Akrabbim is a marker on a map and little more: an ascent, or climb, on the southern edge of the land. Numbers says Israel’s border would turn “from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim” and pass on to Zin, and Joshua traces the same line for the tribe of Judah. Judges mentions it once more, saying the coast of the Amorites ran “from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.” The verses say little about the place itself. They show how carefully the land was described, one named landmark after another, so that each tribe knew where its portion began and ended.
3 verses
And your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass on to Zin: and the going forth thereof shall be from the south to Kadeshbarnea, and shall go on to Hazaraddar, and pass on to Azmon:
And it went out to the south side to Maalehacrabbim, and passed along to Zin, and ascended up on the south side unto Kadeshbarnea, and passed along to Hezron, and went up to Adar, and fetched a compass to Karkaa:
And the coast of the Amorites was from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Scorpions, probably the general name given to the ridge containing the pass between the south of the Dead Sea and Zin, es-Sufah, by which there is an ascent to the level of the land of Palestine. Scorpions are said to abound in this whole district, and hence the name (Num. 34:4). It is called “Maaleh-acrabbim” in Josh. 15:3, and “the ascent of Akrabbim” in Num. 34:4.
William Smith, 1884
(the ascent of , or the going up to); also MAALEH-ACRABBIM (the scorpion pass), A pass between the south end of the Dead Sea and Zin, forming one of the landmarks on the south boundary at once of Judah, (Joshua 15:3) and of the Holy Land. (Numbers 34:4) Also the boundary of the Amorites. (Judges 1:36) As to the name, scorpions abound in the whole of this district.