Joshua 15:30

And Eltolad, and Chesil, and Hormah,

(21) And Eltolad - or Tolad (1 Chronicles 4:29), 'born of God;' a name which Wilton supposes Abraham gave to this place as the scene of Isaac's nativity. It was situated in the far southwest of the Negeb, at no great distance from el-'Aujeh.

And Chesil. This name was apparently same as Bethul (Joshua 19:4), and Bethuel (1 Chronicles 4:30), and Beth-el or Beith-el (1 Samuel 30:27). [The Septuagint, Baitheel, being given probably in memory of Abraham's making it a sanctuary of the true God (Genesis 21:33).] When, at a later period, the place had been desecrated by the establishment of star-worship (Amos 5:4; Amos 8:14), the Jews on the return from the captivity called it Chesil (folly), as the northern Beth-el received the contemptuous name of Beth-aven (house of vanity); the name Chesil remained, and the site is identified with that of el-Khulasah, the Elusa of the classics, a little to the southwest of Beer-sheba, the ruins of which cover, an area of fifteen or twenty acres (Williams' 'Holy City,' p. 488; Wilson's 'Lands of the Bible,' 1:, p. 342; Stewart's 'Tent and Khan,' p. 205; Robinson, 'Biblical Researches,' 1:, pp. 296-298). The latter, however, though he recognizes the Elusa of profane history, did not find the Chesil of the Bible in Khulasah.

(23) And Hormah - i:e., laid under the ban, doomed to destruction. Its former name was Zephath (Judges 1:17), which is preserved in its modern representative es-Sepat (or Sebata), rather Tebata, about 7 miles southwest of Khulasah (Chesil), (Wilson's 'Lands of the Bible,' 1:, p. 342; Stewart's 'Tent and Khan,' p. 205; Kurtz, 3:, p.

336).