Phasga

(A.V. Pisgah ).

Whether the word in Hebrew is a proper or a common noun is not clear; certain it is at any rate that it designates a mountain of the Alarm range ( Deuteronomy 32:49 ), east of the Jordan ( Deuteronomy 4:49 ), in the land of Moab ( Numbers 21:20 ), "over against Jericho " ( Deuteronomy 34:1 ), above Yeshimon [Num., xxi, 20; D.V. "which looketh towards the desert " ('Ain Suweimeh)], east of the north end of the Dead Sea ( Deuteronomy 4:49 ; Joshua 12:3 ), in connection with Mount Nebo, and commanding an extensive view of the Holy Land ( Deuteronomy 32:49 ; 34:1-4), on the south-east border of which it stood ( Deuteronomy 4:49 ). From all these indications it appears that Phasga is no other than Mount Nebo itself (Jebel Neba, south-west of Hesban or Hesebon ), or, better still, the western peak of the mountain, Ras Siâghâ. On its slopes the Israelites pitched their camp ( Numbers 21:20 ); in the "field of Sophim" (D.V. "a high place") on the mountain Balaam uttered his second oracle about Israel ( Numbers 23:11-24 ); lastly from the top of Phasga, Moses surveyed the Promised Land.