Aroer (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. A city in the portion assigned to the tribe of Judah (1 S 30^), prob. in what is now the Wady Arftrah, 20 miles S. of Hebron and 12 miles to the S.E. of Beersheba. To the elders of this city David sent a share of the spoil taken from the Amalekites who had attacked Ziklag. 2. A well-known city on the N. bank of the Amon, generally described by its situation in order to dis- tinguish it from other cities of the same name (Dt 2" 3" 4«, Jos 122 139^ Jg ii'M 2 S 24"). It waspart of the region conquered by the Amorite king Sihon, and so, at the tune of Israel's attack, it lay to the N. of tlie Moabite territory. It was assigned to the tribe of Reuben, and formed the S. frontier city of that tribe. It is this Reubenite city that is named with the S. towns as having been built by the children of Gad before the definite settlement and distri- bution of the land (Nu .32"). When the Syrians under Hazael conquered all the trans-Jordanio district, Aroer is named as the S. limit (2 K 10*"). In later times the Moabites, from whom it had been taken first by the Amorites, regained possession of it from the Israelites (Jer 48"). Eusebius speaks of it as still standing in his day. 3. A town in the portion assigned to the tribe of Gad, in the valley of Gad, originally an Ammonite city (Jg 11'^), in the di-itrict watered by the Jabbok, east of Rabbah (Jos 13-''). The cities of Aroer, referred to in Is 17', are evidently the two trans-Jordanic cities of the Moabites and the Ammonites. Gentilic name Aroerite, 1 Ch 11". J. Macpherson. AROM {'Apifi), 1 Eg 6".— His descendants are mentioned among those who returned with Zerub- babel. The name has no parallel in the lists of Ezr and Neh, unless it represents Hashum (B 'Aa^u, A 'Aaoin) in Ezr 2'». H. St. J. Thackbray. ARPACHSHAD ART 157