JAEZER
JAEZER (
Ἰαζήρ, LXX.;
Ἀζήρ and
Ἀσώρ, Euseb.), a city of Gilead, assigned to the tribe of Gad by Moses. In Numbers (32.1), “the land of Jazer” is mentioned as contiguous to “the land of Gilead,” and suited to cattle. “In Jeremiah (48.32),” the sea of Jazer “occurs in some versions, as in the English; but Reland (s. v. p. 825) justly remarks, that this is not certain, as the passage may be pointed after the word” sea, “and” Jazer, “as a vocative, commence the following clause.
But as the land of Jazer” is used for the country south of Gilead, so the Dead Sea may be designated “the sea of Jazer.” Eusebius (
Onomast. s. v. Ἀσώρ) places it 8 miles west of Philadelphia or Ammon ; and elsewhere (s. v.
Ἰασήρ), 10 miles west of Philadelphia, and 15 from Esbon (Heshbon).
He adds, that a large river takes its rise there, which runs into the Jordan.
In a situation nearly corresponding with this. between
Szalt and
Esbus, Burckhardt passed some ruins named
Szyr, where a valley named
Wady Szyr takes its rise and runs into the Jordan.
This is doubtless the modern representative of the ancient Jazer. “In two hours and a half (from
Szalt) we passed, on our right, the
Wady Szyr, which has its source near the road, and falls into the Jordan.
Above the source, on the declivity of the valley, are the ruins called
Szyr.” (
Syria, p. 364.)
It is probably identical with the
Γάζωρος of Ptolemy which he reckons among the cities of Palestine on the east of the Jordan (5.16).
[
G.W]
