Josué 15

Josué 15

Meyer - Joshua 15:19 He gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs. Caleb had conquered his giants, and so he was able to give his daughter an inheritance of land and springs of water. It was when Jesus had overcome the sharpness of death that He opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers; it was as He trampled under his victorious feet the principalities and powers of darkness that He gave to his Church the upper and the nether springs. There are two departments in our life, which are closely related and yet one. We occupy the one in our contact with men and our work in the world; the other, in our holy moments of meditation and prayer. Christ’s sheep go out to their manifold activities, and come in to feed on the green pastures beside waters of rest. In each of these we stand in daily need of the springs that are fed from the River which proceeds from the Throne of God, and which is an emblem of the Holy Ghost. On the Lord’s Day, in the House of God, or in private prayer, we climb the hills and stand on the margin of the upper springs that rise there; in the solemn hush we hear the murmur of their waters. On Monday we descend into the valley amid the clang of the battle and the cries of human need; but, thank God! plentiful springs are there also. Upper springs from the Mount of Transfiguration; nether springs for the Valley of Humiliation. Upper springs for the days of health and abounding activity; nether springs for days of depression, and pain, and death. Upper springs in praise, adoration, and rapture; nether springs for taking the yoke, bearing the burden, and drinking of his cup. Let us partake freely of the refreshing water which flows from the River of God. Joshua 15:20 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Judah according to their families. Ge 49:8-12 De 33:7 Joshua 15 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries THE CITIES OF THE INHERITANCE - Joshua 15:20-62 A. The southern cities - verses 21-32 B. The western foothills cities - verses 33-47 C. The hill country cities - verses 48-60 D. The desert cities - verses 61-62 A SUMMARY STATEMENT INTRODUCING THE CITIES OF JUDAH Madvig comments on Joshua 15:20-62 - A modern reader may question the value of a long list of names of towns like this, but for the Judahite it described the homeland that God had given to his tribe. It is another evidence of the historical, down-to-earth nature of God’s redemptive program. The sending of the Savior was also very down to earth; remember: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). (The Expositor's Bible Commentary Volume 3) This is the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Judah according to their families - This describes the cities within the boundaries just described in the preceding section and/or introduces the cities to now be described in great detail. Grant - Joshua 15:20 refers to what has gone before and serves as a summary of the details of the land given to Judah. Similar wording occurs twelve times in Joshua, in relation to the inheritance of each tribe (Joshua 13:23, 28; 15:20; 16:8; 18:20, 28; 19:8, 16, 23, 31, 39, 48). (What the Bible Teaches - Joshua Judges Ruth) John Currid - This catalogue of cities simply gives ‘concrete expression to the fulfilment of God’s promises regarding the land’. In other words, it demonstrates that the accomplishment of God’s word to Israel has indeed taken place in space and time; it is a historical fact that is tangible and concrete. There is a true earthiness to this inheritance. (WCS Joshua: Strong and Courageous) Dale Ralph Davis - Karl Gutbrod has made some helpful observations here. Our narrator is no secular history writer but writes as God’s messenger with a word to the worshipping community of Israel. The puzzle is how such lists can proclaim the work and power of God to his people. How can this nurture them? Perhaps the solution lies in recognising what may be called biblical realism. God’s word is seldom about some bare, purely spiritual, inner abstraction. The God of the Bible tends to be concrete, his gifts tangible and visible. The inheritance he bequeaths is not an idea but boudaries, not thoughts but towns: in a word, real estate. Yahweh has always been this way—and his infleshment is the great witness to the fact (John 1:1, 14). We western Christians probably need to get a hard