Gad

YHWH comes from the south to be enthroned by the tribes of Israel in Ashdot-hapisgah (Deuteronomy 33:2), a later name for the city of Nebo. The Mesha Stele documents the presence of a YHWH worship site, whose hieros logos is tied to the tomb of Moses, the “plot of the lawgiver” (v. 21) located in the territory of Gad.

Ataroth is an obscure Transjordanian city, referenced only twice in the Bible. Nevertheless, due to modern archaeological discoveries, it has become a central piece of evidence for reconstructing the history of the Moabite rebellion against Israel and King Mesha’s expansion of the Moabite kingdom described in both 2 Kings and the Mesha Stele.

In the southern Transjordanian Mishor (plateau), an area that changed hands between Israelites and Moabites, there once lived two neighboring tribes, Gadites and Dibonites.