Phasga
Phasga
(A.V. Pisgah).
Whether the word in Hebrew is a proper or a common noun is not clear; certain it is at any rate that it designates a mountain of the Alarm range (Deuteronomy 32:49), east of the Jordan (Deuteronomy 4:49), in the land of Moab (Numbers 21:20), “over against Jericho” (Deuteronomy 34:1), above Yeshimon [Num., xxi, 20; D.V. “which looketh towards the desert” (‘Ain Suweimeh)], east of the north end of the Dead Sea (Deuteronomy 4:49; Joshua 12:3), in connection with Mount Nebo, and commanding an extensive view of the Holy Land (Deuteronomy 32:49; 34:1-4), on the south-east border of which it stood (Deuteronomy 4:49). From all these indications it appears that Phasga is no other than Mount Nebo itself (Jebel Neba, south-west of Hesban or Hesebon), or, better still, the western peak of the mountain, Ras Siâghâ. On its slopes the Israelites pitched their camp (Numbers 21:20); in the “field of Sophim” (D.V. “a high place”) on the mountain Balaam uttered his second oracle about Israel (Numbers 23:11-24); lastly from the top of Phasga, Moses surveyed the Promised Land.
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BIRCH, “The Prospect from Pisgah in Pal. Explor. Fund Quart. Stat. (London, 1898); CONDER, Heth and Moab (London, 1889); SMITH, Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London, 1894); TRISTRAM, The Land of Moab (London, 1874); LAGRANGE, Itinéraire des Isralites: De la Frontière de Moab aux Rives du Jourdain in Revue Biblique (1900), 443-449.
CHARLES L. SOUVAY Transcribed by Joseph C. Meyer
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York