Joshua 15:62

Of Kirjathbaal, and its several names, See Gill on "Joshua 15:9"; and Rabbah, of which we nowhere else read; for this is a very different city from the Rabbah of the children of Ammon, 2 Samuel 12:26; two cities with their villages; why these are reckoned by themselves is not certain. Joshua 15:61 Ver. 61. In the wilderness,.... The wilderness of Judea, which was not a desert and uninhabited but had many cities and villages in it, those that follow: Betharabah; the first of these seems to be in the borders of Judah and Benjamin, and so is ascribed to both; see Joshua 15:6; Middin, and Secacah; of the two last we read nowhere else, only in Jude 5:10; what we translate "ye that sit in judgment", Kimchi interprets, "ye that dwell by Middin", and says it is the name of a place in Joshua, and mentions this passage. Joshua 15:62 Ver. 62. And Nibshan,.... Of Nibshan no mention is made elsewhere; and the city of Salt some take to be Zoar, so called because near the salt sea, or where Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt, Genesis 19:22; but rather this city might be so called, because salt was made here. and Engedi, or Engaddi, is a well known place, near the salt sea; See Gill on "Ezekiel 47:10". Jerom says {y}, there was a very large village of Jews in his time called Engaddi, near the dead sea, from whence comes the opobalsam; the same place is called Hazazontamar, from the palm trees which grew there, 2 Chronicles 20:2.

15:20-63 Here is a list of the cities of Judah. But we do not here find Bethlehem, afterwards the city of David, and ennobled by the birth of our Lord Jesus in it. That city, which, at the best, was but little among the thousands of Judah, Mic 5:2, except that it was thus honoured, was now so little as not to be accounted one of the cities.

And Nibshan,.... Of Nibshan no mention is made elsewhere: and the city of Salt some take to be Zoar, so called because near the salt sea, or where Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt, Genesis 19:22; but rather this city might be so called, because salt was made here. and Engedi, or Engaddi, is a well known place, near the salt sea; See Gill on Ezekiel 47:10. Jerom says (y), there was a very large village of Jews in his time called Engaddi, near the dead sea, from whence comes the opobalsam; the same place is called Hazazontamar, from the palm trees which grew there, 2 Chronicles 20:2. It was famous for vineyards also, Sol 1:14; it lay, according to Josephus (z), three hundred furlongs or about forty miles from Jerusalem: six cities with their villages; the sum total agrees with the particulars. (y) De loc. Heb. fol. 91. B. (z) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 1. sect. 2.

Jos 15:21-63. Cities of Judah. 21-63. the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah—There is given a list of cities within the tribal territory of Judah, arranged in four divisions, corresponding to the districts of which it consisted—the cities in the southern part (Jos 15:21-32), those in the lowlands (Jos 15:33-47), those in the highlands (Jos 15:48-60), and those in the desert (Jos 15:61, 62). One gets the best idea of the relative situation of these cities by looking at the map.

Verse 62. - The city of Salt. Probably near the valley of Salt ( 2 Samuel 8:13 ; 2 Kings 14:7 ; 1 Chronicles 18:12 ), which must have been near the border of Edom, and in close proximity to the Dead Sea (see note on Joshua 3:16). En-gedi. The "fountain of the kid." Here David took refuge from Saul ( 1 Samuel 24:1 ). This place, now Ain Jidy, is situated in "a plain or slope about a mile and a half in extent from north to south" (Tristram, 'Land of Israel,' p. 281). Here the ruins of the ancient city of Hazezon Tamar, or "the felling of the palm trees" ( Genesis 14:7 ), are to be found, a city perhaps "the oldest in the world," may still be seen. "The cluster of camphire" (or rather of henna, the plant with which Oriental women stained their nails - Song of Solomon 1:14 ) may still be found there, and its perennial torrent dashes still into the Dead Sea. In later times than those of the Old Testament the Essenes planted their headquarters here. Joshua 15:62

Nibsan, also unknown. The city of salt (salt town), in which the Edomites sustained repeated defeats ( 2 Samuel 8:13 ; Psalm 60:2 ; 2 Kings 14:7 ; 1 Chronicles 18:12 ; 2 Chronicles 25:11 ), was no doubt at the southern end of the Dead Sea, in the Salt Valley (Rob. ii. p. 483). Engedi, on the Dead Sea ( Ezekiel 47:10 ), to which David also fled to escape from Saul ( 1 Samuel 24:1 .), according to the Onom. (s. v. Engaddi) a vicus praegrandis, the present Ain-Jidi, a spring upon a shelf of the high rocky coast on the west of the Dead Sea, with ruins of different ancient buildings (see Seetzen, ii. pp. 227-8; Rob. ii. pp. 214ff.; Lynch, pp. 178-9, 199, 200).

The writer of the apocryphal book called Baruch expresses the same subject by the same images, either taking them from this place of Isaiah, or from the common notions of his countrymen: "For God hath appointed that every high hill, and banks of long continuance, should be cast down, and valleys filled up, to make even the ground, that Israel may go safely in the glory of God." Baruch 5:7. The Jewish Church, to which John was sent to announce the coming of Messiah, was at that time in a barren and desert condition, unfit, without reformation, for the reception of her King. It was in this desert country, destitute at that time of all religious cultivation, in true piety and good works unfruitful, that John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord by preaching repentance. I have distinguished the parts of the sentence according to the punctuation of the Masoretes, which agrees best both with the literal and the spiritual sense; which the construction and parallelism of the distich in the Hebrew plainly favors, and of which the Greek of the Septuagint and of the evangelists is equally susceptible. John was born in the desert of Judea, and passed his whole life in it, till the time of his being manifested to Israel. He preached in the same desert: it was a mountainous country; however not entirely and properly a desert; for though less cultivated than other parts of Judea, yet it was not uninhabited. Joshua (Joshua 15:61, Joshua 15:62) reckons six cities in it.

[Reformed Biblical] In the time of Joshua there were six cities in what was then called a wilderness, Joshua 15:61,62. {l} "came John" Luke 3:2; John 1:18 ## THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW - Chapter 3 - Verse 2 Verse 2. Repent ye. Repentance implies sorrow for past offences, (2