Joshua 15:7
And the border went up toward Debir from the valley of Achor, and so northward, looking toward Gilgal, that is before the going up to Adummim, which is on the south side of the river: and the border passed toward the waters of Enshemesh, and the goings out thereof were at Enrogel:
And the border went up towards Debir,.... This was neither the Debir in the tribe of Gad, on the other side Jordan, Joshua 13:26; nor that in the tribe of Judah near Hebron, Joshua 15:15; but a third city of that name, and was not far from Jericho:
from the valley of Achor; where Achan was put to death, and had its name from thence; which, according to Jarchi, lay between the stone of Bohan and Debir:
and so northward, looking towards Gilgal; not the place where Israel were encamped when this lot was made, but it seems to be the same that is called Geliloth, Joshua 18:17;
that is, the going up to Adummim; which, Jerom says {c}, was formerly a little village, now in ruins, in the lot of the tribe of Judah, which place is called to this day Maledomim; and by the Greeks "the ascent of the red ones", because of the blood which was there frequently shed by thieves: it lies on the borders of Judah and Benjamin, as you go from Jerusalem to Jericho, where there is a garrison of soldiers for the help of travellers, and is supposed to be the place where the man fell among thieves in his way from the one to the other, Luke 10:30. It was four miles distant from Jericho to the west, according to Adrichomius {d}, and was a mountain, and part of the mountains of Engaddi:
which is on the south side of the river; which some take to be the brook Kidron; but that is not very likely, being too near Jerusalem for this place: it may be rendered "the valley", so Jarchi, either the valley of Achor, before mentioned, or however a valley that ran along by the mount or ascent of Adummim, which lay to the south of it:
And the border passed to the waters of Enshemesh: or the "fountain of the sun"; but of it we have no account what and where it was. It might be so called, because dedicated to the sun by the idolatrous Canaanites, or because of the sun's influence on the waters of it. Our city, Bath, is, by Antoninus {e}, called "aquae solis", the waters of the sun; though there is a fountain in Cyrene, so called, for a reason just the reverse, it being, as Mela {f} and Pliny {g} affirm, hottest the middle of the night, and then grows cooler by little and little; and when it is light is cold, and when the sun is risen is colder still, and at noon exceeding cold; and, according to Vossius {h}, it is the same with the fountain of Jupiter Ammon; and so it appears to be from Herodotus {i}, by whom it is also called the "fountain of the sun", and which he places in Thebes, though Pliny distinguishes them:
and the goings out thereof were at Enrogel; which signifies "the fountain of the fuller"; so the Targum renders it, and probably was a fountain where fullers cleansed their clothes; and was called Rogel, as Jarchi and Kimchi say, because they used to tread them with their feet when they washed them. This was a place near Jerusalem, as appears from 1 Kings 1:9; near to which perhaps was the fuller's monument, at the corner tower of Jerusalem, Josephus {k} speaks of, as there was also a place not far from it called the fuller's field, Isaiah 7:3; according to Bunting {l}, it had its name from travellers washing their feet here.
{c} De loc. Heb. fol. 88. E. F.
{d} Theatrum Terrae Sanct. p. 14.
{e} Vid. Cambden's Britannia, p. 141.
{f} De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 8.
{g} Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 103.
{h} Observat. in Pompon. Mel. ut supra. (De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 8.)
{i} Melpomene, sive, l. 4. c. 181.
{k} De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 4. sect. 2.
{l} Travels, p. 148.