ENGADDI (Heb. ‘En gādhi’, “spring of the kid”).
- City of the desert of Pharan (Ios. 15:62), surrounded by steep cliffs (I Sam. 24:3), almost midway along the western shore of the Dead Sea. Its ancient name was Assonthamar (“palm cutting”): according to F.-M. Abel, this identification (II Par. 20:2) would be recent, at the expense of Thamar, south of the Dead Sea. Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Ind., 9, 1, 2; Bell. Ind., 4, 7, 2) places E. 300 stadia (more than 55 km) from Jerusalem, as a village from which opobalsamum comes. The name survives today in the spring of ‘Ajn Gidi, near which are found the remains of a small city that was once a toparchy of Judea (Bell. Ind., 3, 5).
At first it was in the possession of the Amorites, who were defeated by Elam and his allies (Gen. 14:7). After the conquest of Palestine, it was assigned to Judah (Ios. 15:62).
David, during Saul’s persecution, took refuge there, taking advantage of the inaccessibility of the cliffs, “passable only to wild goats” (Vulgate in I Sam. 24:1–3). There the Ammonites, Maabites, and Edomites assembled against Iosaphat, king of Judah (II Par. 20:2).
‘Ajn Gidi is today an oasis on a kind of terrace suspended more than 120 m above the level of the Dead Sea, surrounded to the west and north by an immense circle of chalk cliffs, arranged in various strata. The spring has clear water, at a high temperature (27°), rich in calcium carbonate. In ancient times the oasis, watered by the spring, was cultivated with vineyards and palms (Cant. 1:14); the ancient name and Flavius Josephus speak of palm groves; today the abundant spring feeds a small wood of tamarisks and acacias, together with a few shrubs of the apple of Sodom (sulotropis aceris), and irrigates the Bedouins’ crops. Near E., the Essenes practiced their ascetic life.
Vincenzo M. Iacono