Debir
king of Eglon; one of the five kings hanged by Joshua. (Joshua 10:3,23) (B.C. 1440.)
(a sanctuary), the name of three places of Palestine.
A town in the mountains of Judah, (Joshua 15:49) one of a group of eleven cities to the west of Hebron. The earlier name of Debir was Kirjath-sepher, “city of book,” (Joshua 15:15; Judges 1:11) and Kirjath-sannah, “city of palm.” (Joshua 15:49) It was one of the cities given with their “suburbs” to the priests.
(Joshua 21:15; 1 Chronicles 6:58) Debir has not been discovered with certainty in modern times; but about three miles to the west of Hebron is a deep and secluded valley called the Wady Nunkur, enclosed on the north by hills, of which one bears a name certainly suggestive of Debir—Dewir-ban. A place on the north boundary of Judah, near the “valley of Achor.
” (Joshua 15:7) A Wady Dabor is marked in Van Deuteronomy Velde’s map as close to the south of Neby Musa, at the northwest corner of the Dead Sea. The “border of Debir” is named as forming part of the boundary of Gad, (Joshua 13:26) and as apparently not far from Mahanaim.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible on 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 vith Kiriath-scpher in Jos 11'' I5°", we must conclude that the Egyptian writer has interchanged the equivalent terms Kiriath and Both, and t…
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Easton, M.G. (1893) Easton's Bible Dictionary. 3rd edn. Thomas Nelson. [Public Domain]
- Nave, O.J. (1897) Nave's Topical Bible. Topical Bible Publishing Co.. [Public Domain]
- Hastings, J. (ed.) (1909) A Dictionary of the Bible. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Smith, W. (ed.) (1884) Smith's Bible Dictionary. London: John Murray. [Public Domain]
- Fausset, A.R. (1878) Fausset's Bible Dictionary. [Public Domain]A Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopaedia