ACHZIB (called also Chezib, Chozeba):

1. A town of Judah, in the southern Shephelah or lowland (Josh. xv. 44), coupled with Mareshah in Micah, i. 14, where it appears as paronomastic with deceit. In Gen. xxxviii. 5, it reads Chezib, and in I Chron. iv. 22, it appears as Chozeba, and is there connected with the Judean clan of Shelah. Comparisons with the names of modern places, such as 'Ain Kus(s)abe (Robinson, "Socin-Bädeker"), six miles southeast of Tell el-Hesy, or a doubtful 'Ain el-Kezbeh near Bet Nettif (G. A. Smith), have little probability.

2. Phenician city, claimed by the Asherites (Josh. xix. 29), but not conquered (Judges, i. 31). The Greeks called it Ecdippon (compare Josephus, "B. J." i. 13, § 4; idem, "Ant." v. 1, § 22, where the form Arce occurs). Akzibi is mentioned in a cuneiform inscription of Sennacherib. It is the small village, now Ez-Zib, nine miles north of Acre (Acco), on the seashore. On the importance of this place in the Talmud, as determining the southern limits of Palestine for certain ritual purposes, see Neubauer, "La Géographie du Talmud," under "Kezib," p. 233.

W. M. M.
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