Joshua 15:7

7 The border went up to Debir from the Achor Valley, turning north to Gilgal. Gilgal was opposite the ascent of Adummim, which was south of the ravine. The border passed on to the waters of En-shemesh and ended at En-rogel.

Joshua 15:7 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 15:7

And the border went up towards Debir
This was neither the Debir in the tribe of Gad, on the other side Jordan, ( Joshua 13:26 ) ; nor that in the tribe of Judah near Hebron, ( Joshua 15:15 ) ; but a third city of that name, and was not far from Jericho:

from the valley of Achor;
where Achan was put to death, and had its name from thence; which, according to Jarchi, lay between the stone of Bohan and Debir:

and so northward, looking towards Gilgal;
not the place where Israel were encamped when this lot was made, but it seems to be the same that is called Geliloth, ( Joshua 18:17 ) ;

that [is], the going up to Adummim;
which, Jerom says F3, was formerly a little village, now in ruins, in the lot of the tribe of Judah, which place is called to this day Maledomim; and by the Greeks "the ascent of the red ones", because of the blood which was there frequently shed by thieves: it lies on the borders of Judah and Benjamin, as you go from Jerusalem to Jericho, where there is a garrison of soldiers for the help of travellers, and is supposed to be the place where the man fell among thieves in his way from the one to the other, ( Luke 10:30 ) . It was four miles distant from Jericho to the west, according to Adrichomius {d}, and was a mountain, and part of the mountains of Engaddi:

which [is] on the south side of the river;
which some take to be the brook Kidron; but that is not very likely, being too near Jerusalem for this place: it may be rendered "the valley", so Jarchi, either the valley of Achor, before mentioned, or however a valley that ran along by the mount or ascent of Adummim, which lay to the south of it:

and the border passed to the waters of Enshemesh:
or the "fountain of the sun"; but of it we have no account what and where it was. It might be so called, because dedicated to the sun by the idolatrous Canaanites, or because of the sun's influence on the waters of it. Our city, Bath, is, by Antoninus F5, called "aquae solis", the waters of the sun; though there is a fountain in Cyrene, so called, for a reason just the reverse, it being, as Mela F6 and Pliny F7 affirm, hottest the middle of the night, and then grows cooler by little and little; and when it is light is cold, and when the sun is risen is colder still, and at noon exceeding cold; and, according to Vossius F8, it is the same with the fountain of Jupiter Ammon; and so it appears to be from Herodotus F9, by whom it is also called the "fountain of the sun", and which he places in Thebes, though Pliny distinguishes them:

and the goings out thereof were at Enrogel;
which signifies "the fountain of the fuller"; so the Targum renders it, and probably was a fountain where fullers cleansed their clothes; and was called Rogel, as Jarchi and Kimchi say, because they used to tread them with their feet when they washed them. This was a place near Jerusalem, as appears from ( 1 Kings 1:9 ) ; near to which perhaps was the fuller's monument, at the corner tower of Jerusalem, Josephus F11 speaks of, as there was also a place not far from it called the fuller's field, ( Isaiah 7:3 ) ; according to Bunting F12, it had its name from travellers washing their feet here.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 De loc. Heb. fol. 88. E. F.
F4 Theatrum Terrae Sanct. p. 14.
F5 Vid. Cambden's Britannia, p. 141.
F6 De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 8.
F7 Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 103.
F8 Observat. in Pompon. Mel. ut supra. (De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 8.)
F9 Melpomene, sive, l. 4. c. 181.
F11 De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 4. sect. 2.
F12 Travels, p. 148.

Joshua 15:7 In-Context

5 The east border was the Dead Sea as far as the mouth of the Jordan. The border on the north side ran from the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Jordan.
6 The border went up to Beth-hoglah and passed north of Beth-arabah. The border went up to the Stone of Bohan (Reuben's son).
7 The border went up to Debir from the Achor Valley, turning north to Gilgal. Gilgal was opposite the ascent of Adummim, which was south of the ravine. The border passed on to the waters of En-shemesh and ended at En-rogel.
8 The border went up by the valley of Ben-Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusite city, Jerusalem, on the south. The border went up to the top of the mountain that is opposite the Hinnom Valley on the west, which is at the north end of the Rephaim Valley.
9 The border turned from the top of the mountain to the waters of Nephtoah Spring and went to the cities of Mount Ephron. The border turned toward Baalah (that is, Kiriath-jearim).
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