The Far Southern Negev Catalog of Judah Through Shema Moladah and Hazar-gaddah

Joshua 15:25-27 catalogs the inner ring of Judah's far southern Negev cities: "Hazor, Hadattah, and Kerioth, and Hezron, which is Hazor, Amam, and Shema, and Moladah, And Hazar-gaddah, and Heshmon, and Beth-palet, And Hazar-shual, and Beersheba, and Bizjothjah." The cluster occupied the desert margin between settled Judah and the Amalekite-Edomite wilderness — small frontier settlements that watched the strategic caravan routes south toward Sinai. Many of these towns reappear in Simeon's overlapping tribal allotment a few chapters later (Joshua 19:1-9), since Simeon's territory lay entirely within Judah's borders.

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