Joshua 15:7

and the border went up toward Debir Not the royal Canaanitish city conquered (Joshua 10:29; Joshua 10:38), but somewhere behind Jericho. A Wady Daboris marked in Van de Velde'sMap as close to the south of Nêby Mûsa, at the north-west of the Dead Sea." Smith's Bibl. Dict.

from the valley of Achor south of Jericho; see ch. Joshua 7:26.

looking toward Gilgal Not the place where the Israelites first encamped. It is called Geliloth, ch. Joshua 18:17.

that is before the going up to Adummim = "the pass of the red," the road leading up from Jericho and the Jordan valley to Jerusalem. (a) Jerome ascribes the name to the blood "qui in illo loco a latronibus funditur," i.e. by the robbers who infested the pass in his day, and as they do still, and as they did in the days of our Lord, of whose parable of "the Good Samaritan" this is the scene, (b) But the more natural meaning of the word is "the Pass of the Red-haired Men," as if alluding to some aboriginal tribe of the country. (c) Others would derive it from the red colour of the rocks "the whole pass is white limestone, with the remarkable exception of one large mass of purplish rock on the ascent from Jericho." S. and P. 424, n.

which is on the south side of the river more literally, of the watercourse, or torrent, the Wady Kelt.

the waters of En-shemesh "and passith the waters, that ben clepid the welle of the sunne," Wyclif. This is the present Ain el Haudror "Apostles" Spring," about a mile below Bethany, the only spring on the road to Jericho.

and the goings out thereof were at En-rogel This some (a) would identify with "Ain Umm ed-Daraj, "the Fountain of the Virgin;" (b) others with Bîr Eyub, below the junction of the valleys of Kidron and Hinnom, and south of the Pool of Siloam. It was near this well that (a) Jonathan and Ahimaaz lay hid during the rebellion of Absalom, in order to collect and send news to David (2 Samuel 17:17); and (b) afterwards Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fat cattle by En-rogel, when he conspired to seize the kingdom (1 Kings 1:9). "In itself it is a singular work of ancient enterprise. The shaft, sunk through the solid rock in the bed of the Kidron, is 125 feet deep. The idea of digging such a well at that precise spot may have been suggested by the fact, that, after very great rains, water sometimes rises nearly to the top, and then flows out into the valley below, a strong brook capable of driving a mill. This, however, soon ceases, and the water in the well subsides to less than half its depth. From that point a stream seems to run constantly across it, and pass down the valley under the rock.… The water is pure and entirely sweet, quite different from that of Siloam, which proves that there is no connection between them. I have seen the water gushing out like a mill-stream, some fifteen rods south of the well; and then the whole valley was alive with people bathing in it, and indulging in every species of hilarity." Thomson's Land and the Book, pp. 658, 659.