested that the Amorite kingdoms of Sihon and Og were late fictions.
The lands allegedly ruled by Sihon and Og were later occupied by the Tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the eastern Half-Tribe of Manasseh. It would make more sense if we placed their colonization after the conquest of Canaan proper.
Conclusion
The 41st Station of the Exodus, the Mountains of Abarim, was located on or at the foot of Mount Nebo.
And this is a good place to stop.
To be continued ...
References
- Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, Volume 3, Translated from the German by Paul Radin, The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia (1911)
- Rachel Havrelock, _ Inventing the Mythic Amorite Kingdom of Sihon_, The Torah, Project TABS (2015)
- James K Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition, Oxford University Press, Oxford (2005)
- John McClintock, James Strong, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 1, Harper & Brothers, New York (1880)
- James Orr (General Editor), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volume 1, The Howard-Severance Company, Chicago (1915)
- Isidore Singer (managing editor), The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Funk & Wagnalls Co, New York (1901)
Image Credits
- Mount Nebo: Panorama from Ras Siyagha, © Madain Project, Fair Use
- Mount Nebo and the Approaches to Jericho: University of Texas Libraries, Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Jerusalem, D Survey, Great Britain War Office and Air Ministry (1960), Public Domain
- The Amorite Kingdoms of Sihon and Og: © Janz, Creative Commons License
- The Tribes of Israel and their Territories: © Janz, Creative Commons License
- The Conquest of the Amorites (Tissot): James Tissot (artist), Public Domain
