Aroer on the Arnon
עֲרֹעֵר
Where was biblical Aroer on the Arnon? At Khirbet 'Ara'ir, on the rim of the Arnon gorge, in Jordan, about 55 km south of Amman. I mark it certain.
Moses' conquest of Sihon's kingdom started here, at the fort on the lip of the Arnon canyon. For generations afterward Aroer marked the place where the land of the eastern tribes ended and Moab began.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Khirbet 'Ara'ir, on the rim of the Arnon gorge, in Jordan
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Aroer by the Arnon, Khirbet 'Ara'ir, 'Ara'ir, Arair
- Location
- 31.4714° N, 35.8218° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The village beside the ruin is called 'Ara'ir. That is Aroer in Arabic, with almost nothing lost.
The Bible keeps placing it "on the edge of the Arnon valley." Moses counts the conquest from Aroer north to Gilead. Joshua makes it the southern border of Reuben. When Hazael of Aram stripped Israel of the land east of the Jordan, the text measures his gains from the same spot. Stand at the ruin and the canyon drops away in front of you. The text isn't being poetic. It's being literal.
King Mesha of Moab also left his mark here. On his stone he claims that he built Aroer and made the highway in the Arnon. That describes a fort guarding the road down into the gorge. Excavators uncovered a square fortress with walls inside walls, and dated it to Mesha's rebuilding in the 9th century BCE. Nabateans and Romans lived here later.
Jeremiah pictured Aroer's people standing beside that road, asking the refugees streaming past what had happened to Moab.
Don't confuse this town with the Aroer in the Negev near Be'er Sheva. That is a different place with the same name.
Visiting today
The ruins of the square fortress lie beside the village of 'Ara'ir, a short drive from the Wadi Mujib overlook on the King's Highway.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Aroer on the interactive map →
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