Joshua15chapter 15

Joshua 15:13-15

Caleb receives Hebron by the LORD's command rather than by lot, discharging the promise of Numbers 14:24 that he claimed at Joshua 14:12. The three he drives out, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, are the same three the spies saw at Hebron in Numbers 13:22, when the report said the land "devours its inhabitants". The man who said the report was wrong takes the very city that produced it, at eighty-five.

three sons of Anak: Joshua 11:21 has already said that Joshua cut the Anakim off from Hebron, and Judges 1:10 credits the defeat of the same three names to Judah. Wesley reconciles the accounts by supposing the giants had recovered their towns or held out in the mountains. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read them as Anakim chiefs.

Kiriath-sepher means city of the book, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown suggest that public records were kept there. Wesley reads the older name as added to set this Debir apart from the one Joshua took at 10:38, and Barnes names two more towns called Debir at 15:7 and 13:26. It later passed to the Levites at 21:15.

Joshua 15:16-19

Judges 1:12-15 tells this story again almost word for word, and the man who takes the town is Othniel, the first judge of Israel at Judges 3:9. Acsah is the only person in the chapter's sixty-three verses who asks for anything, and she asks for water, since land in the Negev without springs cannot be worked. Her father gives her "both the upper and lower springs".

The Berean reads Kenaz as Caleb's brother, which makes Othniel his nephew, and Judges 1:13 calls Kenaz the younger brother. Barnes and Gill take Othniel himself as the younger brother, and Gill admits that the relation raises an objection to the marriage. Othniel reappears as Israel's deliverer at Judges 3:9.

Judges 1:14 repeats the scene in the same words. Barnes reads her getting down from the donkey as a sign of respect, and Clarke takes the Hebrew verb to mean she alighted suddenly, as though she had something to ask. She urged Othniel to make the request, yet in verse 19 she makes it herself.

Give me a blessing: Wesley reads blessing here as a gift, the sense it has at Genesis 33:11, where Jacob presses his present on Esau. The Negev was dry country, and Clarke takes the upper and lower springs as one district in the hills and another in the plain. Caleb gives more than was named.

Joshua 15:20-32

The cities are grouped by region rather than listed at random, and this run covers the dry south toward Edom. A list like this is a legal record of title, which is why later books can argue from it, and why a town's tribe can be settled by looking it up. Beersheba stands in the middle of it at verse 28, already old by Genesis 21:31.

Barnes divides the list into four districts by the lie of the land: the Negev in verses 21 to 32, the lowland in 33 to 47, the hills in 48 to 60, and the wilderness in 61 and 62. The Negev, he says, was rocky and dry and never thickly settled. Edom lies beyond it.

The first run of names lies along the Edomite frontier named in verse 21. Gill takes Dimonah to be the Dibon where men of Judah lived after the exile, at Nehemiah 11:25, and finds Kinah and Adadah nowhere else. Many names in this district occur only here.

Gill identifies this Kedesh with Kadesh-barnea on the southern edge, and he separates this Hazor from Jabin's city in the north at 11:1. The name Hazor comes back twice more in verse 25. The Greek version, Gill adds, joins Hazor and Ithnan into one name.

Gill reads Telem as the Telaim where Saul numbered his troops at 1 Samuel 15:4. Clarke notes two towns named Ziph in Judah, this one and the Ziph of verse 55, and one of them gave its name to the wilderness where David hid from Saul at 1 Samuel 23:14. Bealoth appears nowhere else.

Gill's text reads four towns here, Hazor, Hadattah, Kerioth and Hezron, where the Berean joins them into two. Clarke warns at verse 32 that translators often separate compound names that belong together, and join names that should stand apart. That affects every count in the chapter.

Moladah passes to Simeon at 19:2, one of the towns Judah gave up when its share proved too large for it, as 19:9 explains. It was still inhabited after the exile, since Nehemiah 11:26 names it among the towns where Judah lived. Gill finds Amam nowhere else.

Gill follows Jerome in placing Hazar-gaddah on the far eastern edge of the southern district, above the Salt Sea. Beth-pelet returns at Nehemiah 11:26 as a place resettled by Judah after the exile. Heshmon is known only from this verse.

Beersheba and Hazar-shual both pass to Simeon at 19:2 and 19:3, so the southern end of Judah's list is shared ground. Clarke places Beersheba on the road between Canaan and Egypt. Judges 20:1 uses the phrase from Dan to Beersheba for the length of the whole land.

Gill matches this Baalah with the Balah of 19:3 and the Bilhah of 1 Chronicles 4:29, so Simeon holds it too. It is a different town from the Baalah of verse 9, which is Kiriath-jearim. Ezem also passes to Simeon.

