Etam ( ):

By: Emil G. Hirsch , M. Seligsohn

• 1. Village of the tribe of Simeon (I Chron. iv. 32), not found in the parallel list of localities in Joshua.
• 2. Place in Judah, near Bethlehem, fortified and garrisoned by Rehoboam (II Chron. xi. 6).
• 3. A rock, also in Judah, to which Samson retired after the slaughter of the Philistines (Judges xv. 8, 11), and near which place was the fountain En-hakkore. It is mentioned in the Talmud (Zeb. 54b) as "the fountain of Etam" ( ), the mostelevated place in Palestine. Josephus ("Ant." viii. 7, § 3) places this fountain sixty stadia south of Jerusalem, and mentions that the water was brought to that city by means of aqueducts, the remains of which were still visible in his time. A village called "Etam" occurs in the Mishnah (Yeb. xii. 7), and is, perhaps, identical in site with the fountain of that name (see Robinson, "Biblical Researches," i. 515, ii. 168).
• 4. In I Chron. iv. 3 "Etam" may be either a person or a place; if the latter, it must be identical with the Etam of Judah.