AIN ān (עָ֑יִן, spring). 1. A town in the NE corner of Canaan named, no doubt, for the presence of a spring there. Numbers 34:11 places Ain near Riblah (not to be confused with Riblah on the Orontes). Both the Vul. and rabbinical texts replace Ain in this text with “Daphne” which is near Lake Huleh. This latter region was known to Josephus (War IV. 3).

2. A Levitical city in the Negeb appearing in Joshua 21:16 while 1 Chronicles 6:59 essentially parallels the same list of Levitical cities and reads “Ashan” in place of Ain. Ashan seems the preferred reading (cf. Josh 15:42; 19:7) since the LXX B (21:16) reads Ashan. (See Ayin.)

Bibliography J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical texts of the OT (1959) 102, 103, 204.