Phasga

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(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 [Numbers 21:20; 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, southwest 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.

Sources

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.

About this page

APA citation. Souvay, C. (1911). Phasga. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11791a.htm

MLA citation. Souvay, Charles. "Phasga." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11791a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph C. Meyer.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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