Joshua 15:21

The uttermost cities. These are the cities in the Negeb, the southern extremity of the inheritance. There are 38 cities mentioned as belonging to this region, but most of them are of little importance and quite unknown to history. The writer of the book has methodically arranged the towns in four groups, running from east to west. The first, consisting of nine towns situated on the border of Edom toward the southwest of the Dead Sea, contains none that are known except, probably, Kadesh-bamea, and Kabzeel, the birthplace of David’s loyal hero Benaiah, who may well have gained his reputation as a slayer of lions in this locality. The next group of five or six cities contains “Kerioth, and Hezron” (or Kerioth-hezron, RSV), not identified with any known site, but situated in the extreme south of Judah, and according to tradition, the home of the traitor Judas, from which he derived the name Iscariot (Heb. ’Ish Qeriyyoth, “man of Kerioth”). Among the nine cities of the next group, which lie more to the north, occurs the time-honored Beersheba, still famous for its wells of living water. Though the province of Judah extended originally some distance farther to the south, yet as the last important place between the desert and the uplands, Beersheba is generally taken as representing the southern boundary. Thus, in the phrase “from Dan to Beersheba,” the whole country from north to south is expressed. The fourth group, of 13 towns, lay to the west and southwest, and contained Ziklag, a town celebrated for its connection with David.