the Week of Proper 27 / Ordinary 32
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Bible Dictionaries
Seir
Smith's Bible Dictionary
or Se'ir. (hairy, shaggy).
1. We have both "land of Seir," Genesis 32:3; Genesis 36:50, and "Mount Seir." Genesis 14:6. It is the original name of the mountain range extending along the east side of the valley of Arabah, from the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf. The Horites appear to have been the chief of the aboriginal inhabitants, Genesis 36:20, but it was ever, afterward, the possession of the Edomites, the descendants of Esau.
The Mount Seir of the Bible extended much farther south than the modern province, as is shown by the words of Deuteronomy 32:1-8 It had the Arabah on the west, Deuteronomy 32:1; Deuteronomy 32:8; it extended as far south as the head of the Gulf of Akabah, Deuteronomy 32:8; its eastern border ran along the base of the mountain range where the plateau of Arabia begins. Its northern order is not so accurately determined. There is a line of "naked" white hills or cliffs which run across the great valley about eight miles south of the Dead Sea, the highest eminence being Mount Hor, which is 4800 feet high.
2. Mount Seir, an entirely different place from the foregoing; one of the landmarks on the north boundary of the territory of Judah. In Joshua 15:10 only. It lay westward of Kirjath-jearim, and between it and Beth-shemesh. If Kuriel el-Enab is the former, and Ain-shems is the latter, of these two, then, Mount Seir cannot fail to be the ridge, which lies between the Wady Aly and the Wady Ghurab. In a pass of this ridge is the modern village of Seir.
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Smith, William, Dr. Entry for 'Seir'. Smith's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/sbd/s/seir.html. 1901.
