Joshua 19:47

_AND THE COAST OF THE CHILDREN OF DAN WENT OUT TOO LITTLE FOR THEM: THEREFORE THE CHILDREN OF DAN WENT UP TO FIGHT AGAINST LESHEM, AND TOOK IT, AND SMOTE IT WITH THE EDGE OF THE SWORD, AND POSSESSED IT, AND DWELT THEREIN, AND CALLED LESHEM, DAN, AFTER THE NAME OF DAN THEIR FATHER._ The coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them. The only patch of the land that remained unappropriated was the central but narrow and mountainous region which projected on the western side of Judah into the territory of the Philistines, and it was assigned to the Danites. Besides the natural smallness of the extent, it was liable to be diminished by the frequent and predatory incursions of the Amorites (Judges 1:34), so that it proved entirely inadequate to the requirements of the tribe; and their leaders were compelled to look out for some additional territory, which was at length a

17-51 Joshua waited till all the tribes were settled, before he asked any provision for himself. He was content to be unfixed, till he saw them all placed, and herein is an example to all in public places, to prefer the common welfare before private advantage. Those who labour most to do good to others, seek an inheritance in the Canaan above: but it will be soon enough to enter thereon, when they have done all the service to their brethren of which they are capable. Nor can any thing more effectually assure them of their title to it, than endeavouring to bring others to desire, to seek, and to obtain it. Our Lord Jesus came and dwelt on earth, not in pomp but poverty, providing rest for man, yet himself not having where to lay his head; for Christ pleased not himself. Nor would he enter upon his inheritance, till by his obedience to death he secured the eternal inheritance for all his...

Verse Joshua 19:47. _WENT OUT TOO LITTLE FOR THEM_] This is certainly the meaning of the passage; but our translators have been obliged to add the words _too little_ to make this sense apparent. Houbigant contends that an ancient copyist, meeting frequently with the words ויצאהגבול _vaiyetse haggebul_, in the preceding history, became so familiarized to them that he wrote them here instead of ויאץ הגבול _vaiyaats haggebul, and the border of the children of_ _Dan was STRAIT for them_. It was on this account that they were obliged to go and fight against Leshem, and take and possess it, their former inheritance being too strait for their increasing population. _AND CALLED LESHEM, DAN_] This city was situated near the origin of Jordan, at the utmost northern extremity of the promised land, as _Beer-sheba_ was at that of the south; and a

The words “too little” are an insertion of the King James Version Render rather, “the border of the children of Dan was extended.” The Hebrew appears to mean “the children of Dan enlarged their border because they had not room enough.” The reason of this was that the Danites, a numerous tribe (Numbers 26:5 note), found themselves Judges 1:34 cooped up among the hills by the powerful and warlike Amorites. Hence, the Danite expedition (see the marginal reference), which surprised the Sidonion inhabitants of Leshem, an unwarlike and peaceable race, exterminated them, and annexed their city and territory to the portion of Dan....

EXPOSITION THE LOT OF THE REMAINING TRIBES. JOSHUA 19:1 AND THEIR INHERITANCE WAS WITHIN THE INHERITANCE OF THE CHILDREN OF JUDAH. Literally, _in the midst of. _ἀνὰ μέσον_, _LXX.; _in medio, _Vulgate (cf. Joshua 19:9). Simeon, at the last census (Numbers 26:14), was the smallest of the tribes of Israel, a fulfilment of the prophecy of Jacob, and possibly the result of the command given in Numbers 25:5, since the Simeonites were the chief offender

AND THE COAST OF THE CHILDREN OF DAN WENT OUT [TOO LITTLE] FOR THEM,.... Being a very numerous tribe, the cities allotted them were not sufficient for them; or rather, leaving out the supplement "too little", the words will run, it "went out from them"; they lost part of it, being driven out of the valley into the mountain by the Amorites, Judges 1:34; which obliged them to seek out elsewhere for habitations: THEREFORE THE CHILDREN OF DAN WENT OUT TO FIGHT AGAINST LESHEM; called Laish, Judges 18:1, where the whole story is related of their lighting against this place and taking it; which, though some time after the death of Joshua, is here recorded to give at once an account of the inheritance of Dan; and which is no argument against Joshua's being the writer of this book, as is urged; since it

CHAPTER 19 _ 1. The inheritance of Simeon (Joshua 19:1)_ 2. The inheritance of Zebulun (Joshua 19:10) 3. The inheritance of Issachar (Joshua 19:17) 4. The inheritance of Asher (Joshua 19:24) 5. The inheritance of Naphtali (Joshua 19:32) 6. The inheritance of Dan (Joshua 19:40) 7. The inheritance of Joshua (Joshua 19:49)...

JOSHUA 19:6. Sharuhen is interesting as the city to which the Hyksos (pp. 52, 54) or Semitic Shepherd Kings fled when they were driven out of Egypt, and where they are said to have been besieged for six years (Driver, _Exodus_, p. xliii)....

The Inheritance of the Tribe of Dan 40. _the seventh lot_ came out to the smallest of all the tribes, that of Dan, descended from the fifth son of Jacob. The position of the tribe during the march through the wilderness had been on the north side of the Tabernacle, the hindmost of the long procession between Naphtali and Asher. At the census in the desert it was the most numerous of all the tribes with the exception of Judah, containing 62,700 men able to bear arms....

_VER._ 47. _AND THE COAST OF THE CHILDREN OF DAN WENT OUT TOO LITTLE FOR THEM: THEREFORE,_ &C.— The words _too little,_ are neither in the Hebrew, the LXX, nor the Vulgate. The text literally is, _And the country of the children of Dan went cut from them._ Now the phrase, _went out from them,_ is naturally explained here by the manner in which it is used, Leviticus 25:28.; where, speaking of the year of jubilee, Moses says, that the estates _went out_ from those who had acquired them, because they then passed into other hands; namely, of the proprietors who had alienated them to that period. In this place, therefore, in like manner, to say that the coast of the Danites _went out_ from them, is saying that it passed partly into other hands than their own, or, in a word, _was taken from them._ In fact, their formidable neighbours, the Amor