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Transjordan
TRANSJORDAN (trăns-jôr'dăn). A country included today in the country of Jordan, which is bordered on the west by Israel, on the north by Syria, on the east by Iraq, and on the south by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In the OT there is no one name given to this area, though the expressions, “this side of the Jordan” and “the other side of the Jordan,” appear frequently, their usage depending on the actual or idealized situation of the speaker. Various sections of Transjordan are called by national or ethnic names. The region is essentially a plateau, and ranges from about 2,000 to 3,000 feet (625 to 938 m.) in elevation. Opposite the northern end of the Dead Sea, Mount Nebo, from whose heights Moses viewed the Land of Promise (
Adjoining Edom on the north was Moab; at an earlier period Moab extended farther north, but at the time of the Exodus the Arnon River (Wadi el-Mojib) formed the boundary between Moab and the Amorites (

TRANS-JORDAN trănz jôr’ dən (בְּעֵ֣בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּ֔ן, tr. variously; the area usually designated as beyond the Jordan). This expression is commonly taken as referring to territory on the E side of the River Jordan.
Cut through by numerous gorges, some with constant water flow, the soil produces abundant crops of grain even without irrigation. Palestine is rugged tableland, 2,000 to 3,000 ft. in elevation, with heights of around 5,000 ft.
All E Pal. has been comprehended under the name Gilead (
Pre-Mosaic references to this territory occur (
North of Edom lay Moab, with Mt. Nebo (near the upper end of the Dead Sea), where Moses was granted sight of Canaan promised to Israel. This is the primary setting of the Book of Ruth. Here also David took refuge to escape Saul (
Next, between Arnon and Yarmuk, comes Gilead proper, and the kingdom of Sihon (
To the E of Gilead and N of the Arnon was Ammon. The northernmost territory was Bashan, of uncertain boundary, remembered for its fat cattle (
In NT times, Perea referred to a territory E of Jordan, which afforded in part a bypath for strict Jews going from Galilee in the N to Judea in the S, to avoid contamination by Samaria in between (cf.
Bibliography
G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1896), 48, 534, 539, 553ff.; Hommel, Ancient Hebrew Tradition (1897), 258; J. Bright, History of Israel (1959).