Thesaurus

The southernmost of the three traditional divisions of ancient Palestine; the name is also used to describe approximately the same area in modern Israel. It is bounded to the north by Samaria and Joppa, to the east by the Jordan River and the Red Sea, to the south by Sinai and Egypt, and to the west by the Mediterranean. It was a division of Palestine under Persian, Greek, and Roman rule, succeeding the kingdom of Judah; in late Roman times it included Idumaea.