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DEBIR.—The king of Eglon, who acc. to Jos_10:3 joined other four kings against Joshua, but was defeated and put to death along with his allies at Makkedah.
DEBIR.—1. A town first known as Kiriath-sepher (Jos_15:15, Jdg_1:11) in the neighbourhood of Hebron, and inhabited by Anakim (Jos_11:21), conquered by Joshua (Jos_10:38; Jos_11:21; Jos_12:13), or more specifically by Othniel (Jos_15:15), assigned as a Levitical city (Jos_21:15, 1Ch_6:58) in the tribe of Judah (Jos_15:49). An alternative name Kiriath-sannah, once recorded (Jos_15:49), is probably a corruption of Kiriath-sepher, due primarily to the similarity of p and n in the old Hebrew alphabet. It has been doubtfully identified with edh-Dhaheriyeh near Hebron; till the site can be identified and examined, the attractive speculations based on the apparent meaning of the older name (‘City of Books’ or ‘Scribes’) must be left in the region of theory.
2. A place named in the northern boundary of Judah, near the valley of Achor (Jos_15:7). The name still survives as the appellation of a place in this neighbourhood.
3. A place, not identified, in the border of the trans-Jordanic territory of Gad (Jos_13:26). An alternative reading is Lidebir (cf. Lo-debar).
R. A. S. Macalister.