Joshua 11:17

even from the mount Halak Or, as it is rendered in the margin, "the smooth mountain," or "the bald mountain." We find this name only once again, viz. in Joshua 12:7, and there, as here, it seems to mark the southern limit of Joshua's conquests. Several ranges near the southern border of Canaan might be thus described. (a) Some would identify it with the modern Jebel-el-Mukrah, 60 miles south of the Dead Sea; (b) others with the mountain Madurah, or Maderah; (c) while others would identify it with the range of white cliffs, which cuts the Arabahobliquely at about eight English miles to the south of the Dead Sea, and divides the great valley into the two parts El Ghorand El Arabah. This row of cliffs, which is about 60 to 80 feet high, might very well be called "the bald mountain which ascends to Seir," for it was a point well adapted to form the southern boundary of Canaan, since it both touches the territory of Kadesh-Barnea, and joins in the east the upper chain of the mountains of Seir. See Keil in loc.

even unto Baal-Gad This was a town dedicated to Baal, under the aspect of "Gad" or the "god of good fortune" (Joshua 12:7; Joshua 13:5), probably the same as Baal-Hermon (Judges 3:3; 1 Chronicles 5:23). In later times it was known as Paniumor Paneas, and when enlarged and embellished by Herod Philip, Cæsarea Philippi, to distinguish it from Cæsarea "Palestinæ" or Cæsarea "on the sea" (Mark 8:27). Dean Stanley calls it a Syrian Tivoli, and certainly there is much in the rocks, caverns, cascades, and the natural beauty of the scenery, to recall the Roman Tibur. Behind the village, in front of a great natural cavern, a river bursts forth from the earth, the "upper source" of the Jordan. Inscriptions and niches in the face of the cliff tell of the old idol worship of Baal and of Pan. Tristram's Land of Israel, p. 581.