grip on this; we need to rediscover the earthiness of God. We must realise that even enjoying the grand act of the kingdom of God will not mean floating as a beeping soul in some sort of spiritual ether but walking around with a resurrection body in new heavens and a new earth (cf. Isa. 65–66; Rev. 21–22). So perhaps we can say that Israel’s concrete and tangible inheritance in Canaan is a foreshadowing of our own. Our full possession is in new heavens and a new earth, not in some earthless, fleshless void. Our full expectation ought not to be in dying and going to heaven, as the usual cliché has it. The New Testament language is that believers, when they die, are ‘with the Lord’ (2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23; Luke 23:43). But the New Testament always lifts our eyes and fixes our minds upon the fullness of our hope, the redemption of our bodies on resurrection day at the return of our Lord (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:20–21; 1 Thess. 4:16–17; 1 Cor. 15). (Joshua: No Falling Words) Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary - Verses 20-63. Here is a list of the cities of Judah. But we do not here find Bethlehem, afterwards the city of David, and ennobled by the birth of our Lord Jesus in it. That city, which, at the best, was but little among the thousands of Judah, Micah 5:2, except that it was thus honoured, was now so little as not to be accounted one of the cities. GEORGE BUSH - Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Joshua - Chapter 15 20. This is the inheritance, &c. He now returns to the description of Judah’s inheritance, from the digression made concerning Caleb and his family, in the preceding verses. Joshua 15:21 Now the cities at the extremity of the tribe of the sons of Judah toward the border of Edom in the south were Kabzeel and Eder and Jagur, Kabzeel: Ne 11:25 Eder: Ge 35:21 Joshua 15 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries THE CITIES OF THE INHERITANCE - Joshua 15:20-62 A. The southern cities - verses 21-32 B. The western foothills cities - verses 33-47 C. The hill country cities - verses 48-60 D. The desert cities - verses 61-62 CITIES DISPERSED TO JUDAH BEGINNING WITH SOUTH Irving Jensen - Judah's inheritance extended over four topographically different regions: the South's dry plains (NEGEV)(Joshua 15:21-32); the western foothill bordering the coastal plain ("lowland," [SHEPHELAH] Joshua 15:33-47); the central ridge of hill country (Joshua 15:48-60); and the sparsely populated desolate wilderness of the slopes leading down to the Dead Sea (Joshua 15:61-62). The large number of cities inherited (109) indicates the value of the land given Judah, for with cities were associated water supply, arable land, and defensible position. (Joshua- Everyman's Bible Commentary: Rest-Land Won) Joshua 15:21-62 can be summarized this part of Canaan which contained four distinct regions: the southern Negev, the lowland plain (Shephelah), the mountains (hill country), and the desert. The Negev (south land) formed a region between the more fertile parts of Judah to the north and the desert to the south. Now the cities at the extremity (southern border) of the tribe of the sons of Judah toward the border of Edom in the south were Kabzeel and Eder and Jagur - This begins a list of over 100 cities that Judah took possession of with one exception being Jerusalem (Josh 15:63). In verses 21-32 there are 36 southern cities. Madvig - “The southernmost towns” are mostly towns in the Negev (esp. those in Joshua 15:26–32) that are also ascribed to Simeon in Joshua 19:1–9. There it is stated that the territory given to Judah was “more than they needed” (Joshua 19:9). Consequently some of it was reassigned to Simeon. The distribution of the land was not all completed at once; rather it took place over an extended period of time (see JOshua 18:1–10). “Kabzeel” was the hometown of Benaiah, one of David’s outstanding warriors (2 Sam 23:20; 1 Chronicles 11:22). (The Expositor's Bible Commentary Volume 3) Kabzeel - Fausset's Bible Dictionary ("collected by God" "God gathers") (4x in OT -Jos. 15:21; 2 Sam. 23:20; 1 Chr. 11:22; Neh. 11:25) Standing at the confluence of wady el Jeib and Fikreh and Kuseib; the farthest S. of Judah's cities (Joshua 15:21). At its mouth is its fountain, the only good water of the region, where the road from Jerusalem diverges E. by