DIBON (Hebr. Dihbôn). — A Moabite city, a stop or station of the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land (Num. 33:45), conquered and rebuilt by Gad, whence the name D.-Gad (Num. 32:34; 33:45), and later assigned by lot to the tribe of Reuben (Josh. 13:9, 17).
Mesha, king of Moab, freed it in the 9th century from the yoke of the kings of Israel (2 Kgs. 3:4), and the prophets Isaiah (15:2) and Jeremiah (48:18-22) indeed treat it as a Moabite city. Eusebius (Onomasticon, 76:17) describes it as a large village near the Arnon, now identified with the heap of medieval and Arab ruins covering older strata at the site called Dibân, 5 km northeast of Arâ'ir. On the acropolis, the so-called Mesha Stele was discovered in 1868, now in the Louvre, which the king erected at D. to boast of his victorious territorial claims against Israelite rule.