Judges 3:3

This verse should be compared with Joshua 13:2-6 D. The nations here are those occupying particular districts in W. Palestine; contrast Judges 3:5, and the races mentioned in ch. 1.

the five lords of the Philistines Probably one for each of the five cities named in 1 Samuel 6:17, cf. Joshua 13:3. The word for -lords" (seren, sing.) is only found in this connexion, cf. ch. 16; it is evidently a native title.

and all the Canaanites Hardly the entire population of W. Palestine, as in J (see Judges 1:34 n.), but -Canaanites" in the restricted sense found in E and D, viz. the inhabitants of the sea coast and Jordan valley, cf. Numbers 13:29 E; Deuteronomy 1:7; Deuteronomy 11:30; Joshua 5:1; Joshua 13:3 f. D; Zephaniah 2:5. Similarly in the Amarna tablets Kinaḥḥi(Canaan), and in some Egypt. inscr. Ka-n-"-naas a geographical term, appears to be limited to the northern -lowland -or sea coast (Ency. Bibl.art. Canaan).

the Zidonians is a general term for the Phoenicians, used in the O.T. (Deuteronomy 3:9; Joshua 13:4; Joshua 13:6; Judges 10:12; Judges 18:7 etc.), by the Assyrians, and the Greeks, and the Phoenicians themselves 1 [25]

[25] See NSI., pp. 54, 352.

the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon Elsewhere the Hivites inhabit the centre of Canaan, Genesis 34:2; Joshua 9:7 etc.; the Lebanon district belonged to the kingdom of the Hittites (Judges 1:26 n.), which extended from the far N.W. till it touched Canaan at this point. Hence for Hivitesread Hittites, cf. Joshua 11:3 LXX

mount Baal-hermon i.e. the mountain to which the town of Baal-hermon (1 Chronicles 5:23) gave its name. But such a designation is contrary to usage; Joshua 13:5 D, in a passage closely resembling this, has -Baal-gad under Mt Hermon," which may be the correct reading here (Budde, Nowack); or we may simply follow LXX. cod. B -mount H."

the entering in of Hamath frequently marks the N. boundary of Canaan or of Israel, Numbers 13:21; Numbers 34:8; Joshua 13:5; 1 Kings 8:65; 2 Kings 14:25 etc. The -Entrance of H." is the great valley between Lebanon and Hermon-Antilibanus, called Coele-Syria in classical times, and now -The Valley" (El-Biḳa-, cf. Joshua 11:17); Moore, however, considers it to have been the plain of Ḥömṣ, 30 m. S. of Hamaṭh. The city itself (now Ḥamâ) lay on the Orontes, about 150 m. N. of Dan, but its territory stretched 50 m. to the S., as far as Riblah (2 Kings 23:33). Hamath is mentioned in Egyptian monuments and the Amarna letters before the Israelite invasion, and in the inscrr. of the Assyrian kings (Schrader COT. 323).