McClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Ether

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

McClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Ether


Subjects in this Topic:

(Hebrews id. òֵúֶø , abundance), one of the cities in the plain (Shephelah) of Judah (mentioned between Libnah and Ashan, Jos_15:42, Sept. ῎Áèåñ v.r. É᾿èÜê ), eventually assigned to Simeon (mentioned between Remmon and Ashan, Jos_19:7, Sept. ῎Áèåñ v.r. É᾿åèÝñ ). In the parallel list of the towns of Simeon in 1Ch_4:32, TOCHEN is substituted for Ether. In the Onomasticon Eusebius and Jerome mention it twice (s.v. Å᾿èÝñ , Ether; É᾿åèÝñ , Jether — in the latter case confounding it with JATTIR, a city of priests, which contained friends of David during his troubles under Saul), and state that it was then a considerable place ( êώìç ìåãßóôç ), retaining the name of Jethira ( É᾿åèåéñÜ , É᾿åèáñÜ ), very near Malatha, in the interior of the district of Daroma, that is, in the desert country below Hebron and to the east of Beersheba. At Beit-Jibrin Van de Velde heard of a tell Athar in this neighborhood, but could not learn its distance or direction (Memoir, page 311). For the present, we may conjecturally place it at Beit-Auwa, in the vicinity of the associated localities, S. of Beit-Jibrin and W. of Hebron; a ruined village, covering low hills on both sides of the path, and exhibiting foundations of hewn stones, leading to the inference that it was once an extensive town (Robinson, Researches, 3:10).