town or village

Debir

• Today Khirbet Rabud
• Most likely location

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History

Debir, earlier called Kiriath-sepher, was a town in the hills of Judah south-west of Hebron, and its site has long been debated. W. F. Albright proposed Tell Beit Mirsim in 1924 and excavated it in 1926–1932; it stands where the hills meet the Shephelah. In 1968, while surveying the hills south of Hebron, Moshe Kochavi of Tel Aviv University proposed Khirbet Rabud, about 13 km south-west of Hebron, and dug there. Most scholars now prefer Khirbet Rabud, which lies in the hill country where the Book of Joshua lists Debir; the point on the map marks it.

Khirbet Rabud was settled in the Bronze Age and in the Iron Age became a town of Judah. In the ninth century BC it was surrounded by a thick wall enclosing about 5 ha. The town was destroyed in the late eighth century, probably in Sennacherib's campaign of 701 BC; it was rebuilt in the seventh century and spread beyond its walls, and it was destroyed again when the Babylonians conquered Judah in 587 or 586 BC. Tell Beit Mirsim, for its part, gave archaeology a long and carefully recorded sequence of pottery from the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Joshua took Debir and its king, and "cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir". The Books of Joshua and Judges also tell how Caleb promised his daughter Achsah to the man who took Kiriath-sepher; Othniel the son of Kenaz took it, and Achsah asked her father for springs of water: "he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs". Debir is listed among the towns in the mountains of Judah, and it was given with its suburbs to the children of Aaron.

In the early fourth century AD Eusebius gives Dabeir only its biblical description, a town of Judah called the city of letters, taken by Othniel and given to the priests, and does not say where it lay.

Scripture: Josh 10:38–39; Josh 11:21; Josh 12:13; Josh 15:15–19; Judg 1:11–15; Josh 15:48–49; Josh 21:13–15; 1 Chr 6:57–58

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (11)

Josh 10:38

And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir; and fought against it:

Josh 10:39

And he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.

Josh 11:21

And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.

Josh 12:13

The king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one;

Josh 15:15

And he went up thence to the inhabitants of Debir: and the name of Debir before was Kirjath-sepher.

Josh 15:16

And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife.

Josh 15:49

And Dannah, and Kirjath-sannah, which is Debir,

Josh 21:15

And Holon with her suburbs, and Debir with her suburbs,

Judg 1:11

And from thence he went against the inhabitants of Debir: and the name of Debir before was Kirjath-sepher:

Judg 1:12

And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife.

1 Chr 6:58

And Hilen with her suburbs, Debir with her suburbs,

King James Version