Joshua 12:5

and in Salcah Identical with the town of Sûlkhadat the southern extremity of the Jebel Haurân. It was conquered by the Israelites, Deuteronomy 3:10. The town is of considerable size, two or three miles in circumference, surrounding a castle on a lofty isolated hill. "The country is stony and undulating; but the soil is rich, and traces of former cultivation are everywhere visible. The view from the top of the castle is extensive and strangely interesting.… On the segment of the plain, extending from the south to the east, I counted the towns or large villages, none of them more than 12 miles distant, and almost all of them, so far as I could see by the aid of a telescope, still habitable like Sulkhad, but entirely deserted. Well may we exclaim with the prophet, as we look over this mournful scene of utter desolation, -Moab is confounded; for it is broken down; howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled, and judgment is come upon the plain country… upon Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon, and upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the citiesof the land of Moab, far or near" (Jeremiah 48:19-24)." Porter's Handbook, 11. 522.

the border of the Geshurites Geshur was a little principality in the N.E. corner of Bashan, adjoining the province of Argob (Deuteronomy 3:14), and the kingdom of Aram or Syria (2 Samuel 15:8). Hither Absalom fled after the murder of Amnon (2 Samuel 13:37).

the Maachathites The people of Maacha dwelt on the south-west slope of Hermon at the sources of the Jordan (Deuteronomy 3:14).