Ataroth

Ataroth ("crowns") was a town in the Mishor plateau of Transjordan, one of the cities that the tribe of Gad rebuilt and fortified after Moses granted them their inheritance east of the Jordan (Numbers 32:3, 34). It lay in the rich pasture land north of the Arnon that Gad had requested because it was "a place suited for cattle." The site is identified with Khirbet Attarus, about eight miles northwest of Dibon and visible from Mount Nebo. Centuries later King Mesha of Moab celebrated his conquest of Ataroth in the Moabite Stone inscription: "the men of Gad had dwelt in the land of Ataroth from of old; and the king of Israel had built Ataroth for himself" — until Mesha captured it, slaughtered its inhabitants, and dedicated the city to Chemosh. A separate Ataroth (called Ataroth-addar) sat on the Ephraim/Benjamin border far to the west.