4 ISRAel FINkelSTeIN • 11,33a. This includes geographical information and hence deserves a detailed discussion. Judges 11,33a reads: “And he smote them from ‘Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim”. This description delineates the border of the Northern kingdom with Ammon and Moab in the period of time between the withdrawal of the Omrides from the mishor in Moab (ca. 840 Bce) and the take- over of the Gilead by Rezin of Damascus about a century later; this territorial disposition is echoed in the description of the conquest of the Damascene territories in Transjordan by Tiglath-pileser III 15. Below I follow Na’aman’s translation 16 for the stone fragment from calah (Nimrud) (III R 10, 2, [a] below), and for the broken tablet unearthed at calah (ND 4301+) and published by Wiseman 17: [a] [From] the town of kashpuna which is on the shore of the upper Sea [as far as the town of mi?-in?]-ni-te, the town of ga-al-’a-‫׀‬a‫׀‬-[di] and the town of a-bi-il-šiṭ-ṭi which is on the border of Bīt Ḫumri, the widespread [land of Bīt hazai]li in its entirety, I restored to the territory of Assyria [...] [b] The widespread [land of Bīt] Ḫazaili in its entirety, from the t[own of kashp]una as far as the town of Gilea[d and the town of Abel-šiṭṭi which is on the bor]der of Bīt-Ḫumri, I [restored] to the territory of Assyria [...] This text seems to locate the southern border of Aram Damascus at the towns of [Min]nite (biblical Minnith), Gilead and Abel-šiṭṭi (biblical Abel-shittim). According to eusebius, Minnith is located four miles from heshbon on the way to Philadelphia (On. 132: 1). Alt 18 located it in the vicinity of umm el-Ḥanafish (G.R. 232 137) 19, but this identification is inconclusive 20. Abel-shittim should be sought in the lower Jordan Valley (Num 33,49; Josh 2,1; Mic 6,5; see also Jos. Ant. 4, 5, 1; 5, 1, 1), opposite Jericho. 15 N. NA’AMAN, “Rezin of Damascus and the land of Gilead”, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina Vereins 111 (1995) 105-117. 16 NA’AMAN, “Rezin”, 105-117. 17 D.J. WISeMAN, “A Fragmentary Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III from Nimrus”, Iraq 18 (1956) 125, Rev. lines 3-4, [b] below. 18 A. AlT, “Das Institut im Jahre 1932”, PJ 29 (1933) 27-28. 19 See also S. MITTMANN, “Aroer, Minnith und Abel keramim (JDc 11, 33)”, ZDPV 85 (1969) 71-73. 20 u. hÜBNeR, Die Ammoniter. untersuchungen zur Geschichte, kultur und Religion eines transjordanischen Volkes im 1. Jahrtausend v. chr (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästinavereins 16; Wiesbaden 1992) 133-136, with further literature.