Esh'ean [some E'sheiin'] (Heb. Eshan', '1' — !??, a prop; Sept. 'Eadv v. r. 2o/<a, Vulg. Esann'), a city in the mountains of Judah, mentioned between Dumali and Janum (.losh. xv, 52), situated in the group west l)y soutli of Hebron (Keil, Comment, in loc). Van de Velde thinks {Memoir, p. 310, 311) the place may be the same as Ashan (q. v.) ; but this is inadmissible, parth' because of the difference in the name (" w"), and partly because the only Ashan mentioned in Scripture lay in the low countrj'- (Josh, xv, 42; comp. ver. 33), wliile Eshean is express!}' placed in the hill country of Judah (ver. 48, 52). To escape this last and fatal olijection, Van de Velde follows Von Kaumer {Palcisf. p. 173) in sui)|)osing two Ashans, one in the mountains of Judah, and the other in the southern plain of Pales- tine, Ijelonging to Simeon ; but that tlie Ashan of Ju- dah and tliat of Simeon were one and the same, is evi- dent from comparing Josh, xv, 42 and xix, 9, where
ESHEK
298
ESKRIDGE
Ether appears as in the vicinity of both, and Josh, xix, 7 with 1 Cliron. iv, 32, where the same is the case with Ain-Kimmon. Still, although Esliean cannot thus be identiticd with the Chor-ashan of 1 Sam. xxx, 30, we may perhaps adopt Van de Velde's location of the former at the ruins of Khursa (Robinson's Researches, iii. Append, p. IIG), not far south-west of Hebron (Stewart, Tent, p. 224).
E'shek (Heb. id. p'^-'", ojipression; Sept. 'EatXtK V. r. 'Acri/X, Vulg. Esec), brother of Azel (q. v.), a Ben- jamite, one of tlie late descendants of king Saul ; he was the father of several sons, among them Ulara, the founder of a large and noted family of archers, lit. "treaders of the bow" (1 Chron. viii, 39). B.C. ante 588. They are omitted in the parallel list of 1 Chron. ' ix, 35-4-1.
Eshel. See Tamarisk.
Esh'kalonite (Heb. collect, with the art. Iia-Esh- JcelonV, "^rVppdxri, Sept. o ' A(jKa\(ui'irrjc,Yn\g. Asca- lonitcE, A. V. " the Eshkalonites"), the patrial designa- tion (Josh, xiii, 3) of the inhabitants of Ashkelon (q.v.).
Esh'taol (Heb. EshtaoV, bixnrX [but defect- ively ixSrX in Judg. xiii, 25 ; xviii, 2, 8, 11], ac- cording to Fiirst, narrow pass, but Gesenius suggests perhaps 7Je?Ji'«o«,- Sept. 'Ag^cimX t. r. [in Judg. xiii, 5] '£ff3«oA, Vulg. Ei,tliuol or [in Josh, xv, 33] Estaol), a town in the low countrj' of Judah, the Shephelah or plain of Philistia. It is the first of the first group of cities in that di.strict (Josh, xv, 33) enumerated with Zoreah (Heb. Zareah), or Zorah, in companj' with which it is commonly mentioned. Zorah and Eshtaol were two of the towns allotted to the tribe of Dan out of Judah (Josh, xix, 41). Between them, and behind Kirjath-jearim, was situated IVIahaneh-Dan, the camp or stronghold which formed the head-quarters of that little communitj- during their constant encounters with the Philistines. Eshtaol was one of the great strong- holds of the Danites, and its inhabitants, -with those of Zorah, were noted for their daring. See Dan. The 600 men who captured and colonized Laish were na- tives of these two towns (Judg. xviii). Here, among the old warriors of the tribe, Samson spent his boj'- hood, and experienced the first impulses of the Spirit of Jehovah; and hither, after his last exploit, his mangled bodj- was brought, up the long slopes of the western hills to its latt rest in the l)urying-place of Manoah his father (Judg. xiii, 25 ; xvi, 31 ; xviii, 2, 8, 11,12). In the genealogical records of 1 Chron. the relationship between Eshtaol, Zareah, and Kirjath- jearim is still maintained (1 Chron. ii, 53). In the Onomasticon of Eusebius and Jerome (s. v. 'Aff^awX and 'E<j^aovX), Eshtaol is twice mentioned — (1) as^s- taol of .Judah, described as then existing between Azn- tus and Ascalon under the name o{ Astho ('AuSdJ) ; (2) as Esthaul of Dan, ten miles north of Eleutheropo- lis. The latter position is quite in accordance with the indications of the BilJe. It is connected with Zorah, Zanoah, and Bethshemesh (Josh, xv, 33; xix, 41) ; and as these three places have been identified, wc may conclude that Eshtaol was situated close to the foot of tlie mountains of Judali, and in or near wadj^ Surar. Schwarz {Pahst. p. I(i2) mentions a vil- lage named Stual, west of Zorah, but, apart from the fact that this is corroborated liy no other traveller and by no map, the situation is too far west to 1)e "behind Kirjath-jearim" if the latter be Kiiryct el-Enab. The village marked on the maps of liobinson and Van de Velde, as Yeshva, and alluded to b}- the former {Re- searches, new ed., iii, 151, who states that the name is pronounced Eshwa), is nearer the requisite position. Yeshua lies at the eastern extremity of the broad val- ley which runs uj) among the hills between Zorah and Bethshemesh. The mountains rise steep and rugged immediately behind it, but the village is encompassed
by fruitful fields and orchards. Zorah occupies the top of a conical hill scarcely two miles westward, and a lower ridge connects the hill with the mountains at Yeshua. Upon that ridge the permanent camp, or gathering-place of Dan (Judg. xiii, 25) was probably fixed (Robinson, Later Res. p. 153 sq.). — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. V. See Mahaxeh-Dax.