Joshua19chapter 19

Joshua 19:10-16

the third lot came up: Zebulun is drawn before its elder brother Issachar, the same order Jacob uses at Genesis 49:13-14. Gath-hepher at verse 13 is the home of Jonah son of Amittai, named as such at 2 Kings 14:25. The Bethlehem of verse 15 lies in Galilee, a different town from the Bethlehem of Judah at Micah 5:2, and Nahalal returns at Judges 1:30 as Nahalol, a town Zebulun never cleared.

This is Zebulun's southern line, running west from Sarid to the brook near Jokneam, which Barnes takes as the Kishon, and the king of Jokneam is listed at 12:22. Barnes keeps Zebulun back from the Mediterranean, since Carmel went to Asher. Wesley gives it both seas, after Genesis 49:13.

the border of Chisloth–tabor: From Sarid the line runs east to the foot of Mount Tabor, where Gill has Zebulun meeting Issachar. Daberath on this line is given to the Levites from Issachar at 21:28, so the town sat on the seam of the two tribes. Deborah sends Barak to Mount Tabor at Judges 4:6.

Gill takes this as the eastern side, ending at Neah. Barnes places Rimmon about six miles north of Nazareth and finds it among the Levite towns, where 1 Chronicles 6:77 spells it Rimmono. Both Rimmon and Gath-hepher lie a short way from Nazareth by his account.

The border now closes on the north side. Barnes records a view that Hannathon is Cana of Galilee, the town of the wedding at John 2:1. He identifies the Valley of Iphtah-el with the district of Jotapata, which Josephus held against the Roman legions of Vespasian.

Five towns are named here against a total of twelve, and Barnes concludes that seven names have dropped out of the text. Wesley counts the boundary points too and treats the extra names as places on the border or in other tribes. The two readings leave the count open.

The summary closes Zebulun's portion. Gill notes that the tribe held towns beyond this list, and Kartah and Dimnah are given to the Levites from Zebulun at 21:35. Deuteronomy 33:18 blesses Zebulun in its travels, and Barnes ties that line to the tribe's shore on the Sea of Galilee.

Joshua 19:17-23

the fourth lot came out: Issachar is given by its towns rather than a traced border, because the tribe sits enclosed between portions already described. Jezreel at verse 18 becomes the second royal city of Israel and the ground of Naboth's vineyard at 1 Kings 21:1. Shunem is where the Philistines camp before Saul's last night at 1 Samuel 28:4, and where the woman who kept a room for Elisha lived at 2 Kings 4:8.

Barnes calls Jezreel and its plain the choicest part of Issachar's inheritance. Gill places Chesulloth south of Mount Tabor and Chisloth-tabor of verse 12 north of it, treating them as two places. Abishag of 1 Kings 1:3 was a Shunammite.

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown place the towns of verses 18-20 in the eastern part of the plain of Esdraelon. Gill, following Jerome, sets Hapharaim six miles north of Legio and Shion near Mount Tabor. Anaharath occurs only here.

Gill reports the view of Masius that Kishion gave its name to the river Kishon. That river swept away the enemy at Judges 5:21, and Elijah killed the prophets of Baal beside it at 1 Kings 18:40. Kishion itself goes to the Levites at 21:28.

Barnes renders En-gannim fountain of gardens and identifies it with Jenin, where the road from Jerusalem enters the plain of Jezreel. It returns among the Levite towns at 21:29, beside Jarmuth, which Gill takes as Remeth. Many places in these verses remain unknown, Barnes adds.

The border ends here at the Jordan, and Barnes suggests Tabor means the town on the mountain, the Levite town listed at 1 Chronicles 6:77. Clarke counts several towns named Beth-shemesh, house of the sun, as evidence of sun worship in Canaan. Barnes keeps this one apart from Judah's at 15:10.

Issachar's portion is summed up here. Jacob's blessing at Genesis 49:15 has Issachar seeing that its land was pleasant and bending its shoulder to labor. Its men in David's day understood the times, according to 1 Chronicles 12:32.

