Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Mount Nebo

(Septuagint: Nabau).

A mountain of the Abarim (q. v.) range east of Jordan and the Dead Sea, from which Moses surveyed the Promised Land (Deut., xxxii, 49), and where he died (ibid., xxxiv, 1, 5). The same is probably mentioned in the wanderings in Num., xxxiii, 47: "And departing from Helmondeblathaim, they came to the mountains of Abarim over against Nabo" (Heb. Nebo), though here the reference may be to the town (see NABO). The location of Mount Nebo is doubtful. A comparison of Deut., iii, 27 (cf. Num., xxvii, 12) with Deut., xxxii, 49 indicates that the "top of Phasga" and Nebo were variant names referring to the same spot. Difficulty arises in that from no point of the Abarim range does it seem possible to behold all the territory mentioned in Deut., xxxiv, 1-3, especially if the "furthermost sea" means the Mediterranean, as in Deut., xi, 24. By some Nebo is identified with the modern Jebel Neba, an oblong ridge on an elevated plateau five miles south-west of Hesebon, 2700 feet above sea level.

HUMMELAUER, Comment. in Deut. (Paris, 1901), 211, 533, 560 sqq.; GEIKIE, Hours with the Bible, VI (New York, 1899); 150; DRIVER in Internat. Crit. Comment. (New York, 1895), Deuteronomy, Chap. xxxiv.

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