Burton MacDonald’s book, East of the Jordan: Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures (Boston: American School of Oriental Research, 2000), is a study of the location of territories and sites mentioned in the Bible as being “East of the Jordan,” in the land known today as Jordan.

The book seeks to identify each biblical site by suggesting the most likely location based on information provided by the biblical text, extra-biblical literary information, toponymic considerations and archaeology.

According to the blurb of the book, the book “treats all territories and sites of Hebrew Scriptures in Transjordan from the ‘cities of the plains’ (e.g. Sodom and Gomorrah), the Exodus itineraries, and the territories and sites of the Israelite tribes (Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh), to Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Gilead.”

Some of the chapters are:

Chapter 2: “Biblical Site Identification: History and Methodology”

Chapter 4: “Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, Bela–The ‘Cities of the Plain’–and Lasha”

Chapter 5: “The Exodus Itineraries”

Chapter 6: “Settlement of the Israelite Tribes East of the Jordan”

The book is available free in PDF format. Read or download the book here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary