CHORASHAN Sept. 3371paapcg ; Alex. Bcepaecip ; Vulg. Lams Asan). This place is mentioned in 1 Sam. xxx. 3o, as one of the towns amongst whose elders David made a friendly distribution of the spoils of the Amalekites. It is generally supposed to be identical with the Ashen of Joshua. [AsHAN.] See Keil on Yoslam, Tr., p. 382 ; Gesenius, Thes. 672; Fiirst, Lex. i. 583. By St. Jerome and Eusebius (Onomast. s. v. Asan) it is designated Bethasan, and is placed by the former fifteen, and by the latter sixteen, miles from ./Elia (Jerusalem), 77-p6s as Eusebius adds ; to the west, with a slightly southern direction : this would bring the town near to Ziglag, whence David sent his presents. According to Josh. xv. 42, this town was in the tribe of Judah ; while in Josh. xix. 7, and 1 Chron. iv. 32, it is assigned to the tribe of Simeon. To reconcile these statements, it is not necessary (with Von. Raumer, p. 173) to suppose two places of the same name ; but (with Winer, Bibl. Realw., v. i. p. 93) to include Ashan within that portion of Judah, which, as being too much' for it (Josh. xix. 9), was afterwards transferred to the children of Simeon.' The name Chor-ashan is described by Gesenius and Furst to mean a smoking furnace,' the latter conjecturing that the place was the seat of some iron-foundry. Winer,
however, resorts to the most satisfactory conjec ture, to the effect that the prefix CIIOR is synony mous with the Syriac 30.3, and the Arabic ..")-( (Char), which often means `habitation' or Alatt of any kind (ortschaft) [comp. XcUpa], like the word rom (Beth.) This accounts for the form Beth-asan given to the name by Jerome and Euse bius. Fiirst rejects too summarily as false the ver sion of the Peschito, the Alex. LXX., and the Vul gate Bcapaaciv, Lacus Asan (or Borasan)] as if in relation to some well of water, making 111=1N1. The Vat. LXX. Bnpo-alei somewhat countenances the idea. On another ground we may suppose the place to have been well-watered : Ashan is probably the Ain of Josh. xxi. 16 [Ant]. This seems indeed more than probable on comparing the list of this passage (xxi. 13-16), with that of the parallel place in 1 Chron. vi. 57 59.* Now though Ain iv, a spring,' is distin guished from Beer,1N.1, ' a well' (See Stanley, Sin. and Pal., 5o9), it yet points to a fact of a similar nature. From these last-mentioned passages, we learn the ecclesiastical character of our town as one of the Levitical cities.—P. H.