Bamoth

Bamoth is a site east of the Jordan that surfaces twice in the wilderness narrative and once again in the Reubenite town-list — under the fuller name Bamoth-baal. The two notices place the same general locale at different moments: a stop on the march toward Moab, then a settled town in the tribal allotment.

A stage on the wilderness march

The travel-itinerary in Numbers 21 traces Israel's progress toward the plains of Moab, naming Bamoth between Nahaliel and the valley below Pisgah:

"and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert." (Nu 21:19-20).

The site is a way-station — listed in sequence with Mattanah, Nahaliel, and the valley by Pisgah, not described in itself.

Bamoth-baal in the inheritance of Reuben

In the Transjordan allotment, the same locale appears under a Baal-marked name and is grouped with the cities of the plain around Heshbon:

"Heshbon, and all its cities that are in the plain; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon," (Jos 13:17).

The town-list pairs Bamoth-baal with Beth-baal-meon and Dibon, situating it in the Reubenite holdings on the Moabite tableland — a region whose place-names carry the cult of Baal as their toponymic stamp.