A List of Towns built ( or rebuilt) by Gad and Reuben. The towns here assigned to Reuben form a group within the territory of Gad, for the most northerly and the most southerly of the places named are Gadite: contrast Joshua 13:15-33. The rebuilding of the towns must be regarded as effected after the two tribes returned from the conquest of W. Canaan.
Numbers 32:34. Dibon: the modern Dhî ban. Ataroth: Attarû s, 9 miles NW. of Dibon. Aroer: probably the place of that name on the Arnon (Joshua 13:16).
Numbers 32:35. Atroth Shaphan: unknown. Jogbehah: the modern Ajbehâ t.
Numbers 32:36. Beth-nimrah: the Nimrah of Numbers 32:3 and the modern Nimrin, 13 miles E. of the Jordan and 9 miles from the Dead Sea. Beth-haran: the modern Beit-harran.
Numbers 32:37. Heshbon: (Numbers 21:25 *) modern Hesbâ n. Elealeh: modern El Al, 2 miles NE. of Heshbon. Kiriathaim: modern Kereiyah, some distance S. of Heshbon.
Numbers 32:38. Nebo: near Mt. Nebo, 5 miles SW. of Heshbon. Baal-meon: the Beon of Numbers 32:3, and the modern Main, 5 miles S. of Nebo. The parenthesis should be rendered, these names are to be changed, a direction to the reader to substitute some other names for the last two, which contain the hated appellations of heathen gods (Nebo and Baal). The repugnance to the name of Baal similarly led to the change of the personal names Eshbaal to Ishbosheth, and Meribbaal to Mephibosheth (1 Samuel 14:47-51 *, 1 Kings 16:32 *). The writer of the parenthesis was seemingly not aware that the tribe of Gad itself bore the name of a heathen deity (Isaiah 65:11 mg.). Sibmah: the Sebam of 3: its site is unknown.