En-gannim (Hastings' Dictionary)

Two places so named are noticed in the Book of Joshua, the name signify- ing ' the spring of {jardens.' I.Jos 15". A town of Judah noticed with Zanoah and Eshtaol. It is Bujiiiosed by Clemiont-Ganneau to be the ruin Umm Jttin in the valley near Zanoah — a suitable site. See SiyP vol. ui. sheet xvii. 2. Jos 19-' 21=" (in 1 Ch 6°* Anem). A town of Issachar given to the Levites, now Jenin, a to\vn on the S. border of Esdraelon, with a fine spring, gardens and palms. It marked the S.

limit of Galilee, and appears to have been always a flourishing town. The ' garden house,' Bcth-hng-gan, in 2 K 9'-'' has been thought to be En-gannim, but it is more probably Beit Jenn E. of Tabor. See IBLEAM. See HWP vol. iL sheet viii. LiTKRATtTRR.— fluirin, Samarie, I. 827; Robinson, BRP lii. 116, 3:)7; Bacdeker-Sociii, Pat,^ 2.17; Van de Vt-lde, p. 350; Tristram, Land o/ UraH, 65, 130; Conder, Tent-Work xn Pal. 68 ; BiliU Placet (ed. 1S07), 67, 180, 265. C. R. Conder.

EN-GEDI (n; j-y, Arab. 'Ain Jidi, ' fountain of the kid'), the name of a spring of warm water which bursts forth from the clitrs overlooking the W. shore of the Dead Sea near its centre, and 2 miles S. of Hfls Mersed. The ancient name of the spot was Hazazon-tamar (2 Ch 20-), by which it was known in thedaj-sof Abraham (Gn 14') ; and it has been su;jge.

sted by Tristram that a group of niins below the ca-scade near the shore of the Dead Sea may majk the site of a town through which marched the Assyrian host of Chedorlaomer (Gn 14'). The 5 lace was included in the wide skirts of the tribe of udah (Jos 15°^), and is as.sociated with the City of Salt, which probably lay a few miles farther S. on the shore of the Lake near Kliashm Usdum (the Salt-mountain). The name ' Wilderness of En-gedi' applies to the wild rocky di.strict forming the E.

part of the Wilderness of Judah ; and here amongst the <Ieep ravines, rocky gorges, and the caves, which nature or art have hewn out in their sides, David found a safe hiding-i>lace from the vengeance of Saul (1 S 24'). At a later period it was the scene of the slaughter of the hordes of Amnion, Moab, and Kdoni, who had invaded the kingdom of Judah in the reign of Jehosliaphat (2 Ch 20'').

The limestone cliffs of En-gedi are deeply intersected by numerous river channels which descend from tlie table-land of Judah towards the Dead Sea. At the place itself two strcaiUH, the Wadv Sudeir and Waily el-'Are- yeh, enclose a small plateau, nearly 20(M) ft. above the waters and bounded by nearly vertical walls of rock Terraces of shingle and white calcareous marl envelop their ba.<ies to a height of several hundred feet, and mark the level at wliicli the waters of the lake formerly stond.

(Inly a few bushes of acacia, tamarisk, Snianum, and C'n/'ifmpii procera (Apple of Smlom) decorate the spot «liere palms and vines were formerly cultivated (Ca l'<). The district Is tenanted by a few Arabs of the Jfthalin and K;u>hfiybeh tribes, and is the safe retreat of the I/iex ('wild goat,' 1 S 24'). the coney [Hyrax syriacus), ami numerous birds of prey. The spot is amongst the wildest and most desolate in the whole of Palestine. LiTERATCRK. — Lanarde, Onom. 119. 254; Seetien, Hfirrn. ii.

227(1.; Robinson, BRP ii. 439II. ; Baedelier-.Socin, Pal.'i IT:.; Tristram, Latul o/ Israel. 28(111.. 296; Schurcr, U.il' n. i. lo'l; Neubauer, (ifag. du Talimui, ItlU; O. A. Siiiitli. Hint. Grog. 269 ff. ; Conder, TeiU-U'urh in Pat. 266 ; Bible Place/ (1897), 8, 113; Sayce, Patriarchal Pal. 40. E. UulL.