- Achor
Achor - meaning "trouble" in Hebrew, is the name of a
valley in the vicinity ofJericho .Eusebius (in "Onomasticon") andJerome (in "Book of Sites and Names of Hebrew Places") implied that they thought it was a valley north of Jericho, but in modern times the valley is often considered to be thewadi el-Kelt, a deep ravine located to Jericho's south.The
Book of Joshua claims that it was named in consequence of the problems theIsraelites had as a result of Achan's immoral theft; however, most biblical scholars and the increasing majority of archaeologists regard the narrative about Achan as anaetiological myth , and instead suspect that it gained this name for another reason, possibly having it well before the 15th century.The phrase "valley of trouble" is eminently proverbial, and hence when the
Book of Isaiah andBook of Hosea use the term - "the valley of trouble, a place for herds to lie down in" (Isaiah 65:10), "the valley of trouble for a door of hope" (Hosea 2:15) - it is most likely used in this sense, rather than as a reference to the geographic location of the "valley of Achor".References
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