Joshua 15:10

10. Compassed That is, encompassed; described a curve. Mount Seir must not be confounded with that of Idumea. It is a range running southwest from Kirjath-jearim, between the Wady Aly and the Wady Ghurab. The name still continues in the place called Sairah. Chesalon is the modern Kesla, seen by Dr. Robinson on a high point of the lofty ridge south of the Wady Ghurab. [He also recognized Beth-shemesh in the modern Ain-shems, just south of the great Wady Surar. The ruins, which consist of many foundations and remains of ancient walls of hewn stone, are “upon and around the plateau of a low swell or mound between the Surar on the north and a smaller wady on the south.” To this place the Ark was brought after its capture by the Philistines. 1 Samuel 6:9.] Timnah, from which Samson fetched his wife, is the modern Tibneh, about two miles west of Beth-shemesh. This Timnah must be distinguished from another place of the same name on the mountains, mentioned at Joshua 15:57.

11. Unto the side of Ekron northward That is, on the north side of Ekron. This was the most northerly of the five great Philistine cities. Compare Joshua 13:3. It was the last place to which the captured Ark was taken, (1 Samuel 5:10,) and thence it was transported on the new cart to Beth-shemesh. Its site is found in the modern Akir, in a northwesterly direction from Beth-shemesh, and about half way between the latter city and the sea. The site of Shicron is unknown. Mount Baalah is also uncertain, but probably was the name of a range of hills seen from Ekron on the east of Wady Rubin. Jabneel is doubtless the same as Jabneh, which Uzziah took from the Philistines. 2 Chronicles 26:6. The name and site are still found in Yebna, a village situated on an eminence in the midst of a rich plain, two miles from the sea and three from Ekron.

The goings out… at the sea That is, the northern boundary terminated at the Mediterranean Sea.