Rabba

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Rabba is a city ​​mentioned in the Tanach or Old Testament , of which we know today that it is the capital of the Bronze Age state of Ammon , which the Ammonites themselves referred to as Rabbat-Ammon. After the conquest by the Greeks ( Alexander the Great ) it was named Philadelphia and was part of the Decapolis and is now the capital of Jordan under the name Amman . Rabba (t-Ammon) is not to be confused with Rabbat-Moab , an important city of the Moabites . The word rabba means big city .

Biblical events in and around Rabba

Urija falls during the siege of Rabba, from a manuscript in the world chronicle of Rudolf von Ems, 14th century

Rabba is mentioned for the first time in the 5th book of Moses, Deuteronomy ( Deut. 3:11  EU ). Rabba was one of the Ammonite cities that Moses' scouts were sent to to explore the land of Canaan . King Og of Bashan ruled here, who commanded the spies, a "people of giants". In Rabba, according to the Bible , the spies found his coffin measuring 9 × 4 cubits . Later, when Joshua took the land , half of the land of Ammon fell to the tribe of Gad ( Jos 15.25  EU ); Rabba himself could not be taken by the Israelites because of his strong fortifications.

A few centuries later, David, as king of his kingdom Israel, went into battle against the re-strengthened Ammonites (2 Sam 10-12). At the battle of Rabba, David also had Uriah killed in order to avoid personal consequences in this way, since David had made Uriah's wife, by the name of Bathsheba , pregnant. Rabba fell, however, and its residents were made slave laborers to the Israelites.

When a few years later David went into the field against his son Absalom , he was supported by a man named Schobi from Rabba, who brought his army blankets and food ( 2 Sam 17.27  EU ). Schobi is referred to as the son of Nahash, probably the former king of Rabba; thus Shobi could have been David's vassal and governor.

Soon after the division of the empire, the Ammonites again freed themselves from Israelite supremacy. From then on, Rabba is only mentioned in a few prophetic threatening words, such as Amos ( Am 1.14  EU ), Jeremiah (Jer 49.2-3) and Ezekiel ( Ez 21.25  EU ; Ez 25.5  EU ).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ F.Dexinger, JMOesch & G.Sauer (eds.) Jordan . Tyrolia Verlag (Innsbruck, Vienna), 1985. p. 15.
  2. ↑ D. Guthrie. Commentary on the Bible: OT and NT in one volume . Brockhaus Verlag, 2003. p. 374.

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