Jaazer
Summary
A variant spelling of Jazer, a Levitical city in Gilead assigned to the tribe of Gad, located approximately ten miles northeast of Heshbon near the source of a river flowing into the Jordan.
☩Location and History
Jaazer (also spelled Jazer) was a town taken from the Amorites during Israel's conquest east of the Jordan (Numbers 21:32; 32:1, 3, 35). It was assigned to Gad for pastoral use and became a Levitical city for the Merarites (Joshua 13:25; 21:39). By David's time it was occupied by Hebronites, a Kohathite family (1 Chronicles 26:31). The site is identified with the ruins of es-Szir (or Khurbet Sar), approximately seven miles west of Amman, where there is a pool, tower, and ancient sarcophagi. Jeremiah 48:32 mentions the 'sea' of Jazer, referring to a large walled pool near the city.
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Jaazer," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. IV (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Jaazer," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).