Joshua 15:55

Maon, Carmel, and Ziph, and Juttah,

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

Third group; lying eastward of the towns named in the last two, and next to "the wilderness."

Joshua 15:55

The four towns retain their ancient names with but little change. Maon 1 Samuel 23:24; 1 Samuel 25:2, the home of Nabal, is to be looked for in the conical hill, "Main," the top of which is covered with ruins. It lies eight or nine miles southeast of Hebron Carmel 1 Samuel 25:2, the modern "Kurmul," is a little to the north of "Main." The name belongs to more than one place Joshua 12:22. Ziph gave its name to "the wilderness" into which David fled from Saul 1 Samuel 23:14.

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

Maon; of which see 1 Samuel 23:25 25:2.

Carmel; Nabal’s country, 1Sa 25.

Ziph; which gave its name to the neighbouring mountain, 1 Samuel 26:1.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Maon, Carmel,.... Maon was the dwelling place of Nabal the Carmelite, whose possessions were in Carmel, and were not far from one another, 1 Samuel 25:2. It gave name to a wilderness near where David hid himself from Saul, 1 Samuel 23:25; Jerom (p) places it to the east of Daroma, who also informs (q) us, that there was in his time a village that went by the name of Carmelia, ten miles from Hebron towards the east, and where was a Roman garrison.

and Ziph, according to the same writer (r), was eight miles from Hebron to the east; and there was a village shown in his time where David was hid; this gave name to a wilderness also, 1 Samuel 23:14,

and Juttah, which Jerom calls (s) Jeshan, was in his time a large village of the Jews, eighteen miles from Eleutheropolis, to the southern part in Daroma. Reland (t) conjectures that this was the native place of John the Baptist; and that, instead of "a city of Judah", it should be read "the city Juta", Luke 1:39.

(p) De loc. Heb. fol. 93. E. (q) lbid. fol. 92. C. (r) Ibid. fol. 95. G. (s) Ibid. fol. 92. I.((t) Palestin. Illustrat. tom. 2. p. 870.

Geneva Study Bible

Maon, Carmel, and Ziph, and Juttah,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

55. Maon] Group III, consists of ten cities, on the south-east of the two preceding groups, towards the desert:—

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 55. - Maon, Carmel, and Ziph. These, as Dean Stanley reminds us ('Sinai and Palestine,' p. 101), still retain unaltered their old names. "That long line of hills was the beginning of the 'hill country of Judaea,' and when we began to ascend it the first answer to our inquiries after the route told us that it was 'Carmel,' on which Nabal fed his flocks, and close below its long ranges was the hill and ruins of Ziph," close above the hill of Maon, Wilson also ('Lands of the Bible,' 1:380) makes the same remark. Maon is to be remembered as David's hiding place from the enmity of Saul (1 Samuel 23:24-26), and as the home of Nabal (1 Samuel 25:2). Carmel (not the famous mountain of that name) meets us again in the history of Saul and of David (1 Samuel 15:12; 1 Samuel 25:2, 5, 7, 40). The neighbourhood of Ziph was also one of David's hiding places, and is described as a "wilderness" in which there was a "wood" in 1 Samuel 23:15, 19; 1 Samuel 26:1, 2. See also the prologue to Psalm 54. Another Ziph is mentioned in ver. 24. Joshua 15:55

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The third group of ten towns, to the east of both the former groups, towards the desert.

Joshua 15:55

Maon, the home of Nabal (1 Samuel 25:2), on the border of the desert of Judah, which is here called the desert of Maon (1 Samuel 23:25), has been preserved in Tell Man, on a conical mountain commanding an extensive prospect, east by north of Semua, three hours and three-quarters to the S.S.E. of Hebron (Rob. ii. p. 193). Carmel, a town and mountain mentioned in the history of David, and again in the time of Uzziah (1 Samuel 15:12; 1 Samuel 25:2.; 2 Chronicles 26:10). In the time of the Romans it was a large place, with a Roman garrison (Onom.), and is the present Kurmul, on the north-west of Maon, where there are considerable ruins of a very ancient date (Rob. ii. pp. 196ff.). Ziph, in the desert of that name, to which David fled from Saul (1 Samuel 23:14., 1 Samuel 26:2-3), was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:8), and has been preserved in the ruins upon the hill Ziph, an hour and three-quarters to the south-east of Hebron (Rob. ii. p. 191). Juttah, which was assigned to the priests (Joshua 21:16), and was a vicus praegrandis Judaeorum in the time of the fathers (Onom. s. v. Jethan), was eighteen Roman miles to the south (south-east) of Eleutheropolis, and is the present Jutta or Jitta, a large Mahometan place with ruins, an hour and three-quarters to the south of Hebron (Seetzen, iii. p. 8; Rob. ii. p. 191, 628).