ETAM

(Eʹtam) [place of birds of prey].

1. A settlement of Simeonites within the territory of Judah. (1 Chron. 4:24, 32) Its location is uncertain, although some connect it with Khirbet ʽAitum, centrally located in Judah’s territory almost twenty-nine miles (46.7 kilometers) W of En-gedi and twenty-eight miles (45 kilometers) SW of Jerusalem.

2. The crag Etam, where Samson lived after burning the Philistines’ fields. From this crag, 3,000 men of Judah took him, willingly bound, back to the Philistines. (Judg. 15:8-13) Whereas no positive identification for the crag Etam is possible, a connection with the town (No. 3 below) cannot be altogether eliminated. However, just two and a half miles (4 kilometers) E-SE of the suggested site of Samson’s hometown Zorah (Judg. 13:2) is ʽAraq Ismaʽin, an isolated crag with a lofty cavern affording a broad view of the Shephelah below. Appropriate to the meaning of the name, this may possibly be the site of the crag Etam.

3. A town of Judah located probably at Khirbet el-Khokh, on a hill two miles (3.2 kilometers) SW of Bethlehem. Apparently Etam and Bethlehem had been settled by close relatives. (1 Chron. 4:3, 4; see ATROTH-BETH-JOAB.) According to Josephus, King Solomon often took a morning chariot ride from Jerusalem those eight miles (13 kilometers) out to Etam, where there were gardens and streams. (Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII, chap. VII, par. 3) The town was rebuilt and fortified by Solomon’s successor Rehoboam. (2 Chron. 11:5, 6) To the W of here was a spring connected, according to the Talmud, by aqueduct with Jerusalem.