Joshua 15:25,26

And Hazor, Hadattah, and Kerioth, and Hezron, which is Hazor,

(10) And Hazor-hadattah, [Chadat, Chaldee form of Hebrew chaadash, new; Septuagint omits, unless it be included in the words: kai hai koomai autoon; Vulgate has Azor-nova; Bos. has: Aisoor teen kaiueen]. This city is placed erroneously by Eusebius and Jerome ('Onomast.,' 'Azor') in the Shephela. This list comprises exclusively the cities in the Negeb; and hence, Wilton, following De Saulcy, fixes its site at a ruin called Qasr el-Adadah, about two miles northwest of the Upper Zuweirah pass, on the summit of a hill. This situation, at the head of the important pass of Ez-zuweirah, serves to explain why it should immediately follow Bealoth (Kurnub), which stands in a similar relation to the only other main route by which central Palestine is approached from the southeast ('Negeb,' p. 99).

(11) And Kerioth. Some take this as the name of a town, which Stewart ('Tent and Khan,' p. 217) suggests might be Kharbet-kourah, near Moladah. But Kerioth must be joined to the following word, dropping "and:"

Kerioth-hezron, which is Hazor-amam, х uw-Qªriyowt (H7152) Chetsrown (H2696), which is rendered literally by the Septuagint: kai hai poleis Aseroon, and the cities of Hezron. hautee Asoor.] It is evident that this place, which had originally been a pastoral settlement, from the prefix Hazor, had been taken and fortified by the Anakim. The Israelites, when they obtained possession of it, added to this Kirjath the name of Hezron, 'in honour of the father of two of their most distinguished worthies, Jerahmeel and Caleb, to each of whom a portion of the Negeb was assigned' ('Negeb,' p. 101. But see the note at Joshua 14:6, where a different view of Caleb's descent is supported; and besides, Hezron occurs in this chapter (Joshua 15:3) as the name, not of a person, but a place). This place has been hesitatingly suggested by Robinson ('Biblical Researches,' 2:, p. 472; Van de Velde, 2:, p. 82), and confidently pronounced by Wilton ('Negeb.' p. 20) to be what is now known as el-Kuryetein-`the two cities,' or 'the double city'-the heights around being covered with ruins of populous towns, which might form one large Hazor. It is called Hazor-amam, from Hemam (Genesis 36:22), or Homam (1 Chronicles 1:39), a Horite chieftain; and in accordance with this hypothesis, as to the place having been anciently an outlying settlement of the Horites, the neighbourhood of el-Kuryetein abounds, with excavations made by human hands, to serve as the habitations of a Troglodyte people.

(12) Shema is considered by Roland ('Palaestina,' p. 145) to be identical with Sheba (Joshua 19:2), both on account of the association in both passages with Moladah and of the frequent interchange of the letters, mem

(m) and beth (b) (see the note at Joshua 19:2). Wilton thinks that the reading of this name in the Septuagint [Salmaa] affords a clue to the discovery of its modern representative 'in a site of ruins and a mound or low tell (described by Robinson, 'Biblical Researches,' 2:, pp. 423, 424, about five miles eastsoutheast of Arad), called Rujeim-selameh (cairn of Selameh, the mound of peace), situated in a basin formed by some teen hills, which the Arabs call Wady er-Ramail (valley of Jerahmeel) (Van de Velde, 'Syria and Palestine' 2:, pp. 84,

85).

(13) Moladah (1 Chronicles 4:28; Nehemiah 11:26) - the Malatha of the classics and of Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 18:, ch. 6:, sec. 2); is identified by Robinson ('Biblical Researches,' 2:, pp. 621, 622) with el-Milh, four English miles southwest from 'Arad, and twenty from Hebron. There are here the vestiges of an extensive town, with important wells. There is a general concurrence in the correctness of the identification with el-Milh (see, besides Reland's 'Palaestina,' p. 885, Wilson's 'Lands of the Bible,' 1:, pp. 347, 348; Porter, 'Handbook of Syria and Palestine,' p. 54; Stewart, 'Tent and Khan,' p. 217). Wilton derives the name Moladah from Molid, a descendant of Jerahmeel. Robinson ('Biblical Researches,' 2:, p. 621) and Keil can trace no etymological connection between Moladah and Milh. On the other hand, Furst (in his 'Hebrew Lexicon,' sub voce) states that Moladah is etymologically and literally the same as Mylitta, a Phoenician goddess, whose worship was evidently established there.