Transjordan

Transjordan — in Hebrew be-ʿeber ha-Yarden, "beyond the Jordan" — is the long belt of highland and plateau east of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, reaching from the Yarmuk in the north down to the gorge of the Arnon. It embraces three sub-regions: the heights of Bashan in the north, the wooded hills of Gilead in the center, and the level Mishor tableland in the south. Well-watered and rich in pasture, it was claimed at Israel's request by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, whose great herds suited its grasslands (Numbers 32:1).

Israel's conquest of the land actually began here, before the Jordan was ever crossed. Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan were defeated in turn (Numbers 21:23; Numbers 21:33), and their territory was apportioned to the eastern tribes on the solemn condition that their fighting men first help conquer Canaan (Numbers 32:20). From the plains of Moab at Shittim, Israel's last camp (Numbers 25:1), Moses surveyed the Promised Land from Mount Nebo on the ridge of Pisgah and died there, permitted to see but not to enter (Deuteronomy 34:1; Deuteronomy 34:5).

The region is woven through the wider story. Here Jacob wrestled through the night at the ford of the Jabbok and was renamed Israel, calling the place Peniel — "I have seen God face to face" (Genesis 32:30); here angels met him at Mahanaim (Genesis 32:2). Later Jephthah the Gileadite judged Israel (Judges 11:1), Elijah the Tishbite came from its settlers (1 Kings 17:1), and David found refuge at Mahanaim during Absalom's revolt, sustained by Barzillai the Gileadite (2 Samuel 17:27). Exposed on Israel's frontier, the eastern tribes were also the first to be carried into exile, swept away by Tiglath-pileser of Assyria (1 Chronicles 5:26).

Above all, Transjordan is the land of the threshold — the place of waiting, of seeing from afar, and of crossing over into rest. It was fitting, then, that John baptized "in Bethany beyond the Jordan" (John 1:28), and that Jesus withdrew there, where many came to him and believed (John 10:40; John 10:42). As Joshua once led Israel out of this wilderness threshold through the Jordan into the inheritance, so Christ, the true Joshua, leads his people through the waters of death into the rest that Moses longed for and only the Son can give.