Reference: Jeshimon

the waste, probably some high waste land to the south of the Dead Sea (Nu 21:20; 23:28; 1Sa 23:19,24); or rather not a proper name at all, but simply "the waste" or "wilderness," the district on which the plateau of Ziph (q.v.) looks down.

Pisgah and Peor faced the Jeshimon, i.e. the waste; not merely midbar, "a common" rather than a desert (Nu 21:20; 23:28). The desolate tract skirting the N. and N.W. coasts of the Dead Sea, between the Jordan mouth (near which was Beth-jeshimoth) and Engedi: consisting of chalky crumbling limestone rocks and a fiat covered with nitrous crust, into which the feet sink as in ashes; without vegetation except the hubeibeh, or alkali plant. The hill of HACHILAH was "S. of" or "before" Jeshimon (3/19/type/common'>1Sa 23:19; 26:1,3.) Eusebius says Jeshimon was ten miles S.of Jericho, near the Dead Sea. "The mid bar ("pastoral common") of Judah" stretched S. of Jeshimon from Engedi southward (Jos 15:61-62).

This word, derived from a Heb. root meaning 'to be waste or desolate,' is used either as a common noun (= 'desert,' 'wilderness') or (with the art., 'the Jeshimon') as a proper name (Nu 21:20; 23:28; 1Sa 23:19,24; 26:1,3). In the latter usage the reference is either to the waste country in the Jordan valley N. of the Dead Sea and east of the river (so apparently in Numbers), or to the eastern part of the hill-country of Judah on the western shore of the Dead Sea (Song 1 Samam.).

Jeshi'mon

Plain or desert seen from the tops of Pisgah and Peor. Nu 21:20; 23:28. Perhaps the same as that mentioned in 3/19/type/common'>1Sa 23:19,24; 26:1,3. It was in the south, on the west of the Dead Sea. Some do not treat Jeshimon as a proper name, but translate it 'the waste' in all places.

Jesh'imon

(a wilderness), a name which occurs in

Nu 21:20

and Numb 23:28 in designating the position of Pisgah and Peor; both described as "facing the Jeshimon." Perhaps the dreary, barren waste of hills lying immediately on the west of the Dead Sea.