This highland district extends from the Negeb on the south to Jerusalem, and is bounded by the Shephelah on the west, and the "wilderness" Joshua 15:61-62 on the east. The mountains, which are of limestone, rise to a height of near 3,000 feet. At present, the highlands of Judah present a somewhat dreary and monotonous aspect. The peaks are for the most part barren, though crowned almost everywhere with the ruins of ancient towns, and bearing on their sides marks of former cultivation. Many of the valleys, especially toward the south, are, however, still very productive. The towns here enumerated are given in six groups.

Joshua 15:48-51

First group: towns on the southwest. Dannah (is identified with "Idnah" (Conder)). Jattir ("Attir"), and Eshtemoh ("Semua") were priestly cities Joshua 21:14; 1 Chronicles 6:57, and the place to which David, after routing the Amalekites, sent presents 1 Samuel 30:27-28. Socoh is "Suweikeh."

Socoh - See a town of this name, Joshua 15:35 (note).

And in the mountains,.... The hill country of Judea, as it is called Luke 1:39, in which were the following cities:

Shamir: the Alexandrian copy of the Greek version reads Sophir as the name, of the first of these cities; and Jerom says (d) there was a village of this name in the mountainous parts, situated between Eleutheropolis, and Ashkelon in the tribe of Judah; see Micah 1:11,

and Jattir the same writer calls Jether, in the tribe of Judah; and says (e) there was in his time a very large village called Jethira, twenty miles from Eleutheropolis, the inhabitants of which were then all Christians: it was situated in interior Daroma, near Malatha:

and Socoh is different from Socoh in Joshua 15:35; that was in the plain, this in the mountain; See Gill on Joshua 15:35.

(d) De loc. Heb. fol. 94. I.((e) Ibid. fol. 92. l.

The towns on the mountains are divided into five, or more correctly, into six groups. The mountains of Judah, which rise precipitously from the Negeb, between the hilly district on the west, which is reckoned as part of the shephelah, and the desert of Judah, extending to the Dead Sea on the east (Joshua 15:61), attain the height of 3000 feet above the level of the sea, in the neighbourhood of Hebron, and run northwards to the broad wady of Beit-hanina, above Jerusalem. They are a large rugged range of limestone mountains, with many barren and naked peaks, whilst the sides are for the most part covered with grass, shrubs, bushes, and trees, and the whole range is intersected by many very fruitful valleys. Josephus describes it as abounding in corn, fruit, and wine; and to the present day it contains many orchards, olive grounds, and vineyards, rising in terraces up the sides of the mountains, whilst the valleys and lower grounds yield plentiful harvests of wheat, millet, and other kinds of corn. In ancient times, therefore, the whole of this district was thickly covered with towns (see Rob. ii. pp. 185, 191-2, and C. v. Raumer, Pal. pp. 45ff.).

Joshua 15:48-51

The first group consists of eleven towns on the south-west of the mountains.

Joshua 15:48

Shamir has probably been preserved in the ruins of Um Shaumerah, mentioned by Robinson (iii. App.), though the situation of these ruins has not yet been precisely determined. Jattir, which was given up to the priests (Joshua 21:14), and is mentioned again in 1 Samuel 30:27, is described in the Onom. (s. v. Jether) as a large placed inhabited by Christians, twenty miles from Eleutheropolis, in interiori Daroma juxta Malathan, - a description which suits the ruins of Attir, in the southern portion of the mountains (see Rob. ii. p. 194; called Ater by Seetzen, R. iii. p. 6). Socoh, two hours N.W. of this, the present Shuweikeh (Rob. ii. p. 194), called Suche by Seetzen (R. iii. p. 29), a village about four hours from Hebron.

And in the mountains, Shamir, and Jattir, and Socoh,

15:48 The mountains - That is, in the higher grounds called mountains or hills, in comparison of the sea - coast.

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.