Coordinates: 32°40′52″N 35°52′11″E / 32.68111°N 35.86972°E Abila (Arabic: ابيلا) – also Biblical: Abel-Shittim or Ha-Shittim (or simply Shittim) – was an ancient city east of the Jordan River in Moab, later Peraea, near Livias, about twelve km. northeast of the north shore of the Dead Sea; the site is now that of Abil-ez-Zeit, Jordan.
Abel-Shittim, (Hebrew meaning "Meadow of the Acacias"), is found only in Numbers 33:49; but Ha-Shittim (Hebrew meaning "The Acacias"), evidently the same place, is mentioned in Numbers 25:1, Joshua 2:1. Joshua 3:1, and Micah, 6:5. It was the forty-second encampment of the Israelites, associated with Israelite cultural integration and inter-marriage with the Moabite residents, the heresy of Peor and the Covenant of Peace according to which God recognized the zeal of Phinehas and the permanence of the Aaronic priesthood. It was also the final headquarters of Joshua before he crossed the Jordan.