Numbers 21:11 - Exposition

And pitched at Ije-abarim. Ije ( עִיִיּ ), or Ijm ( עִיִּים ), as it is called in Numbers 33:45 , signifies "heaps" or "ruins." Abarim is a word of somewhat doubtful meaning, best rendered "ridges" or "ranges." It was apparently applied to the whole of Peraea in later times (cf. Jeremiah 22:20 , "passages"), but in the Pentateuch is confined elsewhere to the ranges facing Jericho. These "ruinous heaps of the ranges" lay to the east of Moab, along the desert side of which Israel was now marching, still going northwards: they cannot-be identified.