Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
4:29. Knobel identifies it with the present Deir Belah , some hours to the south-west
of Gaza Rob. iii. App.; Ritter , Erdk. xvi. pp. 41, 42); but it cannot have been so far to
the west, or so near the coast as this. Iim (or Ivvim, according to the Auei'm of the
LXX) is probably the ruins of Beit-auwa ( Rob. iii. App.). Azem , which was also
given up to the Simeonites (Josh 19:3; 1 Chron 4:29), is supposed by Knobel to be
Eboda , the present Abdeh , eight hours to the south of Elusa , a considerable mass of
ruins on a ridge of rock ( Rob. i. p. 287), because the name signifies firmness or
strength, which is also the meaning of the Arabic name-a very precarious reason.
Verse 30-31. Eltolad , which was given to the Simeonites (Josh 19:4), and is called
Tolad (without the Arabic article) in 1 Chron 4:29, has not been discovered. Chesil ,
for which the LXX have Baithee'l , is probably, as Reland supposes, simply another
name, or as Knobel suggests a corrupt reading for, Bethul or Bethuel , which is
mentioned in Josh 19:4 and 1 Chron 4:30, between Eltolad and Hormah , as a town
of the Simeonites, and the same place as Beth-el in 1 Sam 30:27. As this name points
to the seat of some ancient sanctuary, and there was an idol called Khalasa
worshipped by the Arabs before the time of Mohamet, and also because Jerome
observes ( vita Hilar. c. 25) that there was a temple of Venus at Elusa , in which the
Saracens worshipped Lucifer (see Tuch , Deutsch. Morgenl. Ztschr. iii. pp. 194ff.),
Knobel supposes Bethul ( Chesil ) to be Elusa, a considerable collection of ruins five
hours and a half to the south of Beersheba (see Rob. i. p. 296): assuming first of all
that the name el Khulasa , as the Arabs called this place, was derived from the
Mahometan idol already referred to; and secondly, that the Saracen Lucifer
mentioned by Jerome was the very same idol whose image and temple Janhari and
Kamus call el Khalasa. Hormah: i.e., Zephoth , the present Sepata (see at Josh
12:14).
Ziklag , which was assigned to the Simeonites (Josh 19:5; 1 Chron 4:30), burnt down
by the Amalekites (1 Sam 30:1ff.), and still inhabited after the captivity (Neh 11:28),
is supposed by Rowland to be the ancient place called Asluj or Kasluj , a few hours to
the east of Zepata, with which Knobel , however, in a most remarkable manner,
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