Joshua 15:62

And Nibshan, and the city of Salt, and Engedi; six cities with their villages.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Joshua 15:62. City of Salt — So called, either from the salt sea, which was near it, or from the salt which was made in, or about it.

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

"The city of Salt" is not mentioned elsewhere, but was no doubt connected with "the valley of salt" 2 Samuel 8:13. The name itself, and the mention of En-gedi (Genesis 14:7 note) suggest that its site must be looked for near the Dead Sea.

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

The city of Salt; so called either from the Salt Sea, which was near it; or from the salt which was made in it, or about it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Nibshan,.... Of Nibshan no mention is made elsewhere:

and the city of Salt some take to be Zoar, so called because near the salt sea, or where Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt, Genesis 19:22; but rather this city might be so called, because salt was made here.

and Engedi, or Engaddi, is a well known place, near the salt sea; See Gill on Ezekiel 47:10. Jerom says (y), there was a very large village of Jews in his time called Engaddi, near the dead sea, from whence comes the opobalsam; the same place is called Hazazontamar, from the palm trees which grew there, 2 Chronicles 20:2. It was famous for vineyards also, Sol 1:14; it lay, according to Josephus (z), three hundred furlongs or about forty miles from Jerusalem:

six cities with their villages; the sum total agrees with the particulars.

(y) De loc. Heb. fol. 91. B. (z) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 1. sect. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

And Nibshan, and the {l} city of Salt, and Engedi; six cities with their villages.

(l) Of this city the salt sea has it's name.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 62. - The city of Salt. Probably near the valley of Salt (2 Samuel 8:13; 2 Kings 14:7; 1 Chronicles 18:12), which must have been near the border of Edom, and in close proximity to the Dead Sea (see note on Joshua 3:16). En-gedi. The "fountain of the kid." Here David took refuge from Saul (1 Samuel 24:1). This place, now Ain Jidy, is situated in "a plain or slope about a mile and a half in extent from north to south" (Tristram, 'Land of Israel,' p. 281). Here the ruins of the ancient city of Hazezon Tamar, or "the felling of the palm trees" (Genesis 14:7), are to be found, a city perhaps "the oldest in the world," may still be seen. "The cluster of camphire" (or rather of henna, the plant with which Oriental women stained their nails - Song of Solomon 1:14) may still be found there, and its perennial torrent dashes still into the Dead Sea. In later times than those of the Old Testament the Essenes planted their headquarters here. Joshua 15:62

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Nibsan, also unknown. The city of salt (salt town), in which the Edomites sustained repeated defeats (2 Samuel 8:13; Psalm 60:2; 2 Kings 14:7; 1 Chronicles 18:12; 2 Chronicles 25:11), was no doubt at the southern end of the Dead Sea, in the Salt Valley (Rob. ii. p. 483). Engedi, on the Dead Sea (Ezekiel 47:10), to which David also fled to escape from Saul (1 Samuel 24:1.), according to the Onom. (s. v. Engaddi) a vicus praegrandis, the present Ain-Jidi, a spring upon a shelf of the high rocky coast on the west of the Dead Sea, with ruins of different ancient buildings (see Seetzen, ii. pp. 227-8; Rob. ii. pp. 214ff.; Lynch, pp. 178-9, 199, 200).