Abarim
Madaba Hills from Mount Nebo at sunrise
Highest point
Elevation	710 m (2,330 ft)
Listing	Great Rift Valley
Naming
Native name	הָעֲבָרִים (Hebrew)
Geography
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Country	Jordan
Range coordinates	31°45′14″N 35°42′55″E / 31.7539°N 35.7152°E / 31.7539; 35.7152

Abarim (Hebrew: הָעֲבָרִים, romanized: Hā-Avārīm)^[1][2] is the Hebrew name used in the Bible for a mountain range "across the Jordan", understood as east of the Jordan Rift Valley, i.e. in Transjordan, to the east and south-east of the Dead Sea, extending from Mount Nebo — its highest point — in the north, perhaps to the Arabian desert in the south.

Etymology and description

According to Cheyne and Black, its Hebrew meaning is "'Those-on-the-other-side'—i.e., of the Jordan."^[3] The Vulgate (Deuteronomy 32:49) gives its etymological meaning as passages.^[4] Its northern part was called Pisgah, and the highest peak of Pisgah was Mount Nebo (Numbers 23:14; 27:12; 21:20; 32:47; Deuteronomy 3:27; 34:1; 32:49).

These mountains are mentioned several times in the Bible:

• Balaam blessed Israel the second time from the top of Mount Pisgah (Numbers 23:14)
• From "the top of Pisgah" i.e. Mount Nebo, an area which belonged to Moab, Moses surveyed the Promised Land (Numbers 27:12 and Deuteronomy 3:27; 32:49), and there he died (34:1,5)
• The Israelites had one of their encampments in the mountains of Abarim (Numbers 33:47,48) after crossing the Arnon
• The prophet Jeremiah linked it with Bashan and Lebanon as locations from which the people cried in vain to God for rescue (Jeremiah 22:20)
• Jeremiah hid the Ark of the Covenant there (II Maccabees 2:4-5). (The book of 2 Maccabees is included in Bibles used by Roman Catholics, but generally not in Protestant or Jewish Bibles.)