Bozrah
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Busaira ( ar, بُصَيْرا, buṣayrā; also Busayra, Busairah or Buseirah) is a town in
Tafilah Governorate Tafilah ( ar, الطفيلة) is one of the governorates of Jordan, located about 180 km south-west of Amman, Jordan's capital. Tafilah Governorate is bordered by Karak Governorate to the north, Ma'an Governorate to the east and south, Aqa ...
,
Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
, located between the towns of
Tafilah Tafilah ( ar, الطفيلة, 'aṭ-Ṭafīlah, ), also spelled Tafila, is a town with a population of 27,559 people in southern Jordan, located southwest of Amman. It is the capital of Tafilah Governorate. It is well known for having green gard ...
(
Tophel Tophel or Tofel (תפל) was an Edomite town mentioned in the Hebrew Bible: "These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the desert east of the Jordan — that is, in the Arabah — opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and ...
) and
Shoubak Shoubak ( ar, الشوبك) is a municipality that lies at the northwestern edge of the Ma'an Governorate in Jordan. It had a population of 19,297. At one of the highest elevations above sea level in Jordan, this municipality is famous for apple ...
and closer to the latter. Bozrah ( he, בָּצְרָה ; also Botsra, Botzrah, Buzrak) is a
biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
city identified by some researchers with an archaeological site situated in the town of Busaira.


In biblical narrative


Bozrah in Edom

Bozrah means
sheepfold A pen is an enclosure for holding livestock. It may also perhaps be used as a term for an enclosure for other animals such as pets that are unwanted inside the house. The term describes types of enclosures that may confine one or many animal ...
or enclosure in
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
and was a pastoral city in
Edom Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and east.N ...
southeast of the
Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...
. According to the biblical narrative, it was the home city of one of Edom's kings, Jobab son of Zerah () and the homeland of
Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...
's twin brother,
Esau Esau ''Ēsaû''; la, Hesau, Esau; ar, عِيسَوْ ''‘Īsaw''; meaning "hairy"Easton, M. ''Illustrated Bible Dictionary'', (, , 2006, p. 236 or "rough".Mandel, D. ''The Ultimate Who's Who in the Bible'', (.), 2007, p. 175 is the elder son o ...
. :''And these were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before the reigning of a king over the sons of Israel ... And
Bela Bela may refer to: Places Asia *Bela Pratapgarh, a town in Pratapgarh District, Uttar Pradesh, India *Bela, a small village near Bhandara, Maharashtra, India *Bela, another name for the biblical city Zoara * Bela, Dang, in Nepal *Bela, Janakpur ...
died, and Jobab the son of
Zerah Zerah or Zérach ( / "sunrise" Standard Hebrew ''Zéraḥ'' / ''Záraḥ'', Tiberian Hebrew ''Zéraḥ'' / ''Zāraḥ'') refers to several different people in the Hebrew Bible.For the etymology see An Edomite Zerah was the name of an Edomite ch ...
, from Bozrah, reigned in his place''. () The prophets
Amos Amos or AMOS may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Amos Records, an independent record label established in Los Angeles, California, in 1968 * Amos (band), an American Christian rock band * ''Amos'' (album), an album by Michael Ray * ''Amos' ...
,
Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...
, and
Jeremiah Jeremiah, Modern:   , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish ...
predicted Bozrah's destruction: :''But I will send a fire against Teman, and it shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.'' (). :''The Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.'' (). :''"I swear by myself", declares the Lord, "that Bozrah will become a ruin and a curse, an object of horror and reproach; and all its towns will be in ruin forever".'' (). According to Isaiah 63:1–6, the Lord will come from Edom (modern-day Jordan) and Bozrah in blood-stained clothing on "the day of vengeance" and "the year of My redeemed" (cf. : ''He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood'').


