bozrah Summary and Overview

enclosure; fortress. (1.) The city of Jobab, one of the early Edomite kings (Gen. 36:33). This place is mentioned by the prophets in later times (Isa. 34:6; Jer. 49:13; Amos 1:12; Micah 2:12). Its modern representative is el-Busseireh. It lies in the mountain district of Petra, 20 miles to the south-east of the Dead Sea. (2.) A Moabite city in the "plain country" (Jer. 48:24), i.e., on the high level down on the east of the Dead Sea. It is probably the modern Buzrah.

(fortress). 1. In Edom, the city of Jobab the son of Zerah, one of the early king of that nation. #Ge 36:33; 1Ch 1:44| Mentioned by Isaiah, #Isa 34:6; 63:1| in connection with Edom, and by Jeremiah, #Jer 49:13,22; Am 1:12| and #Mic 2:12| Its modern representative is el-Busaireh, which lies on the mountain district to the southeast of the Dead Sea. 2. In his catalogue of the cities of the land of Moab, Jeremiah, #Jer 48:24| mentions a Bozrah as in "the plain country" (ver 21), i.e. the high level downs on the east of the Dead Sea.

BOZ'RAH (fortress), two cities. 1. Bozrah in Edoin, Isa 34:6; Isa 63:1, which was to become a perpetual waste, Jer 49:13; Am 1:12; Mic 2:12; modern Buseirah, in the mountains of Petra, 20 miles south-east of the Dead Sea. 1. Bozrah in Moab. Jer 48:24. Judgment has surely fallen upon it. Porter thinks it the same as modern Buzrah, where are the ruins of a magnificent city nearly 5 miles in circuit, once having 100,000 inhabitants, but now only 20 families. It is near the Hauran, 60 miles south of Damascus. Portions of its massive walls and towers, theatre, temples, stone doors and roofs, some of the ruins of the work of the early inhabitants. perhaps the giants Bephaim, and more of the work of later Roman builders, are still to be seen in good state of preservation. Bozrah at one time had 17 bishops under its archbishop.

BOZRAH, from a root "restrain," a sheepfold, Septuagint version of Jeremiah 49:22. Jobab is styled "of Bozrah" (Genesis 36:33) among the kings of Edom (1 Chronicles 1:44). 1. Now El-busaireh, containing about 50 houses and a castle on a hill, in the mountain district S.E. of the Dead Sea, half way between Petra and the Dead Sea. Burckhardt saw goats in large numbers there, just as Isaiah (Isaiah 34:6) describes; compare Isaiah 63:1; Amos 1:12; Micah 2:12. 2. Another Bozrah in Moab, in "the plain country," i.e. the high level downs E. of the Dead Sea (Jeremiah 48:21-24), enumerated among the cities of Moab. The Bozrah of Edom on the mountains (Jeremiah 49:13) and Edom's other cities are to be "perpetual wastes"; but the Bozrah of Moab "in the plain" is to be restored "in the latter days" (Jeremiah 48:47). Though not mentioned elsewhere, this Bozrah of Moab, where kings were "sheepmasters" (2 Kings 3:4), would be a name ("sheepfold") of probable occurrence. Others identify this Bozrah with the Roman Bostra in Bashan, 60 miles from Heshbon, containing magnificent remains; Jeremiah's including the cities "far and near' may favor this view; but Jeremiah 48:21, "in the plain," seems to mark it among the other Moabite cities.