Elealeh

Elealeh is a Moabite town that passes through Israelite hands and back, surfacing in the conquest narrative of Numbers and reappearing in Isaiah's oracles against Moab. Its name is paired almost every time with neighboring Heshbon, marking it as part of the same tableland east of the Jordan.

Taken by the Israelites

In the territorial petitions before Moses and Eleazar, Elealeh is one of the Transjordan towns the Reubenites and Gadites name as the country "which Yahweh struck before the congregation of Israel" (Num 32:3-4 context): "Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon" (Num 32:3). When the allotment is settled, Elealeh is among the towns the Reubenites rebuild for themselves: "And the sons of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathaim" (Num 32:37).

Repossessed by the Moabites

By the time of Isaiah, the town has reverted to Moabite hands and figures in the prophet's oracle of disaster. Its cry rises with Heshbon's: "And Heshbon cries out, and Elealeh; their voice is heard even to Jahaz: therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembles inside him" (Isa 15:4). The same paired lament returns when the prophet weeps for the vineyards of Sibmah: "I will soak you with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the [battle] shout is fallen" (Isa 16:9). The town's vines and harvest are silenced under the sound of the invading shout.