Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Bozrah
Subjects in this Topic:
BOZRAH, from a root "restrain," a sheepfold, Septuagint version of . Jobab is styled "of Bozrah" () among the kings of Edom ().
1. Now El-busaireh, containing about 50 houses and a castle on a hill, in the mountain district S.E. of the Dead Sea, half way between Petra and the Dead Sea. Burckhardt saw goats in large numbers there, just as Isaiah () describes; compare ; ; .
2. Another Bozrah in Moab, in "the plain country," i.e. the high level downs E. of the Dead Sea (-24), enumerated among the cities of Moab. The Bozrah of Edom on the mountains () and Edom's other cities are to be "perpetual wastes"; but the Bozrah of Moab "in the plain" is to be restored "in the latter days" (). Though not mentioned elsewhere, this Bozrah of Moab, where kings were "sheepmasters" (), would be a name ("sheepfold") of probable occurrence. Others identify this Bozrah with the Roman Bostra in Bashan, 60 miles from Heshbon, containing magnificent remains; Jeremiah's including the cities "far and near' may favor this view; but , "in the plain," seems to mark it among the other Moabite cities.