(Gen 35:19), two hours south of Jerusalem, the birthplace of David and of Christ (Mic 5:1; Mat 2:5, Mat 2:11), now Beit-Lahm; see on Jos 15:59. Etam is not the place bearing the same name which is spoken of in 1Ch 4:32 and Jdg 15:8, and mentioned in the Talmud as the place where, near Solomon's Pools, the aqueduct which supplied Jerusalem with water commenced (cf. Robins. Pal. sub voce; Tobler, Topogr. v. Jerus. ii. S. 84ff., 855ff.);[1] nor is it to be looked for, as Robins. loc. cit., and New Bibl. Researches, maintains, in the present village Urtâs (Artâs), for it has been identified by Tobl., dritte Wand. S. 89, with Ain Attân, a valley south-west from Artâs. Not only does the name Attân correspond more than Artâs with Etam, but from it the water is conducted to Jerusalem, while according to Tobler's thorough conviction it could not have been brought from Artâs. Tekoa, now Tekua, on the summit of a hill covered with ancient ruins, two hours south of Bethlehem; see on Jos 15:59.
Verse 7
Beth-zur was situated where the ruin Beth-Sur now stands, midway between Urtâs and Hebron; see on Jos 15:58. Shoko, the present Shuweike in Wady Sumt, 3 1/2 hours south-west from Jerusalem; see on Jos 15:35. Adullam, in Jos 15:35 included among the cities of the hill country, reckoned part of the lowland (Shephelah), i.e., the slope of the hills, has not yet been discovered. Tobler, dritte Wand. S. 151, conjectures that it is identical with the present Dula, about eight miles to the east of Beit-Jibrin; but this can hardly be correct (see against it, Arnold in Herzog's Realenc. xiv. S. 723. It is much more probable that its site was that of the present Deir Dubban, two hours to the north of Beit-Jibrin; see on Jos 12:15.
Verse 8
Gath, a royal city of the Philistines, which was first made subject to the Israelites by David (1Ch 18:1), and was under Solomon the seat of its own king, who was subject to the Israelite king (1Ki 2:39), has not yet been certainly discovered; see on Jos 13:3.[2]
Mareshah, the city Marissa, on the road from Hebron to the
- ↑ For further information as to the commencement of this aqueduct, see the masterly dissertation of Dr. Herm. Zschokke, “Die versiegelte Quelle Salomo's,” in the Tübingen Theol. Quartalschr. 1867, H. 3, S. 426ff.
- ↑ C. Schick, Reise in das Philisterland (in “Ausland” 1867, Nr. 7, S. 162), identifies Gath with the present Tel Safieh, “an isolated conical hill in the plain, like a sentinel of a watchtower or fortress, and on that account there was so much struggling for its possession.” On the other hand, Konr. Furrer, Wanderungen durch Palästina, Zürich 1865, thinks, S. 133, that he has found the true situation of Gath in the Wady el Gat, northward of the ruins of Askalon.
