JERUBBESHETH. [jExuanam...] JERUEL, WILDERNESS OF 6I.V11+ "alp ; Sept. 1`71pijyot 'le poiX), the scene of the discomfiture of the Ammonites, Moabites, and other Arab tribes who invaded Judma in the reign of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xx. 16). Although not mentioned elsewhere, the situation of this region may be determined with tolerable precision from the cir cumstantial details given in the chapter cited. The invadina tribes having marched round the south of the Deo% Sea had encamped at Engerli. The road thence to Jerusalem ascends from the shore by a steep and terrible pass' (Walcott, Bib. Sae. p. 69), and thence leads northwards, passing below Tekoa (Robinson, Bib. Res. i. 501, 5o8). Jehosha phat, by the direction of Jahaziel, goes forth from Jerusalem to the wilderness of Tekoa. He is told that the invaders are coming up by the ascent of Ziz (or Hazziz, Sept. ' Ao-o-eis ; Alex. Aoai ; comp.
Bertheau, loc.), evidently the difficult pass just mentioned,* and that he should find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jeruel.' Three days having been consumed in spoiling the dead, he leads his army to the valley of Berachah (Bereikilt) to offer thanks for the deliverance. The wilderness of Jeruel must therefore have been traversed by the road from Engedi to Jerusalem, ad jacent to the wilderness of Tekoa, and distant by a short march from Bereikiit. In all these respects the large tract of table land called el-Husasah from a wady on its northern side (Robinson, i. 527), and extending in verdant slopes ' to the hill country about Tekoa (Walcott, /. c.), satisfies the require ments of the narrative.—II. C. G.