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Zin
ZIN (zĭn, Heb. tsin). A wilderness the Israelites traversed on their way to Canaan. It was close to the borders of Canaan (
Zin’s location, however, has been disputed. Though virtually all concede its distinction from the Wilderness of Sin, the crucial identification of Kadesh-barnea has been debated. Some favored Petra, some ’Ain el-Weibeh in the Arabah, and others ’Ain Qedeis (Kadesh) on the Egyp. side of the Sinai border—or perhaps both the Arabah and Sinai sites since two Kadeshes seemed possible. However, an informed consensus now decisively favors ’Ain Qedeis or rather its general vicinity, since (name apart) there is nothing to suggest this particular spring as more significant than ’Ain Qoseimeh or ’Ain el-Qudeirât with its abundant flow. But, localized or generalized, this identification of Kadesh-barnea, along with the description of Judah’s boundaries as extending “to the wilderness of Zin at the farthest south” (
However defined, Zin was included in the “great and terrible wilderness” (
Bibliography
C. L. Woolley and T. E. Lawrence, The Wilderness of Zin (1936); D. Baly, Geography of the Bible (1957); N. Glueck, Rivers in the Desert (1960); B. Rothenberg, God’s Wilderness (1962); E. Orni and E. Efrat, Geography of Israel (1966).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
(1) A town in the extreme South of Judah, on the line separating that province from Edom, named between the ascent of Akrabbim and Kadesh-barnea (