Bible Location
Meaning: conversion; captivity · 5 cross references · Modern-day map available
Sibmah was a town east of the Jordan near Heshbon, noted for its vineyards. It is important because it appears in Reuben's territory and later becomes part of the prophetic laments over Moab's devastated fertility. First appears in Num 32:38.1
AI summary: Sibmah is remembered less for armies than for vines, produce, and the sorrow of their loss. Territorial texts place it within the settled transjordanian landscape, but Isaiah and Jeremiah make its vineyards symbolic of a broader regional collapse in Moab. That agricultural emphasis gives Sibmah a distinctive tone among biblical place names. The cross references present Sibmah as a vine-rich plateau town whose abundance and ruin became part of prophetic lament.1
Coolness; fragrance, a town in Reuben, in the territory of Moab, on the east of Jordan (Josh. 13:19); called also Shebam and Shibmah (Num. 32:3, 38). It was famous for its vines (Isa. 16:9; Jer. 48:32). It has been identified with the ruin of Sumieh, where there are rock-cut wine-presses. This fact explains the words of the prophets referred to above. It was about 5 miles east of Heshbon. 3
AI-assisted summary prepared for ai-BIBLE and stored as page content, based on dictionary material, place metadata, and linked Bible cross references.
Alistair de Blacquiere-Clarkson, “ai-BIBLE Bible Names JSON Factsheet Aggregating Material from Smith’s Bible Dictionary & Hitcocks’s New and Complete Analysis of the Bible.” ai-BIBLE electronic edition, version 1.0.
M.G.Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ai-BIBLE electronic edition, version 1.0.
Robert Rouse, “Theographic Bible Information,” Theographic-Bible-Metadata, 2020, https://github.com/robertrouse/theographic-bible-metadata.