DAROM Sept. and Aap6/4). This word is generally used in Scripture to denote 'the south' (Ezek. xl. 24 ; Job xxxvii. 17). Its mean ing in Dent. xxxiii. 23 is doubtful. Moses in blessing Naphtali says, Possess thou the sea and Darom.' The A. V. renders it the west and the south ;' the Septuagint, OctXao-o-au Kai NOV ; the old Latin, mare et Africum ; ' and the Vulgate, mare et meridiem.' The territory of Naphtali lay on the north-east of Palestine. It did not touch or go near the Mediterranean ; consequently the sea' cannot mean the Mediterranean. The sea of Galilee is doubtless referred to, the whole western shore of which belonged to Naphtali. The Septuagint rendering of Darom in this pas sage (Xipa, i.e., Africa), must be wrong. Naphtali never had any connection with Africa, or with that region on its northern frontier afterwards called Darom. The word seems here to denote a district near Tiberias, and probably the sunny plain of Gennesaret, which surpassed all the rest of Palestine in fertility (Joseph. Bell. Jitd. iii. io. 8).
In Ezek. xx. 46 (xxi. 2), Darom appears to be a proper name. Son of man set thy face toward Teman, and drop the word toward Darom.' The A. V. translates both words south ;' but the Septuagint more correctly Oataav and Liapaq.c.
Instead of Aapci)a. Symmachus gives Alpa. We learn from Jerome and other ancient writers that the plain which lies along the southern border of Palestine and extends towards Egypt, was formerly called Darom. Thus, Jerome says, Duma is a large village in Darom, that is, in the south country in the region of Eleutheropolis, seventeen miles distant from that city' (Onomast. s.v. Darom) ; and Eusebius describes Gerar as situated 157r4 Tbv Aapwp.av (Id., s.v. Plpapa). The name appears to have been applied to the whole plain from the Mediterranean to the Arabah, and southern shore of the Dead Sea (Reland, Pal. 185, sq.) In the early ages of Christianity a Greek convent was erected near the coast, about seven miles south of Gaza, and named Daron. During the crusades it was converted into a fortress, and was the scene of many a hard struggle between the Christians and Saracens (Will. Tyr. in Gesta Del per Francos, p. 988 ; Marinus Sanutus, pp. 86, 246 ; Bohadin Vita Saladini, p. 72, and Index Geog. s.v. Darounum • Robinson, B. R., ii. 38). The site is now marked by a small village called Deir el-Balah, the convent of the dates' (Hand book for S. and P., z66).—J. L. P.