Nimrah

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("leopard", or "clear water".)

1.  Numbers 32:3;  Numbers 32:36, a city in "the land of Jazer and of Gilead." (See Bethnimrah .) Now Nimrun ; E. of Jordan, E.N.E. from Jericho. The name is from leopards infesting the thick wood between the inner and outer banks of the Jordan, which overflows at times into that intermediate space and drives the wild beast out of its lair ( Jeremiah 49:19;  Jeremiah 50:44). In  Isaiah 15:6 "the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate ... there is no green thing"; even the city Nimrah, whose name means "limpid waters," which came down from the mountains of Gilead near Jordan, is without water, so that herbage is gone ( Jeremiah 48:34), i.e. "the well watered pastures of Nimrah shall be desolate."

2. Another Nimrah is in Moab, near the wady Beni Hammed, E. of the Dead Sea near its southern end, Khirbet en (ruins of) Nemeireh.

3. The plural, NIMRIM, thus would comprise both the N. of Gad and the N. of Moab. Bethnimra is perhaps Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing ( John 1:28); for the pure water of Bethnimra, its situation in the center of "the region round about Jordan," and its accessibleness from "Jerusalem and Judaea" all accord. Tradition makes it the scene of Israel's "passage" over Jordan; this would cause Bethabara ("house of passage") to be substituted for Bethnimra.(See Bethnimra; Bethabara ) The Septuagint has Bethanabra, a link between the two names. Bethbara is distinct ( Judges 7:24). (See BETHBARA.)

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Nim'rah. (Limpid, Pure). A place mentioned by this name in  Numbers 32:3 only. If it is the same as Betu-Nimrah ,  Numbers 32:36, it belonged to the tribe of Gad. It was ten miles north of the Dead Sea, and three miles east of the Jordan, in the hill of Nimrim.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

A city of Gad and Reuben. ( Numbers 32:3) If derived from Namer, it signifies leopard; if from Marah, as some have supposed, bitterness.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Numbers 32:36 Numbers 32:3

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Numbers 32:3 Joshua 13:27

Morrish Bible Dictionary

City in Gad.  Numbers 32:3 . See Beth-Nimrah

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

NIMRAH. See Beth-nimrah.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Nimrah', נַמְרָה , assigned by both Gesenius and Furst to a root signifying Limpid, and different from that of ‘ נָמֵר , A Panther; Sept. Ναμβρά , v. r. Ναμρά , Ἀμβράμ ), a place mentioned, in  Numbers 32:3, among those which formed the districts of the "land of Jazer and the land of Gilead," on the east of Jordan, petitioned for by Reuben and Gad. These towns appear, from the way in which they are grouped, to have been all near the place of the Israelitish encampment in the plain of Moab. It is manifestly the same city which is afterwards mentioned as having been rebuilt by the Gadites, and which is called BETH-NIMRAH ( Numbers 32:36). The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, in pronouncing a curse upon Moab, say, "the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate" ( Isaiah 15:6;  Jeremiah 48:34); and they group Nimrim with some of the same places mentioned in connection with it by Moses, as Heshbon and Elealeh; there can be no doubt, therefore, that the same town is referred to. It is worthy of note that the name Nimer and Nimreh Occur in several localities east of the Jordan (Porter, Handbook, p. 509, 510, 520); but most of these are not in the required position. The statements of Eusebius and Jerome regarding this city are confused and contradictory. In the Onomasticon (s.v. Nemra), Eusebius says of Nebra that it is "a city of Reuben in Gilead, now a large village in Katancea ( Ἐν Τῇ Καταναίς ) , called Abara. " There must be a corruption of the text here, for Jerome writes the name Nemra, and says it is still a large village, but does not give its locality. Of Nemrim (Eusebius, Νεκηρίμ ) , both state that it is now a village called Benamerium, north of Zoar. But under Bethamnaram ( Eusebius, Βηθναβράν ) , which they identify with Nimrah, they say that "it is to this day the village of Bethamnaris in the fifth mile north of Libias." All these notices may have been originally intended for the same place, and the corruption of the text has created the confusion (Reland, Palaest. p. 649, 650). About two miles east of the Jordan, near the road from Jericho to es-Salt, are the ruins of Nimrim, on the banks of a wady of the same name. The ruins are now desolate, but near them are copious springs and marshy ground. There can be little doubt that this is the site of Nimrah, or Beth-Nimrah, which Joshua locates in the valley (13:27); and that these springs are "the waters of Nimrim" on which Isaiah pronounced the curse (Porter, Hand-Book, p. 308; Robinson, Bib. Res. 1:551: Burckhardt, Syria, p. 355, 391). (See Beth-Nimrah).