1 Samuel 9:4
Ver. 4. And they passed through Mount Ephraim,.... The mountainous part of that tribe, which lay contiguous to the tribe of Benjamin, where it might be supposed the asses had strayed to:
and passed through the land of Shalisha; a tract in the tribe of Benjamin, so called from some illustrious person, prince, and duke of it; in it very probably was the place called Baalshalisha; 2Ki 4:42 and which perhaps is the same Jerom calls {x} Bethshalisha; and says there was a village of this name in the borders of Diospolis, almost fifteen miles distance from it to the north, in the Tamnitic country; though Bunting {y} says it was situated in Mount Ephraim, eight miles from Jerusalem to the northwest:
but they found them not; the asses, neither in Mount Ephraim, nor in the land of Shalisha:
then they passed through the land of Shalim which some take to be the same with Salim, where John was baptizing, Joh 3:23 but Jerom says {z} it was a village on the borders of Eleutheropolis, to the west, seven miles distant from it:
and [there they] were not; the asses could not be found there:
and he passed through the land of the Benjamites; or rather of Jemini, which was in Benjamin, so called from a famous man of that name; for it cannot be thought they should pass through the whole tribe of Benjamin in one day. And, according to Bunting {a}, from Gibeah, the native place of Saul, through the mountain of Ephraim, and the land of Shalisha, to the borders of Shalim, were sixteen miles; and from thence to Jemini, in the tribe of Benjamin, sixteen more:
but they found them not; the asses.
{x} De loc. Heb. fol. 89. K. {y} Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 129. {z} De loc. Heb. fol. 94. L. {a} Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 126.