This town is not certainly identified. It is grouped with the towns of Aijalon and Ekron at the edge of the maritime plain, in the territory originally assigned to Dan (Joshua 19:42-44). Josephus places it near Gezer (Antiquities viii. 6. 1).

 Heb. Tamor, but in a parallel passage, Tadmor (2 Chron. 8:4). There is considerable uncertainty as to which city is meant. Some have identified it with Tamar, a city mentioned by Ezekiel as at the southern border of the new land of Israel (Eze. 47:19; 48:28). The exact location of this city is not known, but it is thought to have been to the south of the Dead Sea. On the other hand, there is another city by the name of Tadmor about 131.7 mi. (210.7 km.) northeast of Damascus and about 112 mi. (179.2 km.) west of the Euphrates in an oasis in the Syrian Desert. This city is mentioned a number of times in the inscriptions of Tinglath-pileser I as in the land of Amurru (Syria). Many years later Tadmor came under the control of the Romans, who called it by its Greek name, Palmyra, and it is this city that Josephus regards as the “Tadmor in the wilderness,” which Solomon built (Antiquities viii. 6. 11). The Hebrew word tamar means “palm tree,” a meaning preserved in the later name of Palmyra.

 Scholars on the whole do not think it possible for the kingdom of Solomon to have had such extensive frontiers. But in connection with the building of “Tadmor in the wilderness,” Chronicles reports that Solomon went against “Hamath-zobah, and prevailed against it” (2 Chron. 8:3, 4). This place has been thought to be an area about 60 mi. north of Damascus and 100 mi. west of Tadmor-Palmyra, and its mention would indicate a campaign in which this entire northern area was brought under Israelite control. In 1 Kings 4:24 the northern limit of Solomon’s kingdom is given as Tiphsah, a city believed to be on the Euphrates, about 100 mi. north of Tadmor. All this seems to indicate that the kingdom of Solomon was much larger than has usually been admitted, and that the “Tadmor in the wilderness” (1 Kings 9:18) may well have been the famous Tadmor-Palmyra in the Syrian Desert.

A phrase is probably added to indicate with pride that this frontier city was within the limits of Solomon’s extensive domain.