Joshua 15:7

7 From that point it went through the valley of Achor to Debir, turning north toward Gilgal, which is across from the slopes of Adummim on the south side of the valley. From there the boundary extended to the springs at En-shemesh and on to 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 eastern boundary extended along the Dead Sea to the mouth of the Jordan River. The northern boundary began at the bay where the Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea,
6 went up from there to Beth-hoglah, then proceeded north of Beth-arabah to the Stone of Bohan. (Bohan was Reuben’s son.)
7 From that point it went through the valley of Achor to Debir, turning north toward Gilgal, which is across from the slopes of Adummim on the south side of the valley. From there the boundary extended to the springs at En-shemesh and on to En-rogel.
8 The boundary then passed through the valley of Ben-Hinnom, along the southern slopes of the Jebusites, where the city of Jerusalem is located. Then it went west to the top of the mountain above the valley of Hinnom, and on up to the northern end of the valley of Rephaim.
9 From there the boundary extended from the top of the mountain to the spring at the waters of Nephtoah, and from there to the towns on Mount Ephron. Then it turned toward Baalah (that is, Kiriath-jearim).
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