lasha Summary and Overview

fissure, a place apparently east of the Dead Sea (Gen. 10:19). It was afterwards known as Callirhoe, a place famous for its hot springs.

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

LA'SHA (fissure), a place on the south-eastern boundary of Canaan, Gen 10:19; identified by earlier Christian writers as Callirhoe, situated near the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, and famous for its hot springs.

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 frontLAISH 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.