And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
There was a man in Maon. This city, which belonged to the tribe of Judah (John 15:55), was situated on the brow of a conical hill, now Tell Ma'in, which is covered with ruins. It lay two days' journey from Zoar, and 25 miles southeast of Hebron.
In Carmel, х ba-Karmel (H3760)] - in the park (fertile or cultivated region: see the note at 1 Samuel 15:12: cf. 2 Chronicles 26:10), near Maon, now Kurmul. The district takes its name from this town (see Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 2:, p. 200; Van de Velde, 2:, pp. 77-79).
The man was very great. His property consisted in cattle, and he was considered wealthy, according to the ideas of that age.
He had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats. Similar are the possessions of his modern successors, the Jehalin Arabs, who have no herds of large cattle, but flocks of sheep and goats (Wilson's 'Lands of the Bible,' 2:, p. 710).