Abila – 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, circa 12 km northeast of the north shore of the Dead Sea; the site is now that of Abil-ez-Zeit, Jordan. [1] Abel-Shittim (Hebrew meaning "Meadow of the Acacias"), is found only in Num. xxxiii. 49; but Ha-Shittim (Hebrew meaning "The Acacias"), evidently the same place, is mentioned in Num. xxv. 1, Josh. iii. 1, and Micah, vi. 5. It was the forty-second encampment of the Israelites and the final headquarters of Joshua before he crossed the Jordan. Josephus (Ant. iv. 8, § 1; v. 1, § 1) states that there was in his time a town, Abila, full of palmtrees, at a distance of sixty stadia (seven and one-half Roman miles) from the Jordan, and describes 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. In I Sam vi. 18, the words "even unto the great stone of Abel" can contain no allusion to Abel-Shittim. The Gutenberg Bible owned by the United States Library of Congress The Bible (Hebrew: תנ״ך tanakh, Greek: η Βίβλος hÄ“ biblos) (sometimes The Holy Bible, The Book, Work of God, The Word, The Good Book or Scripture), from Greek (τα) βίβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, is the name used by Jews and Christians for their... This article is about the Jordan River and its valley in western Asia. ... Moab (מוֹאָב, Standard Hebrew Moʾav, Tiberian Hebrew Môʾāḇ Greek Μωάβ; Assyrian Muaba, Maba, Maab; Egyptian Muab) is the historical name for a mountainous strip of land in modern-day Jordan running along the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. ... Perea (the country beyond), a portion of the kingdom of Herod the Great occupying the eastern side of the Jordan River valley, from about one third the way down from the Sea of Galilee to about one third the way down the eastern shore of the Dead Sea; it did... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). ... Dead Sea at Sunset (from Suwayma, Jordan) The Dead Sea (Hebrew ים המלח) , (Arabic البحر الميت) is the lowest exposed point on the Earths surface. ... Hebrew (עִבְרִית ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Jewish communities around the world. ... The Book of Numbers is the fourth of the books of the Pentateuch, called in the Hebrew ba-midbar במדבר, i. ... The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... // Who wrote it? Micah wrote the book in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, roughly 735-700 BC Few Old Testament scholars today would defend Micahs authorship of the entire book. ... An Israelite is a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of the Biblical patriarch Jacob who was renamed Israel by God in the book of Genesis, 32:28 The Israelites were a group of Hebrews, as described in the Bible. ... Josephus (c. ... Moses or Móshe (מֹשֶׁה, Standard Hebrew, Tiberian Hebrew Mōšeh, Arabic موسى MÅ«sa, Geez ሙሴ Musse) is a legendary Hebrew liberator, leader, lawgiver, prophet, and historian. ... Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible. ... The Books of Samuel, also referred to as [The Book of] Samuel (Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל), are (two) books in the Hebrew Bible (Judaisms Tanakh and originally written in Hebrew) and the Old Testament of Christianity. ...

References

• Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (ISBN 069103169X), p. 71.
• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia.
• This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.

Richard J.A. Talbert (born 1947 in England) is a contemporary British ancient historian on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is William Rand Kenan, Jr. ... The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World is a large-format atlas of ancient Europe, Asia, and North Africa, edited by Richard Talbert. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... Eastons Bible Dictionary generally refers to the Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, by Matthew George Easton M.A., D.D. (1823-1894), published three years after Eastons death in 1897 by Thomas Nelson. ...

External links

• Hazlitt, Classical Gazetteer, "Abila"