Hormah is the place to which Israel was routed in the wilderness at Numbers 14:45, and Judges 1:17 tells how Zephath was destroyed and called Hormah. Gill notes that all three towns of this verse pass to Simeon at 19:4. He takes Chesil to be the Bethul of that verse.

Ziklag is listed for Judah here and for Simeon at 19:5, yet Clarke says the Philistines held it until Achish gave it to David at 1 Samuel 27:6. From that day, 27:6 adds, it belonged to the kings of Judah. The Amalekites burned it at 1 Samuel 30:1.

Clarke counts thirty-eight names in verses 21 to 32 against a total of twenty-nine, and he and Matthew Henry explain the gap by the towns later handed to Simeon, which the total leaves out. Clarke offers a second answer, that compound names have been split or joined wrongly in translation. Gill joins Ain and Rimmon as the En-rimmon of Nehemiah 11:29.

Joshua 15:33-47

The foothills come first, then the coast, where the difficulty sits. Ekron, Ashdod and Gaza are written into Judah's inheritance at verses 45 to 47, though Joshua 11:22 had just said that Anakim survived in Gaza and Ashdod. Zorah and Eshtaol open the list, where Samson is born and buried at Judges 13:2 and 16:31, and from here the border on paper and the ground held differ.

The lowland list opens with a group of towns closed by the count of fourteen at verse 36. Eshtaol and Zorah pass to Dan at 19:41, as Clarke notes. The residents of a Zanoah, this one or the hill town of verse 56, rebuilt the Valley Gate of Jerusalem at Nehemiah 3:13.

Jarmuth's king joined the league of five at 10:3. Clarke places David's fight with Goliath near Socoh, since the Philistines camped between Socoh and Azekah at 1 Samuel 17:1, and David later hid in the cave of Adullam at 1 Samuel 22:1.

The King James text names fifteen towns before the total of fourteen, and Matthew Henry and Clarke both take Gederah and Gederothaim as one place, which is how the Berean prints them. Shaaraim gives its name to the road where the Philistine dead lay after Goliath fell, at 1 Samuel 17:52. The count then agrees.

Gill marks this verse as the start of a second lowland group, closed by the count of sixteen at verse 41. The group holds Lachish, Eglon and Makkedah, three places of the southern campaign in chapter 10. The ground of that campaign becomes Judah's lowland.

Mizpeh names towns in several tribes, and Gill follows Jerome in placing this one south of Eleutheropolis on the way to Jerusalem. A different Joktheel appears at 2 Kings 14:7, where Amaziah gives that name to Sela in Edom. Gill finds nothing more on Dilan.

Lachish and Eglon were royal cities taken at 10:32 and 10:35, and Lachish stands again at 2 Kings 18:14 as the place where Hezekiah sent his submission to the king of Assyria. Bozkath was the home of Josiah's mother at 2 Kings 22:1.

Gill can give no account of these three towns, which are mentioned nowhere else. Clarke explains such gaps at the head of the chapter, where he says many ancient places have changed their names, lie buried under ruins, or have vanished. The list keeps the record of lost places.

Makkedah is the cave where the five kings hid at 10:16, and the list now counts it as a town of Judah. Clarke reads Beth-dagon as house of Dagon, the Philistine god of Judges 16:23 and 1 Samuel 5:2. Verses 37 to 41 name sixteen towns, matching the total.

A third lowland group begins here and closes with nine towns at verse 44. Libnah was taken at 10:29 and rebelled against Judah at 2 Kings 8:22, while Ether and Ashan pass to Simeon at 19:7, as Clarke notes of Ether. Simeon's share keeps drawing on this list.

This is the second Ashnah of the lowland, since verse 34 already named one, and Gill treats them as two towns. He follows Jerome in placing Nezib seven miles from Eleutheropolis on the road to Hebron. Gill finds Iphtah nowhere else.

David saved Keilah from the Philistines at 1 Samuel 23:1 and left when its people were ready to hand him to Saul, as Clarke recounts. Mareshah is where Asa met Zerah the Cushite at 2 Chronicles 14:9 and 14:10. The count of nine agrees with the names.

Here the lowland list stops counting and names the Philistine cities with their dependent towns. Gill notes that Ekron was one of the five Philistine lordships and says Judah never held it, while Judges 1:18 says Judah captured it with Gaza and Ashkelon. The ark was later sent to Ekron at 1 Samuel 5:10.

The line runs from Ekron west to the sea and takes in every town near Ashdod. Ashdod is the city where the captured ark was set beside Dagon at 1 Samuel 5:1 and 5:2, and Gill and Clarke identify it with the Azotus of Acts 8:40. Philip preached there.