Christian "Bozrah" of the end times

According to one Christian interpretation of , Bozrah, (or a place the Bible cryptically refers to as Bozrah), will also be the scene of a magnificent "break-out" of God's covenant people. According to this interpretation, the deliverance will come at an Edomite controlled place of exile and incarceration in the
end times Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...
. This epic event referred to in Micah 2:12–13 has been referred to by Dr Gavin Finley as "the Bozrah deliverance". ''Bozrah'' is in Hebrew, but most translators render it as "fold"—sheep in the ''fold''. This "break-out" could be tied to , when ''
Yahweh Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he posse ...
'' fights against the nations, stands on the
Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet ( he, הַר הַזֵּיתִים, Har ha-Zeitim; ar, جبل الزيتون, Jabal az-Zaytūn; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge east of and adjacent to Jeru ...
(east of
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
), and splits the Mount in two as a valley, so that the remnant of Israel trapped in Jerusalem can escape those who would kill them. If so, Micah 2:12–13 would not relate to the locale of Bozrah. The notion of a remnant in Jerusalem fleeing through a split Mount of Olives derives from the
Masoretic The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...
reading of Zechariah 14:5. The
Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
(LXX) translation states in Zechariah 14:5 that a valley will be blocked up as it was blocked up during the earthquake during King
Uzziah Uzziah (; he, עֻזִּיָּהוּ ''‘Uzzīyyāhū'', meaning "my strength is Yah"; el, Ὀζίας; la, Ozias), also known as Azariah (; he, עֲזַרְיָה ''‘Azaryā''; el, Αζαρίας; la, Azarias), was the tenth king of t ...
's reign. Jewish historian
Flavius Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...
mentions in ''Antiquities of the Jews'' that the valley in the area of the King's Gardens was blocked up by landslide rubble during Uzziah's earthquake. Israeli geologists Wachs and Levitte identified the remnant of a large landslide on the Mount of Olives directly adjacent to this area. Based on geographic and linguistic evidence,
Charles Clermont-Ganneau Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau (19 February 1846 – 15 February 1923) was a noted French Orientalist and archaeologist. Biography Clermont-Ganneau was born in Paris, the son of Simon Ganneau, a sculptor and mystic who died in 1851 when Clermon ...
, a 19th-century linguist and archaeologist in Palestine, postulated that the valley directly adjacent to this landslide is Azal, the location mentioned in Zechariah 14:5 to which the remnant in Jerusalem is to flee supposedly. This location accords with the LXX reading of Zechariah 14:5, which states that the valley will be blocked up as far as Azal. If Clermont-Ganneau is correct, the notion of people fleeing ''east'' through the Mount of Olives to Azal is impossible because the valley he identified (which is now known as Wady Yasul in Arabic, and Nahal Etzel in Hebrew) lies ''south'' of both Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives.


Excavations

Excavation of the site began in the 1970s, and the finds were dated first to the 8th century BCE. However, later studies indicated that the main excavated Edomite sites from the area, including Umm el-Biyara, Tawilan and Buseirah, do not pre-date the seventh century BCE (Iron II). A round of excavations was conducted in 2009 and resulted in uncovering a church, possibly
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
, dwellings, and some water wells. An old tomb is popular among tourists as it is said to belong to Al-Harith Bin Umair Al-Azadi, whose murder led to the 639 CE Battle of Mu'tah. A number of community-led initiatives, such as the Busayra Cultural Heritage Project, have worked in recent years to develop tourism capacity at the archaeological site and raise awareness among local residents of the area's rich ancient history.Interpretive signs for Busayra archaeological site (electronic copy) (bilingual English-Arabic)
as prepared by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, Busayra Foundation for Cultural Heritage, and Sustainable Cultural Heritage through Engagement of Local Communities Project (funded by USAID and implemented by ACOR).


See also

*
Sela (Edom) Sela ( he, סֶּלַע, transliteration ''Sela‛'', meaning '' rock''; ar, السلع, ''es-Sela‛''; el, πέτρα, 'Petra'; la, petra) is a geographical name encountered several times in the Hebrew Bible, and applicable to a variety of l ...
, a nearby Edomite and Nabataean site


References


External links


Online photo collection
of school and community activities at Busayra, including the archaeological site, 2014–2018, via the USAID SCHEP Collection (ACOR Digital Archive) * {{Authority control Archaeological sites in Jordan Edom Hebrew Bible cities Former populated places in Southwest Asia Populated places in Tafilah Governorate