Beer-sheba - A city, famous in the book of Genesis as the residence of the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob, Genesis 22:19; Genesis 28:10; Genesis 46:1. See the note on Genesis 21:31. It lay on the way between Canaan and Egypt, about forty miles from Jerusalem.

And Hazarshual,.... The first of these seems to have its name from an haunt of foxes here, and was given to the tribe of Simeon, Joshua 19:3; and is mentioned as here with Beersheba, 1 Chronicles 4:28 Nehemiah 11:27,

and Beersheba was a city well known in the extreme border of the land of Canaan southward; hence the phrase "from Dan to Beersheba", Judges 20:1, of which Jerom says (h), Bersabee, in the tribe of Judah or Simeon, is at this day a large village, twenty miles from Hebron to the south, in which there is a Roman garrison; and from hence the borders of the land of Judea begin, and go on to Dan, which is by Paneas:

and Bizjothjah, of which mention is made elsewhere.

(h) lbid. fol. 89. E. F.

Hazor-shual, i.e., fox-court, which was assigned to the Simeonites (Joshua 19:3) and still inhabited after the captivity (Nehemiah 11:27), answers, so far as the name if concerned, to the ruins of Thly (Rob. Pal. iii. App.). Beersheba, which was a well-known place in connection with the history of the patriarchs (Genesis 21:14., Joshua 22:19, etc.), and is frequently mentioned afterwards as the southern boundary of the land of Israel (Judges 20:1; 2 Samuel 17:11, etc.), was also given up to the Simeonites (Joshua 19:2), and still inhabited after the captivity (Nehemiah 11:27). It is the present Bir es Seba on the Wady es Seba (see at Genesis 21:31). Bizjothjah is unknown.

And Hazarshual, and Beersheba, and Bizjothjah,

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.