HESHBON ; Sept. 'Eo-eir3thv ; Euseb.
'Ecro-egan) ; a town in the southern district of the Hebrew territory beyond the Jordan, parallel with, and twenty-one miles east of, the point where the Jordan enters the Dead Sea, and nearly midway betv.een the rivers Jabbok and Anion. It originally belonged to the Moabites ; but when the Israelites arrived from Egypt, it was found to be in the possession of the Amorites, whose king, Sihon, is styled both king of the Amorites and king of Heshbon, and is expressly said to have 'reigned in Heshbon' (Josh. iii. ; comp. Num.
xxi. 26 ; Deut. 9). It was taken by Moses (Num. xxi. 23-26), and eventually became a Levi tical city (Josh. xxi. 39 ; Chron. vi. Si) in the tribe of Reuben (Num. xxxii. 37 ; Josh. xiii. 17) ; but being on the confines of Gad, is sometimes assigned to the latter tribe (Josh. xxi. 39 ; Chron. vi. 81). After the ten tribes were sent into exile, Heshbon was taken possession of by the Moabites, and hence is mentioned by the prophets in their declarations against Moab (Is. xv. 4; Jer. xlviii. 2, 34, 45)• Under King Alexander Janmens we find it again reckoned as a Jewish city (Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 15. 4). In the time of Eusebius and
Jerome it was still a place of some consequence under the name of Esbus (Wain) ; but at the present clay it is known by its ancient name of Heshbon, in the slightly modified form of Hesban. The ruins of a considerable town still exist, cover ing the sides of an insulated hill, but not a single edifice is left entire. The view from the summit is very extensive, embracing the ruins of a vast num ber of cities, the names of some of which bear a strong resemblance to those mentioned in Scrip ture. There are reservoirs connected with this and the other received towns of this region. These have been supposed to be the pools of Heshbon mentioned by Solomon (Cant. vii. 4); but, say Irby and Mangles, The ruins are uninteresting, and the only pool we saw was too insignificant to be one of those mentioned in Scripture.' In two of the cisterns among the ruins they found about three dozen of human skulls and bones, which they justly regarded as an illustration of Gen. xxxvii. 20 (Travels, p. 472 ; see also Burckhardt, Geor,ge Robinson, Lord Lindsay, etc.)—J. K.