The Wilderness Frontier Towns of Judah Along the Dead Sea

Joshua 15:61-62 catalogs the six wilderness towns of Judah's tribal inheritance — the most desolate frontier of the entire allotment, running down the western shore of the Dead Sea: "In the wilderness, Beth-arabah, Middin, and Secacah, And Nibshan, and the city of Salt, and En-gedi; six cities with their villages." These tiny settlements clung to the salt and date-palm oases along the cliffs above the Dead Sea — territory that would later become the haunt of David's outlaw band, the home of the Essene community at Qumran, and the desert hideout of Bar Kokhba's rebels.

Read It