BOZRAH, from a root "restrain," a sheepfold, Septuagint version of Jeremiah 49:22. Jobab is styled "of Bozrah" (Genesis 36:33) among the kings of Edom (1 Chronicles 1:44).
1. Now El-busaireh, containing about 50 houses and a castle on a hill, in the mountain district S.E. of the Dead Sea, half way between Petra and the Dead Sea. Burckhardt saw goats in large numbers there, just as Isaiah (Isaiah 34:6) describes; compare Isaiah 63:1; Amos 1:12; Micah 2:12.
2. Another Bozrah in Moab, in "the plain country," i.e. the high level downs E. of the Dead Sea (Jeremiah 48:21-24), enumerated among the cities of Moab. The Bozrah of Edom on the mountains (Jeremiah 49:13) and Edom's other cities are to be "perpetual wastes"; but the Bozrah of Moab "in the plain" is to be restored "in the latter days" (Jeremiah 48:47). Though not mentioned elsewhere, this Bozrah of Moab, where kings were "sheepmasters" (2 Kings 3:4), would be a name ("sheepfold") of probable occurrence. Others identify this Bozrah with the Roman Bostra in Bashan, 60 miles from Heshbon, containing magnificent remains; Jeremiah's including the cities "far and near' may favor this view; but Jeremiah 48:21, "in the plain," seems to mark it among the other Moabite cities.