Chitlish
Chitlish is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Coastal Plain in modern-day Israel. Known today as Khirbet Umm al Baqar. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Chitlish was a town in the southwestern lowlands of Judah, appearing once in the Old Testament in Joshua 15:40 within the extended list of Judahite cities in the Shephelah district. It is grouped alongside Cabbon, Lahmas, and Gederoth as part of the second district of the Judean Shephelah, a fertile zone of foothills between the central highlands and the Mediterranean coastal plain. The Shephelah was agriculturally rich and strategically vital, serving as a buffer zone between Judah and the Philistine cities to the west. Though Chitlish itself plays no role in any recorded biblical narrative, its presence in the Joshua town list reflects the comprehensive administrative organization of Judah's territory, which scholars believe was compiled during the reign of Josiah or possibly earlier under Jehoshaphat. The careful documentation of even small settlements like Chitlish underscores the biblical conviction that all of the land had been given to Israel as a divine inheritance.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Chitlish is tentatively identified with Khirbet Umm al-Baqar, a small ruin mound in the coastal foothills southwest of Beit Guvrin in Israel. The site has not been subjected to systematic excavation, and the identification rests primarily on geographic position within the Judahite Shephelah district as reconstructed from the Joshua town lists. Surface surveys in the broader area have found Iron Age pottery consistent with the biblical settlement period. The Shephelah region as a whole is one of the most extensively surveyed archaeological zones in Israel, with dozens of tells reflecting dense Iron Age II occupation. Chitlish likely represented a small agricultural settlement supporting the larger fortified centers of the district.
Verse Appearances (1)
Josh
Sources: ISBE Encyclopedia · OpenBible Geocoding (CC BY) · Pleiades Gazetteer View all →