Genesis 14:7 - Exposition

And they returned —from the oak of Paran, the southernmost point reached by the invaders— and came to En-mishpat —the Well of Judgment, regarded as a prolepsis by those who derive the name from the judgment pronounced on Moses and Aaron ( À Lapide); but more probably the ancient designation of the town, which was so styled because the townsmen and villagers settled their disputes at the well in its neighborhood (Kalisch)— which is Kadesh , of which ( Numbers 20:14 ) the exact site cannot now be ascertained, though the spring Ain Kades, on the heights of Jebel Hals ' , twelve miles east-south-east of Moyle, the halting-place of caravans (Rowland, Keil, Kalisch), and Petra (Josephus, Stanley), have been suggested as marking the locality. And smote all the country of the Amalekites. i.e. afterwards possessed by them, to the west of Edom. Amalek was a grandson of Esau ( vide Genesis 36:12 ). And also the Amorites. The mountaineers, as distinguished from the Canaanites or lowlanders (cf. Genesis 10:16 ). That dwelt in Huezon-tamar . "The pruning of the palm;" afterwards Engedi, "the fountain of the wild goat," situated midway up the western shore of the Dead Sea, and now called Ain-jidy (cf. Joshua 15:62 ; 1 Samuel 24:1 , 1 Samuel 24:2 ; 2 Chronicles 20:2 ; Ezekiel 47:10 ).