Lasha

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Genesis 10:19

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Genesis 10:19; the S.E. limit of Canaan = Callirhoe, famed for warm springs, E. of the Dead Sea. Lasha means "fissure," appropriate to the chasm Zerka Main, through which the Callirhoe waters find an outlet to the sea. E. Wilton (Imperial Dictionary) suggests that (See LAISH at the Jordan's sources is Lasha, for the Canaanites probably had no settlement E. of the Dead Sea. The N.W. bound (Sidon), the S.W. (Gaza), and the S.E. (Sodom) being given, we naturally expect the N.E., which Laish is (Genesis 10:19); the spies found the Canaanites dwelling "by the side of the Jordan" (Numbers 13:29), probably therefore at its sources at Laish. Laish moreover was connected with Canaanite Sidon, though far from it (Judges 18:7; Judges 18:28). The gorge of wady el Asal, descending from Mount Hermon over against Laish, between two high bulwarks, fulfills the requirements of the derivation. Asal also is the inversion of Lasha.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Genesis 10:19

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

LASHA ( Genesis 10:19 marked the S.E. boundary of the land of the Canaanites. Jerome identified it with the hot springs of Callirrhoë, in the Wâdy Zerqâ Ma‘în . Wellhausen would identify it with Laish, on the N. frontier. There is nothing to support this but the resemblance in the name. Against it is the order in which the names occur. It cannot now be identified.

W. Ewing.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Place which marked the limit of the country of the Canaanites. It was probably on the east of the Dead Sea. Genesis 10:19 .

Smith's Bible Dictionary

La'sha. (fissure). A place, noticed in Genesis 10:19, as marking the limit of the country of the Canaanites. It lay somewhere in the southeast of Palestine. Jerome and other writers identify it with Callirrhoe, a spot famous for hot springs, near the eastern shore of the Dead Sea.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

lā´sha ( לשׁץ , lāsha‛ ): A place named on the southern boundary of the Canaanites along with Gomorrah, Adnah and Zeboiim ( Genesis 10:19 ). Eusebius, Onomasticon identifies it with the hot springs at Callirrhoe in Wādy Zerḳā Ma‛ı̄n , on the East of the Dead Sea; in this agreeing with Targum Jerusalem. This position, however, seems too far to the North, and possibly the site should be sought on the West of the Arabah. The absence of the article (compare Joshua 15:2 ) prevents identification with the promontory el - Lisān , which runs into the sea from the eastern shore. Wellhausen ( Comp. des Hexateuch ., 15) thinks we should read לשׁם , lēsham , since the Hebrew letters, מ ( m ) and ע (‛ ), are like each other in their Palmyrene form. We should then have indicated the boundary from Gaza to the Dead Sea, and then from the Dead Sea to Leshem, i.e. Dan. This is very precarious. No identification is possible.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Le'sha, לֶשִׁע , fissure, in pause לָשִׁע; Sept. Λασά, Vulg. Lesa), a place mentioned last in defilling the border of the Canaanites (Genesis 10:19), and apparently situated east of the Dead Sea. According to Jerome (Quaest. in Gen.), Jonathan (where קלדהי is doubtless an erroneous transcription for קלרהי ), and the Jerus. Targum, it was the spot afterwards known as Callirrhoe, famous for its warm springs, just beyond Jordan (Josephus, Ant. 7:6, 5; War, 1:33, 5; compare Ptolemy, 5:16, 9), on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, where Machaerus lay (Pliny, 5:15). These springs were visited by Irby and Mangles (Travels, page 467 sq.); they lie north of the Arnon (Rosenmü ller, Alterth. II, 1:218). Schwarz says that ruins as well as the hot springs are still found at the mouth of wady Zurka (Palestine, page 228). Bochart (Geogr. Sacr. 4:37) less correctly identifies the name with the Arabic Lusa (Reland, Paltest. page 871). Lieut. Lynch visited the outlet of these springs through the wady Zurka, which he describes as a rapid stream twelve feet wide and tell inches deep, with a temperature of 94°, having a slight sulphurous taste. The bed is a chasm 122 feet wide, worn through perpendicular cliffs, and fringed with canes, tamarisks, and the castor-bean (Narrative of the U.S. Expedition to the Jordan, page 370). Irby and Mangles found several warm sulphur springs discharging themselves into the stream at various points, being, no doubt, those visited by Herod in his last sickness. (See Callirrhoe). The place is apparently also the ZARETH-SHAHAR (See Zareth-Shahar) (q.v.) of Joshua 13:19.