Bible Dictionary · S
Spring
(Heb. ‘ain, “the bright open source, the eye of the landscape”). To be carefully distinguished from “well” (q.v.). “Springs” mentioned in Josh 10:40 (Heb. ‘ashdoth) should rather be “declivities” or “slopes” (R.V.), i.e., the undulating ground lying between the lowlands (the shephelah) and the central range of hills.
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.