Hormah

Zephath, later called Hormah, was a Canaanite city that Israel failed to capture but was later defeated by Judah and Simeon .

Zephath, later renamed Hormah, was a Canaanite city located in the Negev desert region. During the Israelites' wanderings in the wilderness, they attempted to enter Canaan from the south, but the king of Arad fought against them and took some prisoners. Israel vowed to totally destroy the Canaanite cities if God would give them victory. God granted their request, and the Israelites "utterly destroyed" the Canaanites and named the place Hormah, meaning "destruction" (Num.21.1-3).

However, Israel later refused to enter Canaan from Kadesh Barnea out of unbelief. When they then presumptuously tried to go up, the Amalekites and Canaanites defeated them as far as Hormah (Num.14.45; Dt.1:44). Much later, after Joshua's conquests, Judah and Simeon fought against Zephath, defeated it, and renamed it Hormah (Jdg.1.17). The city is subsequently listed among the towns in the Negev allotted to Judah and Simeon (Jos.15.30; 19:4; 1Ch.4.30). David later sent some of the spoils from his victory over the Amalekites to his friends in Hormah (1Sa.30.30). The exact location is uncertain but it was likely somewhere south of the Dead Sea.

Banning; i.e., placing under a “ban,” or devoting to utter destruction. After the manifestation of God’s anger against the Israelites, on account of their rebellion and their murmurings when the spies returned to the camp at Kadesh, in the wilderness of Paran, with an evil report of the land, they quickly repented of their conduct, and presumed to go up “to the head of the mountain,” seeking to enter the Promised Land, but without the presence of the Lord, without the ark of the convenant, and without Moses. The Amalekites and the Canaanites came down and “smote and discomfited them even unto Hormah” (Num. 14:45). This place, or perhaps the watch-tower commanding it, was originally called Zephath (Judg. 1:17), the modern Sebaiteh. Afterwards (Num. 21:1-3) Arad, the king of the Canaanites, at the close of the wanderings, when the Israelites were a second time encamped at Kadesh, “fought against them, and took some of them prisoners.” But Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord utterly to destroy the cities of the Canaanites; they “banned” them, and hence the place was now called Hormah. But this “ban” was not fully executed till the time of Joshua, who finally conquered the king of this district, so that the ancient name Zephath became “Hormah” (Josh. 12:14; Judg. 1:17).