Joshua 15:26

Amam, and Shema, and Moladah,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:20-63 Here is a list of the cities of Judah. But we do not here find Bethlehem, afterwards the city of David, and ennobled by the birth of our Lord Jesus in it. That city, which, at the best, was but little among the thousands of Judah, Mic 5:2, except that it was thus honoured, was now so little as not to be accounted one of the cities.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Moladah is probably the modern "El-Milh", and like Hazar-shual ("Berrishail" near Gaza) ( "enclosure of foxes") occurs Joshua 19:2-3; 1 Chronicles 4:28, as a town belonging to Simeon, and Nehemiah 11:26-27 as a place occupied by Jews after the captivity.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Jos 15:21-63. Cities of Judah.

21-63. the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah—There is given a list of cities within the tribal territory of Judah, arranged in four divisions, corresponding to the districts of which it consisted—the cities in the southern part (Jos 15:21-32), those in the lowlands (Jos 15:33-47), those in the highlands (Jos 15:48-60), and those in the desert (Jos 15:61, 62). One gets the best idea of the relative situation of these cities by looking at the map.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Amam,.... Of Amam we read nowhere else:

and Shema is thought by some to be the same with Sheba, though wrongly, given afterwards to the tribe of Simeon, as was also Moladah, mentioned with it, Joshua 19:2,

and Moladah; it is also spoken of in 1 Chronicles 4:28, and seems to be the same with Malathi or Malatis, about twenty miles from Hebron (f).

(f) Vid. Reland. Palest. Illustrat. tom. 2. p. 885, 886.

Geneva Study Bible

Amam, and Shema, and Moladah,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26. Amam (c) Third group of nine cities:—

(1) Amam, unknown; (2) Shema, a place of the Simeonites (ch. Joshua 19:2); (3) Moladah, called Malatua by the Greeks and Romans = the modern El-Milh, four English miles from Tell Arad and nine or ten due east of Beersheba; (4) Hazar-gaddah, unknown; (5) Heshmon, unknown; (6) Beth-palet, unknown; (7) Hazar-shual = “village of jackals,” inhabited after the Captivity by men of Judah (Nehemiah 11:27); (8) Beer-sheba = either (a) “Well of Seven” or (b) “Well of the Oath” (Genesis 21:28-32). We find Beer-sheba visited by Abraham, who dug the well (Genesis 21:31); the place where Samuel’s sons judged Israel (1 Samuel 8:2); constituting, with Dan in the north, the established formula for the whole of the Promised Land—“Dan to Beer-sheba” (2 Samuel 24:2); the seat of an idolatrous worship in the time of Amos (Amos 5:5; Amos 8:14). It still retains as nearly as possible its ancient name, Bîr-es-Sebâ. There are at present two principal wells and five smaller ones. The curb-stones round the mouth are worn into deep grooves by the action of the ropes of so many centuries, and look as if “frilled or fluted all round”; (9) Bizjothjah, unknown.

Joshua 15:26

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Third group of nine towns. - Joshua 15:26. Amam is not mentioned again, and is quite unknown. Shema, which is called Sheba in Joshua 19:2, and is mentioned among the towns of the Simeonites between Beersheba and Moladah, is supposed by Knobel to the ruins of Sawe (Sweh) between Milh and Beersheba (see V. de Velde, ii. p. 148). Molada, which was given to the Simeonites (Joshua 19:2; 1 Chronicles 4:28) and was still inhabited by Jews after the captivity (Nehemiah 11:26), was the later Μάλαδα, an Idumaean fortress (Josephus, Ant. 18:6, 2), which Eusebius and Jerome describe as being twenty Roman miles, i.e., eight hours, to the south of Hebron on the road to Aila (Elath). It has been identified by Robinson (Pal. ii. p. 621) in the ruins of el Milh, by the Wady Malath or Malahh.