I have 8 hours of footage from Israel, and from time to time I will throw these unedited clips up.
In the Second Book of Chronicles[1] it is identified with Asasonthamar (Cutting of the Pain), the city of the Amorrhean, smitten by Chedorlaomer[2] in his war against the cities of the plain. The Book of Joshua[3] enumerates Ein Gedi among the cities of the Tribe of Judah in the desert Betharaba, but the Book of Ezekiel[4] shows that it was also a fisherman's town. Later on, King David hides in the desert of Engaddi[5] and King Saul seeks him "even upon the most craggy rocks, which are accessible only to wild goats".[6] Again, it is in Ein Gedi that the Moabites and Ammonites gather in order to fight against Josaphat[7] and to advance against Jerusalem "by the ascent named Sis".[8] Finally, the Song of Solomon[9] speaks of the "vineyards of Engaddi"; the words, "I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades" ('en aígialoîs), which occur in Ecclesiasticus 24:18, may perhaps be understood of the palm trees of Ein Gedi.
The indigenous Jewish town of Ein Gedi was an important source of balsam for the Greco-Roman world until its destruction by Byzantine emperor Justinian as part of his persecution of the Jews in his realm. A synagogue mosaic remains from Ein Gedi's heyday, including a Judeo-Aramaic inscription warning inhabitants against "revealing the town's secret" -- possibly the methods for extraction and preparation of the much-prized balsam resin, though not stated outright in the inscription -- to the outside world.
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