Rab´bah. This name, which properly denotes a great city or metropolis, is given in Scripture to the capital of the Ammonites (;;;; ); the full name of which, however, as given in , appears to have been Rabbath-beni-Ammon. It was in this place that the great iron bedstead of Og king of Bashan was preserved (). It was besieged by Joab, and when on the point of yielding to that general, was surrendered to David in person (). After this Rabbah was included in the tribe of Gad. After the separation of the ten tribes, Rabbah, with the whole territory beyond the Jordan, adhered to the kingdom of Israel, till it was ravaged by the Assyrians under Tiglathpileser, and the inhabitants expatriated to Media. The Ammonites then recovered possession of Rabbah and the other cities and territories which had in former times been taken from them by the Israelites. Some centuries later, when these parts were subject to Egypt, Rabbah was restored or rebuilt by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and called by him Philadelphia, and under this name it is often mentioned by Greek and Roman writers.
Rabbah appears to have consisted, like Aroer, of two parts; the city itself, and 'the city of waters,' or royal city, which was probably a detached portion of the city itself, insulated by the stream on which it was situated. The 'city of waters' was taken by Joab; but against the city itself he was obliged to call for the assistance of David with a reinforcement ().
The ruins of Rabbah stand about 19 miles south-east of Szalt, in a long valley traversed by a stream, the Moiet Amman, which at this place is arched over, the bed as well as the banks being paved. The prophet Ezekiel foretold that Rabbah should become 'a stable for camels,' and the country 'a couching place for flocks' (). This has been literally fulfilled, and Burckhardt actually found that a party of Arabs had stabled their camels among the ruins of Rabbah.
The Rabbah of was in the tribe of Judah.
This Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature is a 6 volume set in 1 book. It has over 2Read More
John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
Wikipedia