Heshbon
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
Where was biblical Heshbon? At Tell Hesban, near Madaba, in Jordan, about 55 km east of Jerusalem. I mark it probable.
Sihon king of the Amorites ruled from Heshbon. He refused to let Israel pass, came out to fight them at Jahaz, and lost his whole kingdom, the tableland north of the Arnon.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tell Hesban, near Madaba, in Jordan
- How sure
- Probable The best case we have, with real alternatives.
- Other names
- Hesbon, Esbus, Esbous, Tell Hesban, Tall Hisban, Hisban
- Location
- 31.8000° N, 35.8000° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The Torah quotes an old victory song about this city: "Come to Heshbon, let it be rebuilt." The name certainly lasted. Heshbon became Roman Esbus, a name known from Eusebius and from the city's own coins, and then Arabic Hisban. Eusebius placed it in the mountains opposite Jericho. Ishtori HaParchi, the medieval Jewish traveler, still knew it as Hesban, a day's travel east of Jericho.
The problem is the dig. Excavators at Tell Hesban found no Late Bronze Age town and only modest early Iron Age remains. Heshbon was the royal city of Sihon, who ruled the whole tableland and fought Moses. So either the dating of the layers is off, or Sihon's Heshbon stood on a nearby hill. They did uncover a large Iron Age reservoir, and the later layers are rich.
So how sure is the spot? The name ties Hesban to Heshbon, and many scholars still see the tell as Heshbon's heir, with Sihon's town somewhere close by. That is a reasonable answer, so I mark it probable.
The Song of Songs compares the beloved's eyes to "pools in Heshbon." Keep that big reservoir in mind when you read the verse.
Others look for Sihon's city at Tall Jalul, a few miles southeast near Madaba. It is a larger tell, with Late Bronze pottery and a water system with pools of its own. The map stays with Hesban, where the name lived on.
Visiting today
Tell Hesban is an open archaeological park in Jordan, with the Iron Age reservoir and Roman, Byzantine and Mamluk remains.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Heshbon on the interactive map →
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