Hazar-shual

Hazar-shual ("court of the fox" or "village of the jackal") was a town in the Negev allotted to Simeon as an enclave within Judah's territory (Joshua 15:28, 19:3, 1 Chronicles 4:28). The name reflects the wild jackals that haunted the desert frontier. Like most Negev outposts, it survived as a small frontier settlement. After the Babylonian exile, Nehemiah's census lists Hazar-shual as one of the southernmost re-occupied villages of restored Judah: "Some of the people of Judah lived in Kiriath-arba and its villages, and in Dibon and its villages, and in Jekabzeel and its villages, in Jeshua, in Moladah, Beth-pelet, Hazar-shual, in Beersheba and its villages, in Ziklag, in Meconah and its villages" (Nehemiah 11:27).