BOZRAH ' An or 'fortifica tion ;' Sept. B6cr4 and Boo-Op). There are two cities of this name mentioned in the Bible.
I. A chief town of Edom, and one of its prin cipal strongholds (Gen. xxxvi. 33 ; Is. lxiii. 1). Though referred to in various parts of Scripture, no indication is given of its geographical position. Eusebius merely tells us that it lay in the moun tains of Idurnsea (Onomast. s. v. Bosor).
About twenty-five miles south by east of the Dead Sea, in the district of Jebal, the ancient Gebal, is the village of b'mseireh, ' little Busrah.' It contains about fifty poor houses, clustered together on the side of a hill. On the top of the hill is a strong fortress, to which the inhabitants, who are greatly oppressed by the Bedawin, retire when danger threatens (comp. Jer. xlix. 22). This appears to be the site of the Bozrah of Edom. It stands in the centre of that country, and occupies a strong position among the mountains. This helps to illus trate that sublime passage in Isaiah (lxiii. r) where the Lord is represented as returning in triumph from the destruction of His enemies in their very stronghold. To this day Buseirah is the centre of a pastoral region. The people are all shepherds, and their whole wealth consists in their flocks of sheep and goats. The allusion of Micah is thus very appropriate, ' I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah ; ' and the language of Isaiah de rives from this fact greater significance (Mic. ii. 12 ; Is. xxxiv. 6). See Burckhardt, Tray, in Syr. p. 407 ; Irby and Mangles, Travels, p. 443 ; Robinson, B. R. ii. 167.
2. A city of Moab, mentioned only by Jeremiah, and said to be in the land of Mishor '—that is, in the great plateau east of the Jordan valley, extend ing to the desert of Arabia (Jer. xlviii. 24). Some have held that this city is the same as the Bozrah of Edom (Gesenius, Heb. Lex. ; Robinson, B. R. ii. 167) ; but that it was a distinct city can be easily proved. This Bozrah is in the Mishor, which is the distinctive name of the level plateau of Moab —a name which never was, nor could be given to any part of Edom (Dent. iii. to ; iv. 43 ; see Stanley, S. and P. p. 4S4). Again, prophetic curses are pronounced by Jeremiah upon both cities, and they cannot be applicable to the same place (comp. Jer. xlviii. 21-24, 47 ; and xlix. 13). Others affirm that Bozrah of Moab must have stood on the plateau east of the Dead Sea, and not far distant from Heshbon. For this there is no evidence. It is
true some of the cities mentioned by Jeremiah were situated there ; but then the passage indicates that the cities were scattered over a wide region ' Judgment is come . . . . . upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near' (xlviii. 24), and besides, when the towns of the Mishor near the Dead Sea are enumerated in other places, Bozrah is not included (Numb. xxxii. 37, 38 ; Josh. xiii. 15, sq.) Jeremiah puts three towns together—' Bethgamul, Kerioth, and Boz rah and on the north-eastern section of the Mishor we now find the ruins of three large cities, only a few miles distant from each other, whose names at once indicate their identity—Um el-Jemal, Kureiyeh, and Busrah. A careful consideration of the preceding statements leaves little room for doubt that Busrah is the Bozrah of Moab.
Busrah stands in the midst of a rich plain, on the southern boundary of Hauran. It was one of the largest and most splendid cities east of the Jordan. Its walls are four miles in circuit, and they do not include the suburbs. On its southern side is the citadel or castle, of great size and strength, still nearly perfect, though evidently of very ancient origin. This stronghold, which has long been celebrated in Syria, may account for the name Bozrah. Within the castle are the remains of a beautiful theatre, and in the town are the ruins or many temples, churches, and mosques ; testifying to its wealth and prosperity under Pagan, Chris tian, and Mohammedan rule. Now the walls are shattered, the sanctuaries roofless, the houses nearly all prostrate, and the rich plain is desolate. The castle alone has defied time and neglect ; and within its dreary walls about half a dozen poor families find an asylum from the wild Arabs of the desert.
Bostra, so called by the Greeks and Romans, was a strong city in the time of the Maccabees Maccab. v. 26, sy.) On the conquest of this country by the Romans, Bostra was made the capi tal, and when Christianity was established in the empire it became the metropolis of a large eccle siastical province (Ceog. Sac. ed. Hoist. P. 295). Under the Muslems it rapidly declined, and now it is a dreary ruin. The words of Jere miah are fulfilled—' judgment has come upon Bozrah.' (A full description of the ruins, and a sketch of the history of Bozrah, are given in Porter's Damascus, ii. 142, sq. See also Burckhardt's Tray. in Syr. p. 226, sq.).