Joshua 16:1-4. The Lot of the Children of Joseph 1. _the lot of the children of Joseph_ Having described the inheritance of the royal tribe of Judah, the Author proceeds to relate the distribution of the descendants of the great house of Joseph. _fell_ Heb. _went forth_, i.e. "came out of the urn... [ Continue Reading ]
_and goeth out_ Thence it passed on to Luz. It seems impossible to determine exactly whether Bethel and Luz were the same town, _Luz_being the Canaanite and _Bethel_the Hebrew name, or whether they were distinct places close to one another. (_a_) This verse, Joshua 18:13, and Genesis 28:19, seem to... [ Continue Reading ]
_and goeth down westward_ Hence the boundary passed unto the "coast" of Beth-horon the nether, i.e. the "Lower Beth-horon," and Gezer, to the Mediterranean Sea at Jaffa. _Japhleti_ is unknown. _Beth-horon_ See above, ch. Joshua 10:10-11. _Gezer_ See above ch. Joshua 10:33. It probably lay between... [ Continue Reading ]
The Inheritance of the Tribe of Ephraim 5. _And the border_ The border given is not traced out with the same completeness as that given above of the tribe of Judah. No mention, it will be observed, is made of the northern boundary line of the tribes descended from Joseph, although the eastern and w... [ Continue Reading ]
_and the border went out_ The line appears to run north towards the Beth-horons, where it meets the southern boundary common to both tribes. Then it went north-westward (or toward the sea) to Michmethah, which lay "facing Shechem" (Joshua 17:7), but which has not been discovered by any travellers.... [ Continue Reading ]
_went down_ The border "_went down_" because it descended along the slopes in the direction of the Jordan valley. _to Ataroth_ which place, it is thought, is to be sought somewhere in this valley, "at the point where the border makes an angle in turning southward." _and to Naarath_ Eusebius and Je... [ Continue Reading ]
_The border_ In this verse the western half of the northern border is described. _from Tappuah_ It ran from Tappuah, which has not yet been met with at all in the central district of Palestine, south of Shechem, "westward unto the river Kanah," or rather "the brook of reeds." This is probably the m... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the separate cities_ Or, the _places which were portioned off_. _were_ This verb, introduced into our Version, should be omitted, and the full stop at the end of Joshua 16:8 should be replaced by a colon. The author intended us to add to "the inheritance of the children of Ephraim" the "separa... [ Continue Reading ]
_that dwelt in Gezer_ Comp. above, Joshua 10:33 and Joshua 12:12.... [ Continue Reading ]