Joshua 19:24-31

the fifth lot came out: Asher's border runs past Carmel as far as "Greater Sidon" and "the fortified city of Tyre", ground Israel never held. Judges 1:31 names towns Asher did not drive out, and Sidon, Rehob, Achzib and Aphek all stand in this allotment. Keil and Delitzsch read Joshua as the record of land granted rather than land occupied, and Matthew Henry lays the shortfall on Israel's own slackness rather than on the promise.

Barnes places Helkath about seven or eight miles north-west of Acre, and it returns as a Levite town at 21:31. Achshaph sent its king to Jabin's northern league at 11:1, and his defeat is counted at 12:20. Gill sets Beten eight miles east of Ptolemais.

Carmel on the western edge is the mountain where Elijah met the prophets of Baal at 1 Kings 18:19-40, as Clarke notes. Barnes reads Shihor-libnath, black and white, as a river reaching the sea south of Dor. Dor lay inside Asher's ground and went to Manasseh, by 17:11.

Wesley and Clarke explain on the left as north, since a man giving directions faced east. Cabul returns at 1 Kings 9:13, where Hiram of Tyre calls the Galilean towns Solomon gave him the Land of Cabul. A second Beth-dagon stands in Judah's list at 15:41.

Barnes describes these towns as the northern part of Asher on the Phoenician frontier. Wesley explains Greater Sidon as a title for the city's age and wealth, and places this Kanah in upper Galilee. Genesis 10:15 names Sidon the firstborn of Canaan.

Wesley reads the line as running up to Tyre and excluding it, since the city formed no part of the grant. He and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown both place this Tyre on the mainland, apart from the island city of later history. David's palace was built with Tyrian cedar at 2 Samuel 5:11.

Clarke counts nearly thirty names against the total of twenty-two. He explains the difference as frontier towns the border passed by without taking in, and Gill reads it the same way. Ummah occurs nowhere else, Gill notes.

Asher's portion is summed up along the northern coast. Gill calls it a very fruitful country, answering Jacob's word over Asher's food at Genesis 49:20. Deborah's song at Judges 5:17 records that Asher stayed at the coast while others fought.

Joshua 19:32-39

The sixth lot came out: Hazor, burned as the head of the northern kingdoms at 11:10-11, appears at verse 36 as an ordinary town, yet by Judges 4:2 a king reigning in Hazor oppresses Israel again. Kedesh at verse 37 becomes a city of refuge at 20:7 and is where Deborah sends for Barak at Judges 4:6. Judges 1:33 names Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath as towns Naphtali never cleared, and both close this list.

Wesley reads this as Naphtali's northern border, drawn from west to east until it meets the Jordan. Heber the Kenite pitched his tent by the great tree of Zaanannim near Kedesh at Judges 4:11, and Sisera fled to that tent at Judges 4:17. Barnes renders Adami-nekeb as Adami of the pass.

The phrase Judah at the Jordan is a known difficulty, since several tribes lay between Naphtali and Judah, as Clarke points out. Barnes explains it by the towns of Jair across the river, whose line ran back to Judah through Hezron at 1 Chronicles 2:21-22. Clarke leaves the problem unsettled.

Barnes reads Naphtali's many fortified cities as a belt of defence on the northern frontier, matching Judah's fortresses in the south. He takes Hammath from a root meaning warm and places it by hot springs near Tiberias. Numbers 34:11 names the Sea of Chinnereth after it.

Gill keeps Adamah apart from the Adami of verse 33 and notes that several towns were called Ramah, from their height. Hazor, burned at 11:11, appears again at 1 Kings 9:15. Solomon built it up there with Megiddo and Gezer.

Gill distinguishes this Edrei from the Edrei in Bashan where Og met Israel in battle at Numbers 21:33, and finds En-hazor nowhere else. Kedesh and Hazor both fell to Tiglath-pileser of Assyria at 2 Kings 15:29. That verse records the people of Naphtali carried to Assyria.

