"The Pisgah" must have been in the mountain range or district, the same as or a part of that called the mountains of Aliarim (comp. Dent, xxxii. 49 with xxxiv. I). See Abarim. Its situation is minutely de- scribed by the sacred writers. It is first mentioned in connei tion with the approach of the Israelites to Pales- tine. They marched " from Bamoth in the valley, that
is in the country of Moab, to tht top of Pisgah, looketh towards Jeshimori' (Numb, xxi, 20). Pisgah was thus on the plateau of Moab, and commanded a view of the western desert, s. e Ji shimon. Another passage (xxiii, 13, 14) proves that it commanded a view ofthe Israelitish camp in the valley on the east hank ofthe Jordan; and from other incidental notices we learn that it was opposite to and in sighl of,-;r """ ) Jericho (Kent, xxxiv, I), and overhanging the north- eastern angle of the Dead Sea (iv, 49; Josh, xii, 3). The names Abarim, Nebo, and Pisgah are connected in such a way by the -acred writers as to en ate some < i i til— culty to the geographer. In Dent, xxxii. 49 I commands Moses, "Get thee up into this mountain Aba- rim, Mount Nebo" etc; and in xxxiv, 1 we read that Moses, obeying, "went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, tin top of Pisgah'' (": ~~"3S ~:.C£~ '^'X~ i. From these passages we may infer.
(1) that Abarim was the name of a range or group of mountains: t •_' , that Nebo was one of its peak-: and (3) that the name Pisgah was either equivalent to Abarim. or that it i- (as represented in some passages in the Sept.. and iii the margin of the A. V.) a common noun, signifying "an isolated hill or peak." If the latter view he taken, then Dent, xxxiv, 1 may he rendered, "Moses went up to Mount Nebo, to tin top ofthe hUL" The construction rather favors the view that Pisgah, like Abarim. was the name ofthe range, and that Nebo was one of its peaks. Others have taken precisely the opposite view, namely, that Pisgah was a particular summit of Nebo as a range; but in that case Pisgah would nol be SO often mentioned (as a mountain at the foot of which the Israelitish host encamped, and as fur- nishing springs of water), while Nebo is but once named (as the peak on which Moses died). (See below.) Qpon Pisgah Balaam built altar.- and offered sacrifices, so that it was probably one of the ancient "high place.-" of Moab (Numb, xxiii. 14). From its summit Moses obtained his panoramic view- of the Holy Land, and there he died ( Pent, xxxiv. 1-6). Beneath the moun- tains were celebrated "springs" or •• torrents" (nTniEK), which are several times mentioned in defining the boundaries of Reuben, as Ashdoth-Pisgah (Dent. iii. 17; iv, 19 in the Hebrew ; Josh, xii, 3; xiii, 20). Pisgah
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PISGAH
233
PISGAH
therefore lay on the east of Jordan, contiguous to the field of Moab, and immediately opposite Jericho. The field of Zophim was situated on it, and its highest point or summit— its " head" — was the Mount Nebo. If it was a proper name, we can only conjecture that it de- noted the whole or part of the range of the highlands on the east of the lower Jordan. In the late Targums of Jerusalem and Pseudo-Jonathan, Pisgah is invariably rendered by ramatha, a term in common use for a hill. It will be observed that the Sept. also does not treat it as a proper name. On the other hand, Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s. v. Abarim, Fasga) report the name as existing in their day in its ancient locality. Mount Abarim and Mount Nabau were pointed out on the road leading from Livias to Heshbon (i. e. the Wady Hesbtin), still bearing their old names, and close to Mount Phogor (Peor), which also retained its name, whe?ice, says Jerome (a quo), the contiguous region was even then called Phasgo. This connection between Phogor and Phasgo is puzzling, and suggests a possible error of copyists. See Peor.
No traces of the name Pisgah have been met with in later times on the east of Jordan, but in the Arabic garb of Jhis el-Feshkah (almost identical with the Hebrew Iiosh hap-Pisgah) it is attached to a well-known head- land on the north-western end of the Dead Sea, a mass of mountain bounded on the south by the Wady en-Nar, and on the north by the Wady Sidr, and on the north- ern part of which is situated the great Mussulman sanc- tuary of Neby Miisa (Moses). This association of the names of Moses and Pisgah on the icest side of the Dead Sea — where to suppose that Moses ever set foot would be to stultify the whole narrative of his decease — is ex- tremely startling. No explanation of it has yet been offered. Certainly that of M. De Saulcy and of his translator (see De Saulcy 's Voyage, etc., and the notes to ii, 58-66 of the American edition), that the Ras el- Feshkah is identical with Pisgah, cannot be entertained. Against this the words of Dent, iii, 27, " Thou shalt not go over this Jordan," are decisive. See Dead Ska.