AROER (Ar'o-er or (I ar-oh , nudity.).
1. A town on the north side of the river Amon, and therefore on the southern border of the terri tory conquered from the Amorites, which was as signed to the tribes of Reuben and Cad (T)eut. ii:36; Josh. X11.2; :%111:0)• I he Amorites had previously dispossessed the Ammonites of this territory ; and although, in the texts cited. the town seems to be given to Reu ben. it is mentioned as a \loabitish city by Jere miah (Avila:19). Burckhardt found the ruins of this town under the name of Araayr, on the edge of a precipice overlooking the river (Travels in Syria, 372).
Arocr is always named in conjunction with 'the city that is in the midst of the river ;' whence Dr. Mansford (Script. Gac.) conjectures that, like Rabbath Ammon [which see], it consisted of two parts, or distinct cities; the one on the bank of the river and the other in the valley beneath, sur rounded, either naturally or artificially, by the waters of the river.
2. One of the towns built, or probably rebuilt, by the tribe of Gad (Num. xxxii :34). It is said in Josh. xiii :25 to be 'before Rabbah' [of Am mon]; hut, as Raumer well remarks (Palaestina, p• 249), this could not possibly Kaye been in the topographical sense of the words in which be fore means east of), seeing that Amer, as a town on the eastern border of Gad, must have been west of Rabbah. But to a person in Palestine proper,
or coming from the Jordan, Amer would he be fore Rabbah in the ordinary sense; and it appears to have been thus understood by I3urckhardt.
3. A city in the tribe of Judah (t Sam. xxx: 28).
4. A city in the south of Judah, to which David sent presents after recovering the spoil of Ziklag ( t Sant. xxx :26, 28).
Dr. Robinson thinks this may have been the town in a valley twenty miles from Hebron. Here there are many pits for water, which are called Ararah, and which gave name to the valley. In the valley and on the western hill are evident traces of an ancient village or town, consisting only of foundations of unhewn stones, now much scattered, but yet sufficiently distinct to mark them as foundations. Small fragments of pottery are also everywhere visible. The identity of name satisfies the traveler that he has here found the Aroer of Judah.