the Dead Sea to Moab and S. to Petra; a spot likely to be occupied, though remote, as a stronghold, the key of Palestine toward Moat and Edom, guarding the pass Ez Zuweirah, by which the Moabites under Sanballat, the Ammonites under Tobiah, and the Arabians under Geshem, might attack the Jews (Nehemiah 4:12). Hot as the summer is, snow falls deep at times in winter. Benaiah's "slaying two lion-like men of Moab" accords with the position of Kadesh toward Moab; also "the lion in a pit on a snowy day" accords with there being dense jungle, the haunt of wild beasts, in the neighbourhood. Eder - Holman Bible Dictionary (Eder is from adar - to fail or be lacking) A town in the southern limits of the tribal territory of Judah near Edom (Joshua 15:21 ). Its location is not known. Jagur - McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia (Jagur from gur = to sojourn) a city on the south or Ildumean border of Judah, mentioned between Eder and Kinah (Joshua 15:21). "Its name might perhaps indicate that it was one of the fortified camping-grounds of the border Arabs" (Kitto). "The Jagur, quoted by Schwarz (Palest. p. 99) from the Talmud as one of the boundaries of the territory of Ashkelon, must have been further to the northwest" (Smith). The position of the town here considered can only be conjectured as not very far from the Dead Sea. Joshua 15:22 and Kinah and Dimonah and Adadah, Joshua 15 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries JUDAH'S CITIES IN THE SOUTH CONTINUED and Kinah and Dimonah and Adadah, Kinah - ISB Encyclopedia An unidentified town on the southern boundary of Judah, toward Edom ( Joshua 15:22 ). The word ḳı̄nāh means "elegy," "dirge," "lament for the dead." The name, however, may have been derived from the Kenites, קידי , who had settlements in the South (1 Samuel 27:10 , etc.). Kinah - Holman Bible Dictionary (Only in Josh 15:22) Place name meaning, “lamentation.” A city in the southeast of Judah near the boundary of Edom (Joshua 15:22 ). Perhaps a settlement of the Kenites. Usually identified with modern wadi el-Qeini, south of Hebron. Dimonah - Holman Bible Dictionary (Dimonah = "river bed" or "silence" a town in the south Juda, only in Josh 15:22) Place name related to Hebrew word for blood. A town on southeast border of tribal allotment of Judah (Joshua 15:22 ). Some have suggested its location at tell ed-Dheib near Aroer. It may be the same as Dibon mentioned in Nehemiah 11:25 . Adadah - McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia (Adadah = "festival" or "boundary" one of the towns in the extreme south of Judah; only in Josh 15:22) (Heb. Adadah', עִרְעָדָה, from the Syr., festival, or perhaps, by reduplication, boundary; Sept. Ἀδαδά, v. r. Ἀρουήλ ), a town in the southern part of the tribe of Judah, mentioned between Dimonah and Kedesh (Joshua 15:22); probably situated in the portion afterward set off to Simeon (Joshua 19:1-9). Joshua 15:23 and Kedesh and Hazor and Ithnan, Kedesh: Jos 12:22 Nu 33:37 De 1:19 Hazor: The LXX. read [Hasorionain,] for Hazar-Ithnan, regarding these two as one city. Joshua 15 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries JUDAH'S CITIES IN THE SOUTH CONTINUED and Kedesh and Hazor and Ithnan - Some think this is same as Kadesh-Barnea but others do not agree. Kedesh - Holman Bible Dictionary (12x - Jos. 12:22; Jos. 15:23; Jos. 19:37; Jos. 20:7; Jos. 21:32; Jdg. 4:6; Jdg. 4:9; Jdg. 4:10; Jdg. 4:11; 2 Ki. 15:29; 1 Chr. 6:72; 1 Chr. 6:76) Place name meaning, “sacred place” or “sanctuary.” 1. A city in the southern part of Judah (Joshua 15:23 ). Probably the same as Kadesh-Barnea. See Kadesh-Barnea .2. A Canaanite town in eastern Galilee defeated by Joshua (Joshua 12:22 ). The town was allotted to Naphtali (Joshua 19:32 ,Joshua 19:32,19:37 ) and was called Kedesh in Naphtali (Judges 4:6 ). It was also called Kedesh in Galilee and given to the Gershonite Levites as one of their cities (Joshua 20:7; Joshua 21:32 ). See Judges 4:6 ) and the place where Deborah and Barak gathered their forces for battle (Judges 4:1-10 ). Heber the Kenite pitched his tent in the vicinity where Sisera met his death at the hands of Jael, Heber's wife (Judges 4:21; Judges 5:24-27 ). Kedesh in Naphtali was captured by Tiglath-pileser III during the reign of Pekah of Israel. The inhabitants were exiled to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29 ). Usually identified with modern khirbet Qedish, about two miles south of Tiberias. 