Hazezon-Tamar

Hazezon-tamar — spelled Hazazon-tamar in the UPDV — is the ancient name of En-gedi, attested at two widely separated points in Israel's history. It first appears as Amorite territory struck by the eastern coalition in Abram's day, and it reappears centuries later as the staging ground for the Moabite-Ammonite-Edomite invasion of Judah under Jehoshaphat.

Amorite territory in the days of Abram

The eastern kings sweep down the Transjordan, then turn west and reach the place: "And they returned, and came to En-mishpat (the same is Kadesh), and struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, who dwelt in Hazazon-tamar." (Ge 14:7). The Amorites who live there are the last named target before the campaign turns north against Sodom and Gomorrah.

En-gedi, the staging ground against Jehoshaphat

The Chronicler returns to the same site to set the scene of Jehoshaphat's crisis, and pauses to identify it for the reader: "Then there came some who told Jehoshaphat, saying, There comes a great multitude against you from beyond the sea from Edom; and, look, they are in Hazazon-tamar (the same is En-gedi)." (2Ch 20:2). The parenthetical "(the same is En-gedi)" makes explicit what the older name had become — the oasis on the western shore of the Salt Sea, far enough inland to threaten Judah's heartland and close enough to its cliffs to allow the invading coalition to muster before being routed.