Dibon was a town east of the Jordan with a long list of owners in these verses. In Numbers 32 it is among the lands Gad and Reuben asked to settle, and “the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer.” By the time of Isaiah 15 it belongs to Moab, and the prophet pictures its people going up to the high places to weep. The same name marks a place of building and settling, then a place of grief. Isaiah 15 is the passage to start with.
5 verses
Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon,
And the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer,
And Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,
He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.
For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Pining; wasting. (1.) A city in Moab (Num. 21:30); called also Dibon-gad (33:45), because it was built by Gad and Dimon (Isa. 15:9). It has been identified with the modern Diban, about 3 miles north of the Arnon and 12 miles east of the Dead Sea. (See Moabite Stone.)
(2.) A city of the tribe of Judah, inhabited after the Captivity (Neh. 11:25); called also Dimonah (Josh. 15:22). It is probably the modern ed-Dheib.
William Smith, 1884
(wasting).
(1.) A town on the east side of Jordan, in the rich pastoral country, which was taken possession of and rebuilt by the children of Gad. (Numbers 32:3,34) From this circumstance it possibly received the name of DIBON-GAD. (Numbers 33:45,46) Its first mention is in (Numbers 21:30) and from this it appears to have belonged originally to the Moabites. We find Dibon counted to Reuben in the lists of Joshua. (Joshua 13:9,17) In the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah, however, it was again in possession of Moab. (Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 48:18,22) comp. Jere 48:24 In modern times the name Dhiban has been discovered as attached to extensive ruins on the Roman road, about three miles north of the Arnon (Wady Modjeb).
(2.) One of the towns which were reinhabited by the men of Judah after the return from captivity, (Nehemiah 11:25) identical with DIMONAH.