Debir

1. The name is generally supposed to mean 'back'; hence = hindmast chamber, innermost room of a temple, and so it is used in 1 K 6' to denote the Holy of Holies. The city must have been a sacred one, with a well-known temple. This is borne out by its two other names, Kiriath-scpher or ' Book- town' (.los 15", Sept. iriXit ypaiiiATuv), and Kir- iath-sannah, ' city of instruction ' (?) (Jos 15") ; and W. Max Miifler (^iVn und Kuropa, 1894) has shown that in an Ejryptian papjTus, known as the ' Travels of the Moliar,' which was written in the time of Ramses ll. (B.C. 13U0), and is a sarcastic account of an Egyptian traveller's misadventures in Canaan, reference is made to the town. The writer remarks : ' Thou ha.st not .seen Kiriath-anab near Beth-thupar, nor dost thou know Adullam and Zidiputa.' We learn from the geographical list of Shishak that the last-named place was in the south of Judali, and the Egyptian Tluipar, which is followed hy the <leteriinnative of 'writing,' would represent a Hebrew Sujthfr or 'scribe.' As Anab is a-ssociated >vith Kiriath-scpher in Jos 11'' I5°", we must conclude that the Egyptian writer has interchanged the equivalent terms Kiriath and Both, and that the Rlassoret^s have wrongly vocalised the second element in the name of tha 678 DEBOKAH DEBORAH city, which should be sopher, 'scribe,' instead of sep/ier, ' book.' It was a ' city of scribes,' where a library must have existed, hlled with clay books inscribed with cuneiform characters similar to those found at Tel el-Amama, and in the libraries of Assyria and Babylonia, The latter were usually established in the chamber of a temple. It is possible that the name of Kiriath-sannah may be found in one of the Tel el-Amarna tablets (Mittheilungm aus den orientalischen Sammhingen, iiL No. 199), where we read : ' The country of Gath-carmel has fallen away to Ta^i, and the men of the city of Gath ; he is in Beth-sanL' Tills would locate the city in the nei^jhbourhood of Gath. In the OT Debir Is described as in the moun- tains of Judah, like Socoh and Eshtemoh (Jos 15 "■"), and not far from Hebron, from whence Caleb 'went up' to it (v.''). It was in 'the Negeb' of Judah, and near it were 'the upper springs and the nether springs ' of water. After lea\'ing Lacb- ish (Tell el-Hesy) and Eglon (Tell en-Nejilehl), Joshua marched to Hebron, and then ' returned ' to Debir (Jos lu"). Unfortunately, these passages do not enable us to fix the exact position of the city, though the expression 'went up' may imply that it lay to the north. This would certainly have been the case if it is the same as the Beth- eani of the Tel el-Amama tablet. The identifica- tion with the modem Dhaheriyeh (from Arab. dhahr, ' back ') rests upon a mistaken interpreta- tion of the name of Debir : Petrie found there no traces of anything older than the Roman period. Debir was taken by Othniel the Kenizzite, in return for which Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah in marriage (Jos IS'"-", Jg 1"-'"). There must consequently be some error in the text of Jos lO"-'*, where it is said that Joshua had already taken Debir, and destroyed all its inhabit- ants. Moreover, the city of Debir is not men- tioned among the confederates in vv.'-°, where, on the contrary, Debir is stated to be the king of Eglon. 2. Debir (Jos 13«). The border of Debir (or Lidebir) is stated to have formed part of the frontiers of Gad, not far from Malianaim. If the reading Lidebir is accepted, the place may perhaps be identified with Lodebar of 2 S 9''. 3. Debir in Jos 15' is described as in the direction of the north-eastern comer of Judah, towards the valley of Achor and Gilgal. The Sept. however, reads irl tA Th-a/nor ttjs <pdpayyoi 'Axup, and the Vulg. has Debera. Ace. to Hupfeld (Ps 28») and Wellh. (Sam. 146 n.) .tj-si here = westward. A. H. Sayce.