to the map. Es'an (Eshean) can hardly be identified with Asan (1Ch 4:32), as Van de Velde supposes, but is more likely Korasan (1Sa 30:30). In that case we might connect it with the ruins of Khursah, on the north-west of Daumeh, two hours and a half to the south-west of Hebron (Rob. iii. p. 5). As the Septuagint reading is Σομά, Knobel conjectures that Eshean is a corrupt reading for Shema (1Ch 2:43), and connects it with the ruins of Simia, on the south of Daumeh (Seetzen, iii. 28, and Rob. iii. App.).
Verse 53
Jos 15:53Janum is still unknown. Beth-tappuah has been preserved in the village of Teffuh, about two hours to the west of Hebron (Rob. ii. p. 428). Apheka has not been discovered.
Verse 54
Jos 15:54Humtah is also unknown. Kirjath-arba, or Hebron: see at Jos 10:3. Zior has also not been traced; though, “so far as the name is concerned, it might have been preserved in the heights of Tugra, near to Hebron” (Knobel).
Verses 55-57
The third group of ten towns, to the east of both the former groups, towards the desert.
Verse 55
Jos 15:55Maon, the home of Nabal (1Sa 25:2), on the border of the desert of Judah, which is here called the desert of Maon (1Sa 23:25), has been preserved in Tell Maîn, on a conical mountain commanding an extensive prospect, east by north of Semua, three hours and three-quarters to the S.S.E. of Hebron (Rob. ii. p. 193). Carmel, a town and mountain mentioned in the history of David, and again in the time of Uzziah (1Sa 15:12; 1Sa 25:2.; 2Ch 26:10). In the time of the Romans it was a large place, with a Roman garrison (Onom.), and is the present Kurmul, on the north-west of Maon, where there are considerable ruins of a very ancient date (Rob. ii. pp. 196ff.). Ziph, in the desert of that name, to which David fled from Saul (1Sa 23:14., 1Sa 26:2-3), was fortified by Rehoboam (2Ch 11:8), and has been preserved in the ruins upon the hill Ziph, an hour and three-quarters to the south-east of Hebron (Rob. ii. p. 191). Juttah, which was assigned to the priests (Jos 21:16), and was a vicus praegrandis Judaeorum in the time of the fathers (Onom. s. v. Jethan), was eighteen Roman miles to the south (south-east) of Eleutheropolis, and is the present Jutta or Jitta, a large Mahometan place with ruins, an hour and three-quarters to the south of Hebron (Seetzen, iii. p. 8; Rob. ii. p. 191, 628).
Verse 56
Jos 15:56Jezreel, the home of Ahinoam (1Sa 25:43; 1Sa 27:3, etc.), a different place from the Jezreel in the plain of Esdraelon, has not yet been discovered. This also applies to Jokdeam and Zanoah, which are only met with here.
