HESHBON hĕsh’ bŏn (חֶשְׁבֹּ֖ון; ̔Εσεβῶν, reckoning, account). A city c. eighteen m. E of the Jordan, and c. fifty m. E of Jerusalem, and c. nine m. N of Madaba; between the brooks Jabbok and Arnon. According to Numbers 21:25-30 it was originally Moabite. Sihon, king of the Amorites, wrested it from the Moabites and made it his capital (Num 21:25f.). It was taken from Sihon by the Israelites under Moses on their way to Canaan. It was located on the border of Reuben and Gad, although actually within the territory assigned to Reuben (Num 32:37). The Reubenites rebuilt it after the conquest of Canaan (Num 32:37). Gad later came into possession of it, and it was assigned as a town of Gad to the Merarite Levites (Josh 21:39; 1 Chron 6:81). Later it again fell into the hands of the Moabites, as the prophets repeatedly mention it in their denunciations of Moab (Isa 15:4; 16:8, 9; Jer 48:2, 34, 45; 49:3). In later days the Maccabees and Herod the Great controlled it (Jos. Antiq. 13. 15. 4; 15. 8. 5). It was located on the site of the modern Hesban. Ruins of the city which are chiefly Rom., lie on the summit of a hill and are about a m. in circuit. Nearby there is a large ruined reservoir, which may be the “pools of Heshbon” mentioned in the Song of Solomon (7:4).