Jeshimon

Jeshimon (meaning solitude or desolation) refers to the barren waste or desert wilderness — possibly a common noun used as a proper name for particularly desolate regions. The word appears in Numbers 21:20 and 23:28 for the desert overlooked from the peak of Pisgah near the Dead Sea, and in 1 Samuel 23:19, 24 for the wilderness of Judah where David hid during his flight from Saul.

In the 1 Samuel passages, the Ziphites twice informed Saul that David was hiding "in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon" — the bleak Judean wilderness near the Dead Sea. The desolate character of the region made it both a refuge and a hardship for fugitives: difficult terrain to search, but harsh terrain to survive in. The Jeshimon thus functions in David's narrative as the wilderness experience of the king in exile, prefiguring his eventual return to power.