Deuteronomy 1:44

the Amorites So D characteristically (see above on Deuteronomy 1:7) names the peoples whom J, Numbers 14:45, calls Amalekites and Canaanites.

as bees do Swarming in their multitudes; cp. Isaiah 7:18; Psalms 118:12; Iliad, ii. 87 ff., -As when the tribes of thronging bees issue from some hollow rock."

in Seir Se-îr, the frequent name of the territory of Edom, extended to the W. as well as to the E. of the -Arabah; and if that be here intended Israel's defeat took place on Edomite soil; Sam. -in Gebala" (Gebal being a late post-exilic name for the N. part of Edom's territory on the E. of the -Arabah, Psalms 83:8: see -Land of Edom" by the present writer in Expositor, seventh series, vol. vi. pp. 331, 515). LXX and other versions read from Se-îr, which on such a reading would be a definite district in the N. whence Israel were driven southward to Ḥormah. And as Se-îr, roughor shaggy, appears as the name of other localities than the land of Edom (cp. Joshua 15:10; Judges 3:26; Tell-el-Amarna Letters, Winckler's ed. No. 181, line 26) it is possible that this is but another application of it to some place on the S. border of Palestine. But in that case one must not think of it as the plain of Seer, S.E. of Be'er-sheba-, which Trumbull (K. B.93) identifies with the Edomite Se-îr (cf. Driver); for the spelling of that, first correctly given by J. Wilson (Lands of the Bible, i. 345) and. confirmed by Palmer (Des. of the Exod. ii. 404) and Musil (Edom, i. 9, etc.), as Sirr, is radically different from Se-îr.

unto Hormah Not now to be identified. Musil's lists and maps discover no such place-name. The tradition of the origin of the name is double. According to JE, Numbers 21:3, it was so called because Israel devoted to the ḥerem or ban the Canaanites whom they defeated there; but in Judges 1:17 because Judah and Simeon did the same upon their victory. The place lay in Judah in the Negeb on the border of Edom, Joshua 12:14; Joshua 15:30; cp. 1 Samuel 30:30; but it was Simeon's according to Joshua 19:4; 1 Chronicles 4:30. In Judges 1:17 the ancient name is given as Ṣephath; and es-Sbaita (Musil, Edom, ii. 37 ff.) has been suggested as its mod. equivalent, but the radicals of the name are not the same. The situation, however, is suitable; some 25 miles N.N.E. of -Ain-Ḳudeis.