Joshua 15:44
in Joshua 15Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah—nine cities, along with their villages.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages.
KJV
And Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages:
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This verse in Joshua 15
Commentary
4 notes on this verseKeilah - This town was near Hebron, and is said to have been the burying-place of the prophet Habakkuk. David obliged the Philistines to raise the siege of it; (see 1Sa 23:1-13); but finding that its inhabitants had purposed to deliver him into the hands of Saul, who was coming in pursuit of him, he made his escape. See this remarkable case explained in the note on Deu 32:15 (note). Mareshah - Called also Maresheth and Marasthi; it was the birth-place of the prophet Micah.
This site's exposition
And in the valley, Eshtaol, and Zoreah
on Joshua 15:33-47
The lowland and then the coast, and the coast is where the difficulty sits. Ekron, Ashdod and Gaza are written into Judah's inheritance at verses 45 to 47, and Joshua 11:22 had just said that the Anakim were left in those three towns. Zoreah and Eshtaol open the list, and they are where Samson is born and buried at Judges 13:2 and 16:31, so the tribe's paper border and the ground it actually holds are two different things from here on.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And when this was done there was a more equal dividend (either in quantity or quality) of the remainder among the seven tribes. And this, probably, was intended in that general rule which was given concerning this partition ( Num. xxxiii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
And Keilah,.... The first of these is a well known city, which David saved from the hands of the Philistines, 1Sa 23:1, &c. In Jerom's time it was a little village to the east of Eleutheropolis, about eight miles from it, as you go to Hebron; in which was shown the sepulchre of the Prophet Habakkuk (b).
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּקְעִילָ֥ה | ukeilah | and Keilah | H7084 → | |
| וְאַכְזִ֖יב | veakhziv | and Aczib | H392 → | |
| וּמָֽרֵאשָׁ֑ה | umareshah | and Mareshah | H4762 → | |
| עָרִ֥ים | ʾarim | cities | H5892 → | 1090 times |
| תֵּ֖שַׁע | tesha' | nine | H8672 → | 58 times |
| וְחַצְרֵיהֶֽן׃ | vechatzreihen | and villages their | H2691 → | 191 times |
וּקְעִילָ֥הand Keilah
ukeilahH7084 →
וְאַכְזִ֖יבand Aczib
veakhzivH392 →
וּמָֽרֵאשָׁ֑הand Mareshah
umareshahH4762 →
עָרִ֥יםcities
ʾarimH5892 →1090 times
תֵּ֖שַׁעnine
tesha'H8672 →58 times
וְחַצְרֵיהֶֽן׃and villages their
vechatzreihenH2691 →191 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 38:5Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah; it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him.
it leads to
- Numbers 26:20
These were the descendants of Judah by their clans: The Shelanite clan from Shelah, the Perezite clan from Perez, and the Zerahite clan from Zerah.
- 1 Chronicles 4:21
The sons of Shelah son of Judah:
- Genesis 38:11
Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went…
- Genesis 46:12
The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.
- Genesis 38:26
Judah recognized the items and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again.
- Numbers 26:20
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Joshua
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.