These Ammonite cities performed an important function in defining the traditional border between Israel and Ammon. Aroer is probably the town east of Rabbah (Joshua 13:25), which was Ammon’s capital city. The exact locations of Minnith and Abel-keramim are unknown, but most likely they lay between Rabbah and Heshbon.1 By destroying their border fortifications, Jephthah has removed the pressure that the Ammonites were applying to his people.
33 And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.