ARNON är’ nən (אַרְנֹֽון; LXX ̓Αρνών; rushing stream). A river, now dried to a wadi, beginning in the hills of northern Arabia and flowing some twenty m. westward to enter the Dead Sea opposite En-gedi. A network of tributaries referred to as the “valleys of the Arnon” in the Biblical narrative (Num 21:14) add to the flow. For most of its journey, the river now courses through a deep gorge some two m. wide at the top and only some 100 ft. wide at the bottom. The steep banks, rising in places to 1700 ft., are limestone capped with basalt.

The Arnon is first mentioned in the Biblical record as forming the boundary between Moab and the Amorites (Num 21:13). It also formed the southern boundary of the territory assigned to Reuben (Deut 3:12). Israel was commanded to cross the Arnon from S to N and take its first territorial possessions there (Deut 2:24). The Moabite Stone (q.v.) (line 10) indicates, however, that Moabites lived N of the wadi by the time of Omri, thereby implying either incomplete or impermanent settlement by Israel. The river was evidently forded in many places and there are still traces of an old Rom. road and bridge to be seen.