Clarke counts twenty-three names against the total of nineteen and again explains the surplus as frontier towns that only marked the border. The same gap appears in Asher's list at verse 30. Barnes keeps this Beth-shemesh apart from the towns of that name in Judah and Issachar.

Josephus, as Gill quotes him, gives Naphtali upper Galilee as far as Lebanon and the springs of the Jordan. Matthew Henry places Capernaum and Bethsaida within this tribe, towns where many of Christ's miracles were done according to Matthew 11:21-23. Henry adds that Joshua routed Jabin here at 11:5-7.

Joshua 19:40-46

the seventh lot came out: Dan draws last and is set down on the Philistine edge, between Judah and the sea. Zorah and Eshtaol open the list at verse 41, the towns of Samson's birth at Judges 13:2, of the Spirit's first moving at Judges 13:25 and of his burial at Judges 16:31. Ekron at verse 43 was already written into Judah at 15:45 and remains Philistine all through the books of Samuel.

Wesley observes that Dan is given by its towns alone, because much of its ground came out of Judah's large portion and shares Judah's lines. Zorah and Eshtaol already stand in Judah's foothill list at 15:33-34. Clarke notes a view that Ir-shemesh, city of the sun, is Beth-shemesh.

Aijalon lies in the valley over which the moon stood still at 10:12, as Gill recalls. Clarke renders Shaalabbin the foxes, and Gill finds Ithlah nowhere else. Rehoboam fortified Aijalon, according to 2 Chronicles 11:10.

Clarke joins this Timnah to a Timnah of Judah, while Gill keeps the two apart. Samson went down to a Timnah and saw a Philistine woman there at Judges 14:1. Ekron received the captured ark at 1 Samuel 5:10.

Eltekeh and Gibbethon both go to the Levites from Dan at 21:23. Gibbethon was still a Philistine town when Baasha killed Nadab there during a siege at 1 Kings 15:27. Solomon later built a Baalath, listed at 1 Kings 9:18.

Clarke reads Jehud and Bene-berak as one place, Jehud of the sons of Berak. Gill renders Bene-berak sons of lightning and notes its later fame among the Jews as the home of a noted rabbi. Gath-rimmon goes to the Levites at 21:24.

This strip carried Dan's lot to the coast, and Barnes calls Joppa the leading port of access to Jerusalem. Log rafts from Lebanon reached Joppa at 2 Chronicles 2:16. Jonah sailed from there at Jonah 1:3, and Peter raised Tabitha there at Acts 9:36-41.

Joshua 19:47-48

Two verses tell a move that Judges 18 tells over thirty-one. Judges 1:34 gives the pressure behind the loss, the Amorites forcing Dan into the hill country, and Judges 18:29 calls the town Laish and ends on the same renaming after Dan their father. This chapter leaves out what Judges puts at the centre: the graven image the tribe carried north and the priesthood that served there until the captivity.

Gill fixes Dan between Ephraim on the north, Judah on the east, Simeon on the south and the sea on the west. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that its ground came from Judah and Ephraim both. Verse 47 shows the tribe losing this ground.

Joshua 19:49-51

Joshua is served last, after every tribe has its portion, and receives his town by the people's gift "as the LORD had commanded", the same ground on which Caleb received Hebron at 14:13. So the two men who brought back the good report in Numbers 14 stand at the head of the allotment and at its close. Joshua is buried at Timnath-serah at 24:30, called Timnath-heres at Judges 2:9.

Wesley reads rebuilt as repaired and enlarged, the sense in which Nebuchadnezzar claims to have built Babylon at Daniel 4:30. Barnes suggests the name Timnath-serah means the portion that remains, fitting the last grant of the whole division. Clarke calls it a barren spot.

The three authorities named here match the commission of Numbers 34:17-18, which appointed Eleazar, Joshua and a leader from each tribe to divide the land. The same three open the distribution at 14:1. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the verse as the formal close of the whole account.