ZIN (
):
Frontier post of Judah on the south, mentioned in the description (Num. xxxiv. 4; Josh. xv. 3) of the frontier between the "ascent of Akrabbim" and Kadesh-barnea. The desert of Zin derived its name from this place. Kadesh-barnea was situated in this desert (Num. xiii. 2, xxxiii. 36; Deut. xxxii. 51; Josh. xv. 1, 3; comp. Num. xx. 1, xxvii. 14; Deut. xxxii. 51); and one passage (Num. xxxiii. 36) reads, "the wilderness of Zin which is Kadesh." The phrase "the wilderness of Kadesh," which occurs only once (Ps. xxix. 8), refers possibly not to any definite geographical locality, but to the region around Kadesh. The statement found in Num. xiii. 26, that Kadesh is situated in the wilderness of Paran, is due to the fact that, of the two sources combined in that chapter, one (P) says that the spies started from the wilderness of Paran, and the other (JE) that they set out from Paran. The wilderness of Zin adjoined the wilderness of Paran on the north; hence it must be assigned to a locality immediately south of the southern part of Judah, on the plateau or on the mountain region (Josephus mentions the "mountains of Sin") in which the 'Azazime Bedouins now pitch their tents.
