Note 214 — Chapter VI

אֶלְקוֹשׁ may be (1) a theophoric name = Ḳosh is God; and Ḳosh might then be the Edomite deity קוֹס whose name is spelt with a Shin on the Assyrian monuments (Baethgen, Beiträge z. Semit. Religionsgeschichte, p. 11; Schrader, K.A.T.², pp. 150, 613), and who is probably the same as the Arab deity Ḳais (Baethgen, id., p. 108); and this would suit a position in the south of Judah, in which region we find the majority of place-names compounded with אל. Or else (2) the א is prosthetic, as in the place-names אכזיב on the Phœnician coast, אכשׁף in Southern Canaan, אשדוד, etc. In this case we might find its equivalent in the form לְקוֹש (cf. כזיב אכזיב); but no such form is now extant or recorded at any previous period. The form Lâḳis would not suit. On Bir el Ḳûs see Robinson, B.R., III., p. 14, and Guérin, Judée, III., p. 341. Bir el Ḳûs means Well of the Bow, or, according to Guérin, of the Arch, from ruins that stand by it. The position, east of Beit-Jibrin, is unsuitable; for the early Christian texts quoted in the previous note fix it beyond, presumably south or south-west of Beit-Jibrin, and in the tribe of Simeon. The error “tribe of Simeon” does not matter, for the same fathers place Bethzecharias, the alleged birthplace of Habakkuk, there.