Deuteronomy 3:4

all the region of Argob So Deuteronomy 13 f.; 1 Kings 4:13 and nowhere else. The Heb. for regionmeans a definitely measured or outlined piece of land, and "Argob seems connected with regeb, clod, and analogous to our -glebe." The Targums take it as Trachonitis or the Trachon of the Greek period, now the Lejá, the mass of lava, 24 miles by 10 to 20, which lies on Ḥauran like an ebony glacier with irregular crevasses. Sharply marked off by its abrupt edge from the surrounding plain it holds considerable means of subsistence, with the ruins of many villages and towns, and might well have been, at this as at other periods, the centre or distinctive feature of a province or kingdom. The identification with "Argob, accepted by many, is thus not unnatural; nor if we take "Argob as meaning -clumpy" is this an unsuitable name for the cleft masses of lava, like frozen mud, of which it is composed. But other parts of Ḥauran are also distinct from the rest, e.g. the fertile en-Ṇukra or -Hollow Hearth" of the Arabs; or the almost as fertile W. slope of the Jebel Ḥauran. Both of these bear ruins of ancient towns, while some may be of immemorial antiquity. Nothing however has been discovered either there or throughout Bashan which is recognisable as older than the Greek period. Euseb. and Jer. give Ragaba as a village near Geresa, in Gile-ad, cp. Jos. XIII. Ant.xv. 5; and to-day Rajeb or Rujeb is the name of a Wâdy and village also in Gile-ad. This is noteworthy in view of the fact that one O.T. tradition appears to connect Argob with Gile-ad; see below.