1 Kings 4:13

13. Son of Geber Perhaps the same Geber mentioned 1 Kings 4:19.

Ramoth-gilead One of the chief cities on the east side of the Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, allotted to the Levites and appointed a city of refuge. Supposed by many to have been at the modern es-Salt, just south of Mount Gilead. See on Deuteronomy 4:43; Joshua 13:26; and Judges 10:17.

Jair the son of Manasseh See on Numbers 32:41.

Argob The region north of Mount Gilead, and east and southeast of the sea of Galilee. See on Deuteronomy 3:4. “The Bedouins familiarly speak of this whole district as Arkoob or Argoob. Thus they call the mountain on which Urn Keis stands Argoob Um Keis; and although this word is applied to any rough, mountainous country, I have nowhere else heard it thus used in common conversation; and since the kingdom or district of Argob was in this immediate neighbourhood, I think it nearly certain that we have the identical name still preserved among these primitive inhabitants.” Thomson.

Bashan The vast region, of which Argob was but a part, extending from Mount Hermon in the north to the Jabbok on the south, and from the Jordan eastward to the desert. See on Deuteronomy 3:3.

Threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars “Such a statement seems all but incredible. It would not stand the arithmetic of Bishop Colenso for a moment. But with my own eyes I have seen that it is literally true. The cities are there to this day. Some of them retain the ancient names recorded in the Bible. Bashan is literally crowded with towns and large villages, and though the vast majority of them are deserted, they are not ruined. Many of the houses in the ancient cities of Bashan are perfect, as if only finished yesterday. The walls are sound, the roofs unbroken, the doors, and even the window shutters, in their places. The walls are from five to eight feet thick, built of large squared blocks of basalt; the roofs are formed of slabs of the same material, hewn like planks, and reaching from wall to wall; the very doors and win-dew shutters are of stone, hung upon pivots projecting above and below. Some of these ancient cities have from two to five hundred houses still perfect, but not a man to dwell in them. On one occasion, from the battlements of the castle of Salcah, I counted some thirty towns and villages, dotting the surface of the vast plain, many of them almost as perfect as when they were built, and yet for more than five centuries there has not been a single inhabitant in one of them.” PORTER, Giant Cities of Bashan.