Debir

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Debir
     oracle town; sanctuary. (1.) One of the eleven cities to the
     west of Hebron, in the highlands of Judah (Josh. 15:49; Judg.
     1:11-15). It was originally one of the towns of the Anakim
     (Josh. 15:15), and was also called Kirjath-sepher (q.v.) and
     Kirjath-sannah (49). Caleb, who had conquered and taken


     possession of the town and district of Hebron (Josh. 14:6-15),
     offered the hand of his daughter to any one who would
     successfully lead a party against Debir. Othniel, his younger
     brother (Judg. 1:13; 3:9), achieved the conquest, and gained
     Achsah as his wife. She was not satisfied with the portion her
     father gave her, and as she was proceeding toward her new home,
     she "lighted from off her ass" and said to him, "Give me a
     blessing [i.e., a dowry]: for thou hast given me a south land"
     (Josh. 15:19, A.V.); or, as in the Revised Version, "Thou hast
     set me in the land of the south", i.e., in the Negeb, outside
     the rich valley of Hebron, in the dry and barren land. "Give me
     also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and
     the nether springs."
     
       Debir has been identified with the modern Edh-Dhaheriyeh,
     i.e., "the well on the ridge", to the south of Hebron.
     
       (2.) A place near the "valley of Achor" (Josh. 15:7), on the
     north boundary of Judah, between Jerusalem and Jericho.
     
       (3.) The king of Eglon, one of the five Canaanitish kings who
     were hanged by Joshua (Josh. 10:3, 23) after the victory at
     Gibeon. These kings fled and took refuge in a cave at Makkedah.
     Here they were kept confined till Joshua returned from the
     pursuit of their discomfited armies, when he caused them to be
     brought forth, and "Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged
     them on five trees" (26).
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Debir, an orator; a word