SHIBMAH, or more properly SIBMAH (r17.#,/ j Eepaltci ; Sebanza), a city occupied and rebuilt by the Reubenites (Num. XXXii. 38). It was situated on the plateau east of the Dead Sea. It originally belonged to that section of the terri tory of Moab which was captured by the Amorites under Sihon (Num. xxi. 26). From the Amorites Moses took it, and gave it to the children of Reuben (xxxii. t, seq.) Shibmah is grouped with Heshbon and Nebo, and must consequently have stood near the western brow of the plateau. A comparison of Num. xiodi. 38 with ver. 3 of the same chapter shows that Shibmah and Shebant are identical. The only difference in the Hebrew words is the addition of the fem. termination to the former. They are both rendered /efkmd in the LXX. ; but the Vulgate has Saban for Shebam.
In Josh. xiii. 19, the A. V. reads Sibmah, which is the proper pronunciation of the Hebrew according to the Masoretic pointing. It is un questionably the same place which Isaiah mentions in his lamentation over Moab : The fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah' (xvi. 8, 9). The environs, it appears, were famous for their vineyards ; and Jeremiah, when predicting the desolation of Moab, laments in the same strain : 0 vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee. . . . I have caused wine to fail from the winepress ; none shall tread with shouting' (xlviii. 32, 33).
It will be observed that these prophets speak of the city as belonging to Moab, whereas in the books of Numbers and Joshua it is enumerated among the cities of Reuben. The reason is, on the cap
tivity of the transjordanic tribes by the Assyrians, the Moabites returned to their ancient possessions, and reoccupied their ancient cities, and among them Sibmah [MoAB]. Though Eusebius mentions the name in his Onomasticon, it does not appear that he knew anything of it (s.v. Sebama) ; but Jerome (Comment. in Isai. xvi. 8) says, Inter Esbon et Sabama vix quingenti passus sunt.' He must have known the place therefore ; and from the way in which it is grouped in the Bible it seems to have been on the south or south-west of Hesh bon ; but even the minute researches of De Saulcy, in his recent tour through that country, have failed to discover a trace of it. There are several name less ruins mentioned by him and noted in his map, one or other of which rnay mark the site ( Voyage en Terre Sainte, i. pp. 277, seq.) It is interesting to observe, however, that around Heshbon he found traces of the vineyards for which the region was once celebrated ; and that from the lips of the Bedawin both he and Tristrara (Lana' of Israel, p. 535) heard the name Neba given to a mountain peak a short distance south-west of Heshbon [NEB0].—J. L. P.