3. A city in Issachar allotted to the Gershomite Levites (1 Chronicles 6:72 ). The town is also called Kishon (Joshua 21:28 KJV; Kishion in other versions). It has been suggested that “Kedesh in Issachar” may have arisen from a misreading of “Kishon” for “Kedesh.” The site is uncertain. Perhaps modern tell Abu Qudeis, about two miles southeast of Megiddo. Hazor - Holman Bible Dictionary .(note there are up to 6 meanings of Hazor - click link). Town in tribal inheritance of Judah (Joshua 15:23 ), probably to be read with earliest Greek translation as Hazor-Ithnan. This may be modern el-Jebariyeh. (NOTE: This Hazor is not a chief city of northern Canaan, whose king Jabin, at the head of an allied host, was defeated by Joshua, Joshua 11:1-13 . Hazor revived, however, and for a time oppressed the Israelites; but was subdued by Barak, fortified by Solomon, and remained in the possession of Israel until the invasion of Tiglath pileser, Joshua 19:36; Judges 4:2; 1 Kings 9:15; 2 Kings 15:29 . It lay not far from Lake Merom.) Ithnan - Holman Bible Dictionary (only mention in Scripture) Place name meaning, “flowing constantly.” Town on southern border of tribal territory of Judah (Joshua 15:23 ). Its location is not known unless some Bible lands geographers are correct in combining Hazor-ithnan into one town, which may have been located at modern el-Jebariyeh on the wadi Umm Ethnan. Joshua 15:24 Ziph and Telem and Bealoth, Ziph: Eusebius and Jerome say, that Ziph was a village in their time eight miles east from Hebron. 1Sa 23:14,19,24 Ps 54:1 *title Telem: 1Sa 15:4 Joshua 15 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries JUDAH'S CITIES IN THE SOUTH CONTINUED Ziph and Telem and Bealoth, Ziph - Holman Bible Dictionary Place and personal name perhaps meaning, “flowing.” 3 . Town in the Judean hill country (Joshua 15:24 ), likely tell Zif about three miles southeast of Hebron. Mereshah likely founded the town (1 Chronicles 2:42 ). David hid from Saul in the surrounding wilderness (1 Samuel 23:14-15 ); 1 Samuel 26:2 ). Ziphites, residents of Ziph, twice revealed David's hideouts to Saul (1 Samuel 23:19; 1 Samuel 26:1 ). Rehoboam fortified the site (2 Chronicles 11:8 ). Telem - McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia (Heb. id. טֶלֶם, oppression [Gesenius; but Fü rst, place of lambs]), the name of a town and also of a man.One of the cities which are described as "the uttermost of the tribe of Judah towards the coast of Edom southward" (Joshua 15:24, where it is mentioned between the southern Ziph and Bealoth). Bealoth - Holman Bible Dictionary Place name meaning, “female Baals” or “ladies.” 1. Town on southern border of tribal territory of Judah (Joshua 15:24 ). This may be the same as Baalath-beer (Joshua 19:8 ). Joshua 15:25 and Hazor-hadattah and Kerioth-hezron (that is, Hazor), Hazor: Or, rather, Hazar-hadattah, or, as the LXX., Alexandrian, and Vulgate render [Hasor Le kaine,] {Asor nova,} "New Hazor," to distinguish it from the preceding (ver. 28,) and following Hazor. Eusebius and Jerome say it was a village in their time, on the eastern confines of Askelon. Joshua 15 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries JUDAH'S CITIES IN THE SOUTH CONTINUED Kerioth: Or, rather, Kerioth-Hezron: LXX. [hai poleis] (Alex. [polis]) [Haseron,] "the cities (city) of Hezron." Jos 15:25 and Hazor-hadattah and Kerioth-hezron (that is, Hazor), Hadattah - Holman Bible Dictionary Place name meaning, “new.” Part of name Hazor-hadattah (Joshua 15:25 ). The earliest Greek translations apparently read the Hebrew word for “their villages” that reappears in this section of Joshua instead of Hadattah. Kerioth-Hezron - Holman Bible Dictionary Place name representing one or perhaps two cities. KJV takes the Hebrew to refer to two cities in Joshua 15:25 —thus, Kerioth and Hezron. Some scholars still follow this. If this is a reference to two cities, Kerioth would be identified with the Kerioth of Jeremiah 48:24; Amos 2:2 See Kerioth . Hezron would be identified with the city of Hazor mentioned in Joshua 15:23 , a city in the south of Judah near Kadesh-barnea (Joshua 15:3 ). See Hazor . Many scholars, however, take Kerioth-Hezron to refer to a village of Judah in the Negev district of Beersheba and identify it with modern khirbet el-Qaryatein, about four miles south of Maon.