Joshua 15:22 — Word Study
WLCוְקִינָ֥ה וְדִֽימוֹנָ֖ה וְעַדְעָדָֽה׃
BSAKinahQîynâh△ [a place of lamentation] DimonahDîymôwnâh△ [meaning river bed or silence] AdadahʻĂdʻâdâh△ [possibly named for its festivals or location on a boundary]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| וְקִינָ֥ה | and Kinah | Conjunction, noun proper |
| וְדִֽימוֹנָ֖ה | and Dimonah | Conjunction, noun proper |
| וְעַדְעָדָֽה׃ | and Adadah | Conjunction, noun proper |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah, |
| KJV | And Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah, |
| ASV | and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah, |
| YLT | and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah, |
| WEB | Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah, |
| BBE | And Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah; |
Where they part company is in the inclusion of meanings for the towns — see How Translations Differ.
The verse consists of a single main clause listing the towns.
3 commentators on this verse
Gill, Jamieson, Ellicott & more — read them ›
clause
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
3 of 3 occur nowhere else in the Old Testament — words chosen on purpose.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Joshua 15:22
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — The Southern Cities of Judahgenerated
Joshua 15:22 lists Kinah, Dimonah, and Adadah as part of the southern cities allocated to the tribe of Judah. These towns are mentioned in the context of the geographical boundaries and settlements in the land of Canaan, reflecting the division of the land among the tribes of Israel.
Cross References
The Key Word — קִינָה, ve.ki.Nahgenerated
The word קִינָה (Kinah) is a proper noun referring to a specific location in southern Judah. It is derived from the root meaning 'lamentation', indicating its significance as a town associated with mourning or sorrow. The parsing as a noun proper indicates that it is a specific place rather than a common noun.
Kinah is mentioned in the context of the borders of Judah, suggesting its geographical importance. The lexicons confirm its association with a town near Edom, emphasizing its role in the territorial delineation of the tribes.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
This study reads the verse in the Berean Standard Bible, so the BSB is the wording every comparison below is made against.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The structure of the verse is straightforward, consisting of a series of noun phrases connected by conjunctions. The main clause lists the towns: וְקִינָ֥ה וְדִֽימוֹנָ֖ה וְעַדְעָדָֽה (and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah).
The use of conjunctions links these proper nouns, indicating that they are part of a list of towns. The Hebrew syntax emphasizes the collective identity of these locations as part of the southern boundary of Judah.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
The Septuagint translates קִינָה as ικαμ, which does not carry the same connotation of lamentation as the Hebrew. This choice may reflect a different understanding of the town's significance in the Greek-speaking context.
Similarly, דִימוֹנָה is rendered as ρεγμα, which also lacks the direct connection to the meanings of 'river bed' or 'silence' found in the Hebrew.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Joshua 15:22 lists three towns in southern Judah: Kinah, which means lamentation; Dimonah, meaning river bed or silence; and Adadah, possibly named for its festivals or its location on a boundary. These towns are part of the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
Kinah means lamentation and is a town located in southern Judah.
Dimonah means river bed or silence and is also a town in southern Judah.
Adadah is possibly named for its festivals or its location on a boundary, indicating its importance in the region.
These towns represent the southernmost cities of the tribe of Judah, marking the geographical boundaries of their territory.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- What can we learn from the names of these towns about the culture and history of Judah?
- How do the meanings of Kinah, Dimonah, and Adadah reflect the experiences of the people living in these areas?
- In what ways do geographical boundaries influence our understanding of biblical narratives?
- How can the significance of these towns inform our study of the tribal divisions in Israel?
Commentators on this verse — 3 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Joshua 15:22 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleAnd Kinah,.... Of this city we read of nowhere else; and Dimonah; the second city is thought to be the same with Dibon, Ne 11:25; and Jerom (b) observes, that a place elsewhere was indifferently
Read John Gill on Joshua 15 →Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryAnd Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah, (4) Dimonah - or Dibon (Nehemiah 11:25), identified by Wilton with the ruin Ed-Deib.
