Esheän

Esh'eän

[some E'sheän] (Hebrews Eshan', אֶשׁען, a prop; Sept. Ε᾿σάν v.r. Σομά, Vulg. Esaan), a city in the mountains of Judah, mentioned between Dumah and Janum (Jos 15:52), situated in the group west by south of Hebron (Keil, Comment. in loc.). Vai de Velde thinks (Memoir, pages 310, 311) the place may be the same as Ashan (q.v.); but this is inadmissible, partly because of the difference in the name (עַשַׁן), and partly because the only Ashan mentioned in Scripture lay in the low country (Jos 15:42; comp. verse 33), while Eshean is expressly placed in the hill country of Judah (verses 48, 52). To escape this last and fatal objection, Van de Velde follows Von Raumer (Palist. page 173) in supposing two Ashans, one in the mountains of Judah, and the other in the southern plain of Palestine, belonging to Simeon; but that the Ashen of Judah and that of Simeon were one and the same, is evident from comparing Jos 15:42; Jos 19:9, where Ether appears as in the vicinity of both, and Jos 19:7 with 1Ch 4:32, where the same is the case with Ain-Rimilon. Still, although Eshean cannot thus be identified with the Chor-ashan of 1Sa 30:30, we may perhaps adopt Van de Velde's location of the former at the ruins of Khursa (Robinson's Researches, in, Append. page 116), not far south-west of Hebron (Stewart, Tent, page 224).