the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Debir
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or De´bir, a city in the tribe of Judah, about thirty miles south-west from Jerusalem, and ten miles west of Hebron. It was also called Kirjath-sepher (), and Kirjath-sannah (). The name Debir means 'a word' or 'oracle,' and is applied to that most secret and separated part of the Temple, or of the most holy place, in which the Ark of the Covenant was placed, and in which responses were given from above the cherubim. From this, coupled with the fact that Kirjath-sepher means 'book-city,' it has been conjectured that Debir was some particularly sacred place or seat of learning among the Canaanites, and a repository of their records. 'It is not indeed probable,' as Professor Bush remarks, 'that writing and books, in our sense of the words, were very common among the Canaanites; but some method of recording events, and a sort of learning, was doubtless cultivated in those regions.' Debir was taken by Joshua (); but it being afterwards retaken by the Canaanites. Caleb, to whom it was assigned, gave his daughter Achsah in marriage to his nephew Othniel for his bravery in carrying it by storm (). The town was afterwards given to the priests (). No trace of it is to be found at the present time.
There were two other places called Debir: one belonging to Gad, beyond Jordan (); the other to Benjamin, though originally in Judah.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Debir'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/d/debir.html.
