And Nibshan, and the city of Salt, and Engedi; six cities with their villages.
Nibshan, х Nibshaan (H5044), light soil; Septuagint, Naflazoon; Alexandrian, Nebsan]. Its position has not been discovered.
The city of Salt, [Septuagint, hai poleis Sadoon, and hai polis aloon]. Van de Velde, justly conceiving that this city lay at no great distance from the salt mountain, and arrested by the fountains at the ruins of Embarreg, which he considered amply sufficient to supply a town with water, was led to conclude that the "city of Salt" stood there ('Syria and Palestine,' 2:, p. 123; also De Saulcy, 'Journey round the Dead Sea,' 1:, p.
258).
En-gedi, х `Eeyn-Gediy (H5872), fountain of the kid] - anciently Hazezon-tamar (see the note at Genesis 14:7) [Septuagint, Angkadees; Alexandrian, Eengaddi, now 'Ain-Jidy. 'Traces of the ancient city exist upon the plain and lower declivity of the mountain, on the south side of the brook which runs into the shore of the Dead Sea. They are rude and uninteresting, consisting merely of foundations and shapeless heaps of unhewn stones' (Porter's 'Handbook,' p. 242; Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 2:, pp. 209-211. Van de Velde, 'Syria and Palestine,' 2:, pp. 75:101). This group in the Arabah, on the high levels in the northern part of the tribe, comprised 6 cities, which studded a district where no trace of human habitation is to be found but the tent of the wild Arab. Seetzen remarks that 'in very early ages this country was very populous, and that the furious rage of the Arabs was able to convert into a waste this blooming region, extending from the limit of the Hedjaz to the neighbourhood of Damascus' ('Reisen,' vol. 3:, pp. 17, 18).