RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Judea
gion was inhabited by the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Dan, and a part of Ephraim. In spite of the exact details given in Josh. xv. 1-12, the limits assigned to the tribe of Judah can not be determined for lack of identification of many places named in the passage. It is probable also that the boundary
there given was not one which re-
1. Limits, mained constant as separating the
Population, tr;kes, and the limits assigned to the
Divisions, tribe and those of the kingdom of
Judah may not be taken as equivalents. Still further, it must be remembered that in Joshua the limits are rather ideal than actual, as when the Mediterranean is given as the western boundary, a condition which was realized only in small part and not till the time of Alexander Jannaeus and of Herod the Great, though the Philistines were at times tributary. The northeast corner, according to the passage, was where the Jordan enters the Dead Sea, and the boundary passed by Beth-hoglah (Kasr Hajla) to Adummim (Talat al- Damm), then by En-rogel through the Hinnom valley on the west down to Kirjath-jearim, and thence westward to the seacoast. In this Old- Testament territory of Judah dwelt others than the members of the tribe, the chief city of which was Bethlehem. The three great families of the tribe, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (Gen. xlvi. 12) are in part connected with the Canaanitic Shua and partly with Tamar (Gen. xxxviii.), which is perhaps identical with the city (or region) of Tamar on the border of the Negeb, inhabited by Kenizzite or Jerahmeelite affiliations — the stock which furnished new life to the waning tribe of Judah. A part of the Danites which remained in the south became incorporated into the tribe of Judah (Josh. xv. 33, xix. 41). Farther south dwelt the numerous families of the Calebites and Kenizzites in the region of Hebron, and still to the south the Kenites and Jerahmeelites. While the Calebites appear in early times to have been a dominant family, this dominance was lost under David and the whole territory received its name from the principal element of the population at that time, though still later the Calebites came to the front again, until in the Exile the inroads of the Edomites pressed them northward and compelled them to seek homes in the neighborhood of the depopulated Jerusalem, where they became fully identified with the Judaic element. From the Edomitic intruders into the southern region that part received the new name of Idumea, and in Maccabean times Bethzur was on the boundary between the two regions.
The passage in Joshua divides the whole region into four parts: the Negeb (q.v.), the Shephelah, the hill country, and the desert (see Palestine). According to the original text of Josh, xv., the Shephelah had three groups of cities, according to the extended text, four groups, and a distinction is made between towns (protected by a wall), forty- „ _,. four in number, and villages. The
Shephelah. ^rst Sr0UP (J°sh. xv- 33-36) includes
" fifteen towns, of which the following
are known: Eshtaol, identified by Guerin with
Ashu'a on the basis of its earlier name Ashtu'al;
Zorah, possibly the Zarha of the Amarna Tablets; Zanoah, the modern Zanu'a; Adullam, identified by Clermont-Ganneau with Khirbat 'Id al-Miya; Socoh is Shuwaika, on the south bank of the Wadi al-Sant. The second group, of sixteen towns, is located to the west and southwest of the first, toward Gaza (verses 37-41). Mizpeh is placed at the foot of the hills near the Wadi al-Sant, westward from Shuwaika. Lachish is identified with Tell el-Hesy, recently excavated, mentioned in the Amarna Tablets as an important Canaanitic center, and appearing in the Assyrian records and in the Books of Kings. Eglon is the modern Ajlan, and Lahmas or Lahmam is the modern Lahm. The third group (verses 42-44) of nine (Septuagint, ten) cities includes Libnah (known to Eusebius as Lobna in the neighborhood of Eleutheropolis) ; Keilah, located by the Onomasticon seven Roman miles east of Eleutheropolis on the Wadi al-Sur (but this is in the highland, not in the Shephelah); Achzib, placed by the same authority near Eleutheropolis and possibly the modern Ain el-Kazba; and Maresha, located two Roman miles from Eleutheropolis, possibly at Merash. On the fourth group, including Ekron, Ashdod, and Gaza, see Philistines.
The towns of the hill country of Judah are in the Hebrew text (verses 48-60) divided into five groups, to which the Septuagint adds a sixth. The first group of eleven cities lay south from Hebron, southeast of Jibrin. Shamir is placed by Guerin at Somara southwest of Hebron. The
o "The
"... Onomasticon locates Jattir twenty Ro- Oountrv man m^es from Eleutheropolis, the
modern Attir; Socoh is Shuwaika north of Attir; Debir (Kirjath-sannah or Kirjathsepher) was a royal Canaanitic city of some importance, possibly the modern al-Dahariya; Anab is the present Anab, about three miles southwest of Debir; Eshtemoah may be al-Samua east of Shuwaika; Anim is put by the Onomasticon nine Roman miles south of Hebron. The second group of nine cities lay north of the first group and includes Hebron (verses 52-54) . Arab appears in the Septuagint as Airem, but its location is doubtful; Dumah is represented by the modern al-Doma north of al-Dahariya, and is placed by Eusebius and Jerome seventeen Roman miles from Eleutheropolis; Beth-tappuah is the elevated village Taffuh, six miles west of Hebron in a wine-growing country. It was in early times a fortress and was fortified in the Maccabean war (I Mace. ix. 50). The Onomasticon makes it a boundary city between Palestine and Egypt.
Hebron was regarded as of considerable antiquity, built seven years earlier than Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt (Num. xiii. 22), and with this corresponds the notable part Hebron takes in the narratives
concerning the patriarchs. It appears ' as a city of the Anakites, who were of the race of the giants (Num. xiii. 33), and its old name was Kirjath-arba, " fourfold city," explained in Jewish legend as the place of settlement of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Adam or Caleb. P in several passages locates the Hittites there. The Idumean inhabitants of the time of Josephus said that the city was older than Memphis in Egypt. The
Judea