Arob. See Fly.
A'rod (Ileb. Arod', Ti*i*, perhaps affliction, othcr-
a half; the descent from the north took Burekhardt wige a 7r;j,, a^ Sept. Aooom), the sixth son (or branch (Syria, p. 372) thirty-live minutes. The last-named of tJ]e fami]y) of Gad (Num. xxvi) 17). B.C. 1856.
traveller declares that he had never felt such suffoca- TT
... , . , . . . ... „ r ,, His descendants (Ileli. Arodi , 1. N) are called .1
ting heat as he experienced in this valley from the ■
concentrated rays of the sun and their reflection from the rocks. The stream is almost dried up in summer; but huge masses of rock, torn from the banks, and de- posited high above the channel, evince its fulness and impetuosity in the rain}' season. Irby and Mangles suppose that it is this which renders the valley of the Arnon less shrubby than that of most other streams in the countn\ "There are, however, a few tama- risks, and here and there are oleanders growing about
di (Gen. xlvi, 16, Sept. 'Apor^tig) or Aroditcs (Num. xxvi, 17 ; Sept. 'Apoaci).
Arod. See Ass.
Ar'odi, A'rodite. See Arod.
Ar'oer (Ileb. Aroer', ISilS [once "H"";", Judg. xi, 26], ruins, as in Jer. xlviii, G^'/ieath;" Sept. 'Apuf/p and 'Ap(n)p'), the name of three places 2, "cities of Aroer" are mentioned;
In Isa. xvn, hut it should
it." On each face of the ravine traces of the paved j rather be translated " ruined cities," as Aroer was not Eoman road are still found, with milestones, and one 1 a metropolis, and the name does not suit the connec- arch of a bridge, 31 feet 6 inches in span, is standing. ' tion (see Gesenius, Comment, in loc). 1 he stream runs through a level strip of grass some 40 i 1. A town " by the brink," or "on thc bank of" Ee
AROKR
434
AROMATICS
(both the same expression — Heb. "on the lip"), or '.'by," i. e. on the north side of the torrent Arnon (Deut. iv, 48; Judg. xi, 26; 2 Kings x, 33; 1 Chron. v, 8), anil therefore on the southern border of the ter- ritory conquered from Sihon, which was assigned to the tribes of Reuben and Gad (Deut. ii, 36; iii, 12; Josh, xii, 2; xiii, '.•)• The Amorites had previously dispos- sessed the Ammonites of this territorj' ; and although the town seems to be given to Reuben (Josh, xiii, 16), it is mentioned as a Moabitish city by Jeremiah (xlviii, 19). According to Eusebius (Onomast. s. v. 'Apo'qp) it stood "on the brow of the hill." Burckhardt (comp. Macmichael, Journey, p. 212) found the ruins of this town, under the name of Araayr, on the edge of a precipice overlooking Wady Mojeb (Travels in Syria, p. 372). Thej- are also mentioned under the nam 3 Arair in Robinson's Researches (App. to vol. iii, p. 170, and Map). Schwarz places it 15 miles from the Dead Sea (Palest, p. 226). Aroer is always named in conjunc- tion with "the city that is in the midst of the river;" whence Dr. Mansford (Script. Gaz.) conjectures that, like Rabbath Ammon (q. v.), it consisted of two parts, or distinct cities ; the one on the bank of the river, and the other in the valley beneath, surrounded, either naturally or artificially, by the waters of the river. For another explanation, see Arxon.
2. One of the towns "built," or probably rebuilt, by the tribe of Gad (Num. xxxii, 34). It is said in Josh, xiii, 25, to be "before ("'33-'br) Kabbah" [of Ammon] ; but, as Raumer well remarks (Pali stint, p. 249), tliis could not possibly have been in the topo- graphical sense of the words (in which before means east of), seeing that Aroer, as a town on the eastern border of Gad, must have been west of Rabbah ; while to a person in Palestine proper, or coming from the Jordan, Aroer would be before Rabbah in the ordi- dary sense. It is (see Ritter, Erdk. xv, 1130) appar- ently the place discovered by Burckhardt (Syria, p. 335), who, in journeying toward Rabbath Ammon, notices a ruined site, called Ayra, about seven miles south-west from es-Salt ; probably the same with the Array el-Emir visited by Legh (p. 246) on his way from Heshbon to es-Salt (comp. Schwarz, Palest, p. 231). It is also called Air eh in Robinson's Researches (iii, App. p. 169). Aroer of Gad is also mentioned in Judg. xi, 33, and 2 Sam. xxiv, 5, in which latter pas- sage it is stated to have been situated on the "river" (brook) of Gad, i. e. apparently on the Wady Nimrin (and not the Arnon, see Reland, Pahest. p. 583). Keil (Comment, on Josh. p. 339), approved by Van de Velde {Memoir, p. 288), fixes upon Kulat Zeska Gadda, as lying in ,i wady and eist of Rabbah; but the passage in 2 Sam. ("and they passed over Jordan, and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city, that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer") can only signify [if, indeed, the word nCN, which) do not signify here merely "to wit," or rather be not alto- gether spurious] that the party of Joab encamped just across the Jordan, in the bed of one of the brooks of Gad (the Wady Nimrin), south of Aroer and not far from Jaazer. Jerome speaks of it as Aruir (Euseb. 'Apovii), a village still found on a hill 20 Roman miles south of Jerusalem (Onomast. s. v.); but this, if cor- rect, can only mean south-east.