Read Robert Jamieson on Joshua 15 →Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) And the uttermost cities.—The cities of the tribe of Judah are given under four heads: (a) towards Edom; (b) in the Shephêlah, or plain of the coast (Joshua 15:33, &c.); (c) in the mountains (Joshua 15:48); (d) in the wilderness (Joshua 15:61). Of those in Joshua 15:21-32, the first twenty-nine, Conder identifies only four—viz., Adadah, Joshua 15:22 (Ad’adah); Kerioth Hezron (some see a trace of Kerioth in the sobriquet of Judas Is-cariot, the man of Kerioth), Joshua 15:25 (Hudîreh); Beer-sheba, Joshua 15:28 (Bîr es-seb’a); and Ain Rimmon, Joshua 15:32 ( Umm er-Rumânûn). It is not easy to say precisely how the twenty-nine are to be obtained from the thirty-three, but evidently some of…
Read Charles John Ellicott on Joshua 15 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah,
Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah,
Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah,
Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah,
Tyndale line
And Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,
and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,
and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah;
And Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,
And Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,
Strictly literal
and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,
and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,
and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,
And Kinah, and Dimonah, and 'Ad'adah,
Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah,
From the Latin
And Cina and Dimona and Adada,
Simplified
Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah,
And Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah;
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text and the Septuagint agree on the names of the towns: וְקִינָ֥ה וְדִֽימוֹנָ֖ה וְעַדְעָדָֽה. The Septuagint's translations correspond directly to the Hebrew names, indicating a consistent understanding of these locations.
וְקִינָ֥ה וְדִֽימוֹנָ֖ה וְעַדְעָדָֽה׃
3 of the 3 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Joshua 15:22
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
קִינָה (Qiynah) refers to both a place in southern Judah and the concept of lamentation. The entries indicate that it is associated with a town near Edom, specifically mentioned in Joshua 15:22. There is no significant disagreement among the lexicons regarding its meaning or usage.
קִינָה n.pr.loc. in S. Judah Jos 15:22
ref
H7016 קִינָה
7016 Qiynah kee-naw'
the same as 7015; Kinah, a place in Palestine:--Kinah.
see HEBREW for 07015
קִינָה (qi.nah) — Kinah.
§ Kinah = "lamentation"
a town on the extreme southern boundary of Judah next to Edom
Conj | N-proper — Conjunction · noun properHC/Npl
Kinah
An elegy, a city in the extreme south of Judah (Josh. 15:22). It was probably not far from the Dead Sea, in the Wady Fikreh.
same as Kenah
→ A city of Judah Jos 15:22
דִּיבֹן (Diymown) refers to Dimonah, a location in Palestine, specifically a city in Moab and a place in southern Judah. The name may mean 'river bed' or 'silence.' It is derived from a feminine form of another Hebrew word, דִּימֹן (Dimon).
דִּיבֹן, דִּיבוֹן n.pr.loc.
city in Moab
place in Judah, toward south
base
H1776 דִּיבֹן, דִּיבוֹן
1776 Diymownah dee-mo-naw'
feminine of 1775; Dimonah, a place in Palestine:--Dimonah.
see HEBREW for 01775
דִּימוֹנָה (di.mo.nah) — Dimonah.
§ Dimonah = "river bed" or "silence"
a town in the south Judah
Conj | N-proper — Conjunction · noun properHC/Npl
a city in the south of Judah, (Joshua 15:22) perhaps the same as DIBON in (Nehemiah 11:25)
dunghill
→ See DIBON, number two
The Hebrew word עֲדְעָדָה (*Ad`adah*) refers to a place in Palestine, specifically a town in the southern region of Judah. It is associated with meanings like 'festival' or 'boundary.' The entries indicate its geographical significance, noting its location near the Arnon River and its role as a limit for Israel's eastern territory.
עֲרֹעֵר 10, עֲרוֹעֵר 5, עַרְעֹר 1 n.pr.loc.
city on N. bank of Arnon, S. limit of E. Jordan Isr.
city near Rabbah in Ammon
city in S. Judah
base
H5735 עֲרֹעֵר, עֲרוֹעֵר, עַרְעֹר, עֲדְעָדָה, עַרְעוֹר
5735 `Ad`adah ad-aw-daw'
from 5712; festival; Adadah, a place in Palestine:--Adadah.
see HEBREW for 05712
עֲדְעָדָה (a.de.a.dah) — Adadah.
§ Adadah = "festival" or "boundary"
one of the towns in the extreme south of Judah
Conj | N-proper — Conjunction · noun properHC/Npl
a-da'-da (`adh`adhah): A city in the southern part of Judah (Jos 15:22). The older copies of the Greek text have Arouel, but that is not a sufficient reason for identifying the name with the Aroer of 1Sa 30:28. Some scholars adopt the change of text, and identify the site with Ararah, about seven miles Southeast of Beer-sheba. Others identify it with Adadah, eight or nine miles Southeast of Arad.
(festival or boundary), one of the cities in the extreme south of Judah, named with Dimonah and Kedesh. (Joshua 15:22)
testimony of the assembly
→ A city of Judah Jos 15:22