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Bible Encyclopedias
Shihor-Libnath
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (Heb. Shichor' Libnath', לַבְנָת שַׁיחוֹר, literally, black of whiteness; Sept. ὁ Σειώρ [v.r. Ειών ] καὶ Λιβανάθ; Vulg. Sichor et Labanath), a locality mentioned only in Joshua 19:26 as one of the landmarks of the southern boundary of Asher in the vicinity of Carmel and Beth-dagon. By the ancient translators and commentators (as Peshito-Syriac, and Eusebius and Jerome in the Onomasticon) the names are taken as belonging to two distinct places. But modern commentators, beginning perhaps with Masius, have inferred from the fact that Shihor alone is a name of the Nile, that Shihor-libnath is likewise a river. Led by the meaning of Libnath as "white," they interpret the Shihor-libnath as the glass river, which they then naturally identify with the Belus (q.v.) of Pliny (H.N. 5, 19), the present Nahr Naman, which drains part of the plain of Akka, and enters the Mediterranean a short distance below that city. This theory, at once so ingenious and so consistent, is supported by the great names of Michaelis (Suppl. No. 2462) and Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 1393); but the territory of Asher certainly extended far south of the Naman. Reland's conjecture of the Crocodile River, probably the Nahr Zerka close to Kaisariyeh, is on the other hand, too far south, since Daor is not within the limits of Asher. The Shihor-libnath, if a stream at all, is more likely to have been the little stream (marked on Van de Velde's Map as Wady Milleh, but as Wady en- Nebra the specimen of the Ordnance Survey in the Pal. Explor. Quarterly for Jan. 1875) which enters the Mediterranean a little south of Athlit. The sand there is white and glistening, and this, combined with the turbid character of a mountain stream agrees well with the name.
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Shihor-Libnath'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/s/shihor-libnath.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
