Joshua 15:10

and the border compassed = it "beat round," "took a circuit;" and see above, Joshua 15:3.

unto mount Seir not the Edomite range (Genesis 32:3; Numbers 24:18), but the range, which lies between the Wady Alyand the Wady Ghurab. It may have derived its name either (a) from some peculiarity in the form or appearance of the spot, or (b) from some incursion of the Edomites, which has escaped record.

and passed along unto the side of mount Jearim or, unto the shoulder of mount Jearim," which is Chesalon. Chesalon, probably now Kesla(see Robinson's Later Bibl. Res. p. 154), was also called Har-jearim = "mountain of forests," as Baalah was called Kirjath-jearim = "city of forests" or "forest town." The region appears in early times to have been thickly covered with woods.

and went down to Beth-shemesh, and passed on to Timnah (a) Beth-shemesh = "house of the sun," or Ir-shemesh(ch. Joshua 19:22), now "Ain-Shems, about two miles from the great Philistine plain, and seven miles from Ekron. It (a) was allotted to the priests (Joshua 21:16); was (b) the place whither "the kine took the straight way" from Ekron with the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 6:9); where (c) the people looked into the Ark and caused the severe judgment that followed (1 Samuel 6:19); and where (d) Solomon had one of his commissariat districts (1 Kings 4:9). "Here," at "Ain-Shems, "are the vestiges of a former extensive city, consisting of many foundations, and the remains of ancient walls of hewn stone. Both the name and the position of this spot seem to indicate the site of the ancient Beth-shemesh of the Old Testament." Robinson, Later Bibl. Res. p. 153. (β) Timnah, or Timnath, or Thimnathah(Joshua 19:43), now Tibnah, a village about two miles west of "Ain-Shems, from which Samson fetched his wife (Judges 14:1; Judges 14:5), and in the vineyards of which, without anything in his hand, he killed the lion (Judges 14:5-6).