The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 264

• the remainder being daughter, or depen- The present name, Aid-el-Ma or Mieh, the dent cities, or else, perhaps, like Gibeon, fe11,st of the hundred, may be a misappre- cities whose government was not regal. hension of the word Adulla.m similar to that See eh. ix. 3, and Introduction. which converts the Welsh "yr eifel," in Ver. 13. -The k1llg o!Geder. Perhaps Carna.rvonshire, into the English "the the samo as Gederah in eh. xv. 36. If so, rivals," or which identifies in many Eng- it is Lhe Gedor of the Onomnsticon, ten lish names the English burn (brook) with miles from Beit-Jibrin, or Eleutheropolis, the French borne (boundary). One of the now Jed.lreh. Conder, however, with whom greatest objections to the theory is that the Vandevelde seems to agree, places Geder Hebrew so frequently speaks of the place in the mountain region, and identifies it as Ca.ve-Adullam (Ma'arah-Adullam), as with Gedor (eh. xv. 58) and the modern though some special cave existed there. Jedur, in the Hebron mountain. So Keil Adullam plays a somewhat important part and Delitzsch, Robinson, and others. The in Scripture history. We hear of it as early Gedor in 1 Chron. iv. 39 may be the same as Gen. xxxviii., where Birah the Adul- place. It is described as on the east side lamite i; spoken of as a friend of the of the "gai," or ravine, but no clearer in~ patriarch Judah. It is well known as the dication of the place is given. It is, how- refuge of David and his mighty men (1 Sam. ever, unlikely th,it the Simeonites would xxii. 1; 2 Sa.m. xxiii. 13-17). It was the have fowid the children of Ham undis- place where David composed two of his turbed iu the mountains of Hebron in the psalms, the 57th and the 142nd. Rehoboam reign of Hezekiah (see vers. 40, 41). The fortified it (2 Chron. xi. 7). It seems to be LXX. reads Gerar, and this is very probably regarded as a refuge in Micah i. 15. And it the true reading. There was o. " Naha.I," or is mentioned among the cities re-occupied winter torrent, there (Gen. xxvi. 17, 19), and after the return from the captivity in Neh. therefore possibly a " gai." The whole xi. 30. pasgage in 1 Chron. should be consulted. Ver. 16.-Bethel This city is here men- Ver. 14.-Hormah, Arad. Cities in the tioned as timitten by Joshua. See notes on Negeb, near the border of Edom (see the capture of Ai, and Judg. i. 22-25. Num. xiv. 45; xxi. 1, 3; xxxiii. 40). Hor- Ver. 17. -Ta.ppuah. Literally "o.pple mah was oiiginal!y known as Zephath city." It is difficult say whether this was (see Judg. i. 16, 17, where the fullest de- Ta.ppna.h in Judah (eh. xv. 3-1; cf. ver. 53), scription of the locality is given). It was in or in Manasseh (eh. xvi. 8; xvii. 7, B). The the wilderness of J udaaa, in the arid country mention of Apheka.h in eh. xv. 53, and of (Negeb) of Amd. Mr. Palmer identifies it Aphek here, would suggest the former, or the with Sebaita, in the centre of tbe Negeb, in mention of Socoh in eh. xv. 3-1 (see below the Magrah-el-Esbaita, o. mountain valley on Hepher). But the mention of L1tsha.ron, eloping down into the Wady-el-Abyadh. the fa.et that there is more than one other Othe_r explorers prefer Sulifat, and Row- Aphek, that Ta.ppue.h on the borders of lands and G. Williams, Sepata. Ephraim and Manasseh seems to have been Ver. 15.-Adulla.m. In the Shephelah an important city, and that the cities of the (valley in our version. See eh. xv. 33-35). south are mentioned first, those of the north Canon Tristram in his ' Bible Lands,' as afterwards, and that Tappuah seems to lie ,veil ns Conder in his 'Handbook,' iden- about -midway, suggest the more northern tify this with Aid-el-Mo., or Mieh. In the city. This is Knobel's opinion. Gesenius Quarterly Paper of the Palestine Explora- inclines to the southern To.ppunh. Conder tion Fund for July, 1875 (see also Jan., identifies it with Ya.sstif, at the hea<l of the 1874), Lieut. Conder details a visit to this Wa.dy Ka.nab, south-east of Shechem. V11n- place, previously identified by M. Clermont- develde with 'Atuf, four hours north-east by Ganueau. These explorers reject the idea east from Shechem. Keil prefers the former i.pproved by Vandevelde and others, that site. Hepher. This appears, from 1 Kings this Deir Dubban is the ancient Adulla.m. iv. 10, to have been near to Socoh, but The place he prekrs fulfils all requirements. nothing more is known of it. Aphek. Liter- •It is in the Shephelah. It is near Jarmuth ally, fortress, though some think it comes •OJld Socoh. It is an ancient site with "rock- from a Syriac root kindred to the Hebrew, cut tombs, good water supply, and ma.in signifying to hold fast, to eml>race, and that road, and communications from different it has reference to the sensual worship of sides, and it is moreover a strong military Ashtnroth and Thammuz. There were position. It contains no remarkable cave, several towns of this name (see notes on but a number of small ones, now used as xiii. 4; xv. 53; xix. 30). Lasharon is ha.bitntions by the pcasa:mtry ." Keilah, which probably the same as Sh11,ron, or Basha.ran David aaved. from the Philistines (1 So.m. (Isa.. xxxiii. 9). This is the plain between xxiii. 1-5), was within a reasonable dist11uce. Jopp11 and Carmel (Vandevelde). Conder '208 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [cm. xn. 1-24.