Joshua 16:1

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 or chest." See above, ch. Joshua 7:16, and Joshua 14:2.

from Jordan by Jericho We have first the southern boundary, which coincided for part of its length with the northern boundary of Benjamin. It began at the Jordan, at the port, or reach, exactly opposite to Jericho. Compare for the expression, above ch. Joshua 13:32, and below Joshua 20:8.

unto the water of Jericho From this point it ran to "the water of Jericho," i.e. to the one brook, which is found in the neighbourhood of Jericho. It rises at the fountain Ain es Sultân, the waters of which were healed by Elisha (2 Kings 2:19), and flows into the Jordan.

to the wilderness that goeth up i.e. by one of the ravines, the Wâdy Harithor Wâdy Suweinît, to the wilderness or uncultivated waste hills (Midbah), to the mountains in the vicinity of Bethel.