Ezem

Ezem was one of the seventeen Simeonite towns of the Negev allotted at the conquest, listed in the city catalogues of Joshua 15:29 and 19:3, and again in 1 Chronicles 4:29. Like all of Simeon's territory, it was an enclave within Judah's larger southern allotment: "The inheritance of the people of Simeon formed part of the territory of the people of Judah" (Joshua 19:9). The town disappears from later biblical history, having presumably been absorbed by Judah as Simeon as a distinct tribal identity faded. Exact location is uncertain — possibly Umm el-Azam in the eastern Negev, though identification is not secure.