[Rab’bah] [Rab’bath]
1. The fortified capital of the Ammonites. It was not included in the cities taken by the tribes on the east of the Jordan. Deu 3:11; Jos 13:25. Joab, however, attacked it, and, during its siege, Uriah, by the instigation of David, lost his life. The city was eventually taken and destroyed. 2Sa 11:1; 2Sa 12:26-29; 2Sa 17:27; 1Ch 20:1. Subsequently, when the strength of Israel was broken, it appears to have recovered itself, for we find its doom announced in the prophets. Jer 49:2-3; Eze 21:20; Eze 25:5; Amo 1:14. Identified with Amman 31° 57’ N, 35° 57’ E. There are many ruins on the site, but they are judged to belong to the Roman period, when a city, called Philadelphia, was built there. A stream rises in the midst of the city, and this fact, together with its being the last place to obtain water for crossing the desert, doubtless was the cause of its being called ’the city of waters.’ 2Sa 12:27.
2. City of Judah, near Kirjath-jearim. Jos 15:60. Identified by some with ruins at Rubba, 31° 40’ N, 34° 58’ E.
By: Emil G. Hirsch, Immanuel Benzinger
Capital of the Ammonites, where, according to Deut. iii. 11, the bed of the giant Og was shown. David besieged and took the city (II Sam. xi. 1), but under Solomon, or soon after the division of the kingdom, when Ammon regained its independence, Rabbah again became a great and flourishing place with magnificent palaces, and the Prophets more than once announced the destruction of it as of a hated enemy (Amos i. 14; Jer. xlix. 4; Ezek. xxv. 5). In the post-exilic period nothing is known of the city until the Diaspora, when it was rebuilt on a magnificent scale by Ptolemy Philadelphus and named Philadelphia. It then became one of the most important Hellenistic cities of the east-Jordan country; it belonged to the Decapolis. The city was taken by Antiochus Epiphanes in 218 B.C., and continued to flourish in the Roman time, as is shown by its ruins, which lie in a well-watered valley, on both sides of the Nahr Amman. The date of its destruction, which was due in great part to earthquakes, is unknown. The Arabic historian and geographer Abu al-Fida states that it was in ruins when the Mohammedans conquered Syria.
The ancient name has been preserved in the present 'Amman, which replaced the Greco-Roman name; this has happened frequently in Palestine. The fortress was situated on the hill on the northern side, and the "city of waters," on the lower part of the stream, is distinguished from the city proper (i.e., the upper part, with the fortress on the hill) as early as the account of David's campaigns (II Sam. xii. 27 et seq.). A colony of Circassians is now settled in the ruins.
Bibliography:
Survey of Eastern Palestine, Memoirs, i. 19 et seq.;
G. A. Smith, Historical Geography, pp. 595-608;
Baedeker, Palestine, 6th ed., pp. 129 et seq.