Zin

a low palm-tree, the south-eastern corner of the desert et-Tih, the wilderness of Paran, between the Gulf of Akabah and the head of the Wady Guraiyeh ( Numbers 13:21 ). To be distinguished from the wilderness of Sin (q.v.).

buckler; coldness

(flat ), the name given to a portion of the desert tract between the Dead Sea, Ghor , and Arabah on the east, and the general plateau of the Tih which stretches westward. The country in question consists of two or three successive terraces of mountain converging to an acute single at the Dead Seas southern verge, toward which also they slope. Kadesh lay in it, and here also Idumea was conterminous with Judah; since Kadesh was a city in the border of Edom. [See KADESH]. ( Numbers 13:21 ; 20:1 ; 27:14 ; 33:36 ; 34:3 ; Joshua 15:1 )

ZIN

zin (tsin; Sin): (1) A town in the extreme South of Judah, on the line separating that province from Edom, named between the ascent of Akrabbim and Kadesh-barnea (Numbers 34:4; Joshua 15:3). It must have lain somewhere between Wady el-Fiqra (the ascent of Akrabbim?) and `Ain Qadis (Kadesh-barnea); but the site has not been recovered.

(2) The Wilderness of Zin is the tract deriving its name from the town (Numbers 34:3). It is identified with the wilderness of Kadesh in Numbers 33:36; while in other places Kadesh is said to be in the wilderness of Zin (Numbers 20:1; 27:14; Deuteronomy 32:51). We may take it that the two names refer to the same region. The spies, who set out from Kadesh-barnea, explored the land from the wilderness of Zin northward (Numbers 13:21; compare 32:8). It bordered with Judah "at the uttermost part of the south" (Joshua 15:1). In this wilderness Moses committed the offense which cost him his hope of entering the promised land (Numbers 27:14; Deuteronomy 32:51). It is identical with the uplands lying to the North and Northwest of the wilderness of Paran, now occupied by the `Azazimeh Arabs.

W. Ewing