Balah

Balah was a city in the southern territory of the tribe of Simeon, listed in Joshua 19:3 among the towns of Simeon's inheritance within Judah's allotment. It is also called Bilhah in 1 Chronicles 4:29, reflecting variant transmission of the name in the Hebrew text, and is possibly the same as Baalah in Joshua 15:29. The Simeonite towns in this region lay in the arid Negev south of Beer-sheba, a zone susceptible to the encroachment of desert peoples and subject to periodic resettlement.

Balah receives no further narrative treatment in Scripture and is known only from its listing in the tribal boundary and city records of Joshua and Chronicles. Like many Simeonite settlements, it likely became absorbed into the territory of Judah as that tribe's dominance in the south grew and Simeon's distinct identity diminished.