Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/269

 did not march together, seeing that Jacob also was proceeding toward the south of Palestine and southwest of the Dead Sea.

Seʻîr is also placed to the southeast of the Dead Sea according to the narrative given in 2 Chronicles, 20, about the campaign undertaken by the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the people of Meʻûn against Joshaphat. According to the account in 2 Chronicles, 20: 2, messengers reported to Joshaphat that the enemy were marching from the east of the Dead Sea, from Edom, and that they were already near Ḥaṣeṣôn Tamar, which is Engadi. There it is recorded (2 Chron., 20: 23) that the Moabites and Ammonites quarreled with the inhabitants of the Seʻîr mountain range and slew them.—

In my judgment, as we have already seen (see above, ), the Meʻûnites were identical with the Maʻônites, who held sway over the great transport route and owed allegiance to the southern Arabian kings. Their center was the present settlement of Maʻân. The Edomites inhabiting Seʻîr likewise acknowledged the authority of the southern Arabian kings, whose trade caravans passed through their territory and brought them considerable profit. At the instigation of the Meʻûnites they therefore gladly took part in an expedition against their remoter neighbors in Judea with whom they were continually quarreling. The Ammonites, Moabites, and Meʻûnites dwelt to the northeast, east, and southeast of the Dead Sea, and, as the inhabitants of Seʻîr are substituted for the Meʻûnites (2 Chron., 20: 23), the Seʻîr mountain range must likewise be located to the south of the Dead Sea.

In 2 Chronicles, 25: 11, it is narrated that Amaziah, king of Judea, marched with his men to the Valley of Salt where he defeated the people of Seʻîr. According to this account we may also locate Seʻîr to the south-southeast of the Dead Sea. To the south of Palestine, especially to the south of the ruins of ʻAbde, there are numerous elevations containing layers of salt, but I doubt whether it is there that we should expect to find the Valley of Salt, or Gê’ ham-Melaḥ, which certainly borders on the Salt Sea, as the Dead Sea was also called. In summer the southern part of the sea evaporates, leaving extensive marshes from which the inhabitants of all the surrounding regions obtain their salt and which may be identified with Gê’ ham-Melaḥ. The people of Seʻîr had heard about the warlike preparations made by those in Judea and therefore marched to meet the latter, encountering them on the frontiers of their country, south of the Dead Sea. As the men of Judea marched from the northwest, it must be supposed that the men of Seʻîr arrived from the east or southeast.

In 1 Chronicles, 4: 39—43, there is an account of new settlements made by a part of the tribe of Simeon, who migrated from the southern regions of Judea to Gai’. From there few of them proceeded to the Seʻîr mountain range, where they slew the last remnants of the Amalekites and settled down.—Gai’ I identify with the classical settlement of Gea, the modern al-Ǧi, to the east of Petra (see above, pp. ). We must, therefore, expect to find the Seʻîr mountain range in the same direction, and this would also bring us to the south-southeast of the Dead Sea.

Our view about the situation of the Seʻîr mountain range to the south or south-southeast of the Dead Sea is not at all contradictory to