DEBIR de’ bər (Heb. דְּבִ֥יר and Heb. דְּבִ֑ר). 1. A king of Eglon, a member of the confederacy of five Amorite rulers who opposed the town of Gibeon at the invitation of Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem. The Gibeonites appealed to Joshua and he and his army fought the Amorites in the Valley of Aijalon where Joshua’s Long Day, q.v., occurred (Josh 10:3-39). The name Debir has been etymologized to a possible Egypt. root “back” or “shrine” but this is merely conjectural.

2. The name of one or more locations. The more frequently mentioned Debir was located in the hill country of the Shephelah to the W of Jerusalem. On the basis of W. F. Albright’s excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim some seven m. S of Lachish, this site has been identified with Debir. However, insufficient topographical and archeological evidence has come to light to support this contention cf. K. Galling, “Zur Lokalisierung von Debir,” Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins, 70 (1954), 135-141. In the same article Galling proposed that the site might be modern Hirbet Rabūd esp. since this site is near a set of naturally occurring springs of various altitudes which accords well with the description in Judges 1:15, in the context of Caleb’s granting of the request for land from Achsah, his daughter. Excavation of this site by Moshe Kokhavy and others in the seasons 1968, 1969 have turned up much material from the period of the Conquest. There is little doubt that this site will prove to be Biblical Debir. The origin of the name is hidden in obscurity but it prob. had some connotation of “treasure,” possible “written materials,” as it was later known as sacred precinct, its original name having been Heb. קִרְיַת־סֵֽפֶר (Josh 15:15) “city-of-writing,” incorrectly recorded in Joshua 15:49 as Heb. קִרְיַת־סַנָּ֖ה which is meaningless, though the LXX correctly records the same name in both passages. The history of the town is woven throughout the story of the conquest and settlement of Canaan. It is first mentioned as a Canaanite royal town in the hill country of S Judea (10:38; 12:13) which was overthrown by Joshua who destroyed the Anakim, its inhabitants. The particular force involved was that under the command of Caleb (15:15-17; Judg 1:11-15). After the division of the land it became a regio nal center (Josh 15:49) and is mentioned along with the other towns and villages of the Shephelah which were ceded to Judah. What appears to be a different place is mentioned in Joshua 15:7 as one of Judah’s N boundaries, which is located in the wadi of the Achor. This border is variously described in the OT.

3. Still another reference to the name appears in Joshua 13:26 as the name of a town in Gilead located near the Jordan. This town has the full name Heb. לִדְבִֽר, meaning unknown. It was the refuge to which the family of Jonathan fled when Israel was defeated by the Philistines. It was the home of Jonathan’s lame son, Mephibosheth, and from that place David summoned him to the palace (2 Sam 9:4-13). The last reference to the name is in the prophecy of Amos. It has been conjectured that perhaps it was lost in the Israelite wars with the Arameans and regained under Jeroboam II. In Amos the name is purposefully perverted in time-honored Sem. fashion by twisting the vowels to Heb. לְלֹ֣א דָבָ֑ר (Amos 6:13) “nothingness,” as it was most likely a place of pagan sacrifice and heathen idolatry and a subject of great satisfaction to the corrupt monarchy. The site of this and the lesser references to the names are so far unidentified.

Bibliography W. F. Albright, “The Excavations of Tell Beit Mirsim,” AASOR, vol. XII (1930-1931); vol. XIII (1931-1932); vol. XVII (1936-1937); vols. XXI-XXII (1941-1943); J. Simons, GTT (1959) par. 514 et al.; Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible (1967), 18, 136, 197, 199, 209, 230, 235, 240, 259, 270, 292, 300, 344.