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Aroer- location profile

Location and Setting

• The city of Aroer was located on the northern bank of the Arnon River, overlooking the deep gorge through which it flows into the Dead Sea, fifteen miles to the west.
• "The King’s Highway" (Transjordanian Highway), a major north-south route running generally parallel to the shoreline of the Dead Sea, traversed the Arnon River valley at Aroer.

Historical and Biblical Significance

• After wandering in the wilderness for forty years, the Israelites left Kadesh-barnea in the Wilderness of Paran. Forced by the Edomites to avoid their territory on the east side of the Arabah, the Israelites traveled south to Ezion-geber and then north on the Transjordanian Highway. They conquered several cities east of the Jordan River, including Aroer, ruled by Sihon of the Amorites (Josh 12:2).
• When Israel had taken control of the Transjordan, the tribes of Gad, Reuben and half of the tribe of Manasseh settled there. The city of Aroer and the valley of Arnon marked the southern limit of the territory taken by the Israelites (Deut 2:36; 3:8, 12, 16; 4:48). The tribe of Reuben was assigned the area immediately surrounding Aroer (Josh 13:15-16).
• Three hundred years after the Conquest, during the period of the Judges, when Israel fell into apostasy, the Lord allowed Ammon to oppress them (Judg 10:7). At that time, the Ammonites had taken over most of the territory east of the Jordan between the Arnon and Jabbok Rivers, including the city of Aroer. Israel cried out to the Lord, and He raised up Jephthah to deliver Israel from her oppressors. Jephthah succeeded in overcoming the Ammonites, recapturing twenty cities, including Aroer (Judges 11).
• When King David gave the decree to take a census of the fighting men of Israel, his commander, Joab, crossed the Jordan River and began his census. The southernmost city of the Transjordan, Aroer was the logical starting point. Joab followed a counter-clockwise route to take the census, a task that required more than nine months (2 Sam 24:1-9).
• During the reign of Jehu of Israel, Hazael, king of Syria, conquered the entire Transjordan region from Bashan to Aroer (2 Kgs 10:32-33). Apparently Israel never regained this territory. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Moabites later took Aroer from the Syrians.
• The prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, pronounced the Lord’s judgment on Aroer, predicting its destruction because of the wickedness of its Moabite inhabitants (Isa 17:2; Jer 48:18-20).

Bibliography

1. Aharoni, Y. and M. Avi-Yonah. The Macmillan Bible Atlas. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993.
2. Anderson, H.G. "Aroer" The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Ed. Merrill C. Tenney. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.
3. Monson, James M. Regions on the Run. Rockford: Biblical Backgrounds, Inc., 1998.
4. Tenney, Merrill C. ed. The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1967.