BOSRA. – Name of various localities, with uncertain spelling in Greek and Latin: Bosra(h), Bozra, Bostra.
1. – Ancient capital of the Edomites (Heb. Bošrah) in Arabia Petraea (Gen. 36:33; I Par. 1:44; Am. 1:12), perhaps the present-day el-Bušejreh, south-southeast of the Dead Sea. It sometimes stands for Edom (Jer. 49:13, 22; cf. Is. 34:6; 63:1), whose meaning it also assumes as the archetypal opponent of the divine kingdom, as in Is. 63:1. (Cf. E. Robinson, Palaestina, III, [Boston 1843], p. 125 ff.; A. Musil, Arabia Petraea II, 1 [Vienna 1907], p. 320 ff.).
2. – Moabite city (Heb. Bošrah), mentioned in Jer. 48:24, identified by some with Barasa (I Mach. 5:26), BOSONE (v.).
3. – City mentioned in Jos. 21:27 (Heb. Bē'ēterāh), Astaroth (v.), as indicated by the parallel passage in I Par. 6:56.
4. – City in the Hawrān (v. BOSTRA). Giovanni Rinaldi