Verse 47 carries the list to the Brook of Egypt and the Great Sea, the same corner where the southern border ended in verse 4. Gaza is where the Philistines later bound Samson and set him to grind grain at Judges 16:21. Gill notes that Gath and Ashkelon go unnamed.

Joshua 15:48-62

The hill country comes first, then the wilderness beside the Salt Sea. Bethlehem is absent from the list at verse 59, where the Septuagint carries eleven further towns including it, the largest textual variant in the chapter. The City of Salt and En-gedi close the run at verse 62, in the country where David later hides from Saul.

Debir now carries a third name, since verse 15 called it Kiriath-sepher, and Gill takes all three names to bear much the same sense of learning or law. The Greek version renders it the city of letters. Clarke points back to the lowland Socoh of verse 35, a second town of the name.

Anab was one of the hill towns cleared of the Anakim at 11:21, and Gill refers back to that verse. Eshtemoh, spelled Eshtemoa elsewhere, was given to the Levites at 21:14 and received a share of David's spoil at 1 Samuel 30:28. Jerome, Gill reports, found Anim's people all Christians.

The first hill group closes here at eleven. Gill confirms that the number agrees with the names, and he identifies Giloh as the town of Ahithophel, David's counsellor who joined Absalom at 2 Samuel 15:12. This Goshen is the district in the south of Canaan named at 10:41, distinct from Goshen in Egypt.

A second hill group begins here and ends with Hebron in verse 54, nine cities in all. Gill follows Jerome in describing Dumah as a large village in the south, seventeen miles from Eleutheropolis. He has no account of Eshan.

Beth-tappuah means house of the apple tree, Clarke says, perhaps for the trees that grew there. Tappuah names several places in these chapters: a lowland town at verse 34, and a town on the border of Ephraim and Manasseh at 16:8 and 17:8. Gill notes several towns called Aphek.

Hebron, already given to Caleb in verse 13, is also a town of Judah in this list, and it later becomes a city of refuge at 20:7 and a Levite city at 21:11. David reigned there seven years and six months, as 2 Samuel 2:11 records. The count of nine agrees.

A third hill group of ten begins here. Nabal lived in Maon and sheared his flocks at Carmel at 1 Samuel 25:2, and Clarke separates this Carmel from the northern mountain and places Saul's monument of 1 Samuel 15:12 here. The Ziphites reported David's hiding place to Saul at 1 Samuel 23:19.

Gill separates this Jezreel of Judah from the northern town that gave its name to the great valley. Ahinoam of Jezreel, David's wife, is named at 1 Samuel 25:43 beside Abigail, whose first husband worked at the Carmel of verse 55. This Zanoah is a second town of the name.

This Gibeah lies in Judah, and Gill keeps it apart from Gibeah in Benjamin at Judges 20:4 and from Gibeah of Saul at 1 Samuel 11:4. He finds Kain nowhere else. Timnah here is the second of the chapter, after the border town of verse 10.

A fourth hill group of six begins here. Beth-zur was among the towns Rehoboam built up for defence at 2 Chronicles 11:5 to 11:7, and a ruler of half its district repaired Jerusalem's wall at Nehemiah 3:16. Clarke discusses the Greek addition of eleven towns in his note on Gedor.

Gill finds none of these three towns elsewhere, and he keeps Eltekon apart from the Eltekeh of Dan at 19:44. The count of six agrees with verses 58 and 59. After this verse the Greek copies read the eleven further towns that include Bethlehem.

Verse 9 called this town Baalah and Kiriath-jearim, and here it is Kiriath-baal. Gill cannot say why these two towns are counted by themselves, and he keeps this Rabbah apart from Rabbah of the Ammonites at 2 Samuel 12:26. Two towns make the smallest group.

The last district is the wilderness beside the Salt Sea, and Gill notes that it held towns and villages. Beth-arabah, the first of them, stands both here and in Benjamin's list at 18:22, since it sits on the border the two tribes share. Six towns are named in verse 62.

the city of Salt, and En–gedi: Gill and Clarke report that some take the City of Salt to be Zoar, where Lot fled, and Gill prefers a town named for salt-making. En-gedi, the well of the kid in Clarke's gloss, is where David hid from Saul at 1 Samuel 24:1, and Ezekiel 47:10 pictures fishermen spreading nets there. The count of six agrees.

The chapter ends on a failure, stated in the same book that says at 21:45 that none of the LORD's good promises failed. Judah could not drive out the Jebusites, who hold Jerusalem until David takes it at 2 Samuel 5:6-9, generations later. Judges 1:21 tells the same fact of Benjamin rather than Judah, and the two accounts stand together without either being corrected.