Bible Encyclopedias
Ar; Ar of Moab

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ar , mō´ab ( ער , ‛ār , עי־מואב , ‛ār -mō'ābh ; Ἤρ , Ḗr ; Ἀροήρ , Aroḗr or Σηείρ , Sēeı́r ): The city of Ar is named in a snatch of ancient song (Numbers 21:15 ), literally "the site of Ar." It is identical with "Ar of Moab" (Numbers 21:28; Isaiah 15:1 ). This is probably the place called the City of Moab in Numbers 22:36 , where the Hebrew is ‛ı̄r mō'ābh ̌ . It is probably also intended by "the city that is in the middle of the valley" (Deuteronomy 2:36; Joshua 13:9 , Joshua 13:16; 2 Samuel 24:5 ). It lay "on the border of the Arnon, which is in the utmost part of the border" (Numbers 22:36 ). A possible identification might be the ruin noted by Burckhardt, in the floor of the valley, on a piece of pasture-land below the confluence of the Lejjun and the Mōjib . Buhl however thinks that not a city but a Moabite district somewhere in the region south of the Arnon may be intended (GAP , 269).