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HORMAH

(Heb. ḥormâ)

A city described in the OT as lying on the border between the wilderness and the desert south of ancient Canaan proper. The name means “devoted” — for destruction.

Hormah was a place where the invading Hebrews sustained a crucial defeat (Num. 14:45; Deut. 1:44), the point to which the Hebrews, in a failed endeavor from the south, were driven back by the Canaanite and Amalekite inhabitants of the region. The implication is that Hormah was on the edge of the wilderness. The fact that Hormah appears in the list of 31 cities whose kings Joshua and the Israelites defeated in their campaign west of the Jordan (Josh. 12:14) also supports a Negeb provenance for the city. However, its exact location and identification are unknown. Proposed identifications with Tell Masos and Tell Sheriah have found neither unambiguous supporting evidence nor scholarly acceptance.

Hormah was first assigned to the territory of Judah (Josh. 15:30) but later reassigned to Simeon (Josh. 19:4; 1 Chr. 4:30). The city, whose original name was Zephath, was captured by men of Judah and Simeon (Judg. 1:17) and was renamed Hormah after its destruction. Another account indicates that Hormah got its name when the Israelites made good on a vow to defeat the king of Arad (Num. 21:3). It was one of the cities in the south to which David sent shares of the spoils captured after his war with the Amalekites (1 Sam. 30:30), during the time he was fleeing from King Saul.

Bruce C. Cresson

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HORMAH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)