Bibelkommentare

Ver. 1. And the second lot came forth to Simeon— Simeon was the eldest son of Jacob, who still remained unportioned. The lot, directed by an especial Providence, gave him a portion, which fully verified the divine promises and threatenings. Animated by the spirit of God, Jacob, when dying, had declared to Simeon and Levi, that they should be dispersed in Israel, for their cruelty against the Shechemites. See Gen 49:6-7 and Genesis 34:0. Levi was scattered through all Palestine, and had no separate province: Simeon is, as it were, shut up in the tribe of Judah: and thus was the prediction of the holy patriarch accomplished.

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Ver. 16. This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun— It is easy to conceive, that twelve cities would not have been sufficient to lodge and support the inhabitants of a tribe which exceeded sixty thousand; Numbers 26:27. The historian then has named here only the chief cities, those which were upon the borders of the other tribes; or perhaps those which the commissioners, on surveying the country, had set down in the maps and minutes which they presented to Joshua. Two other cities of Zebulun, viz. Kartah and Dimnah, are afterwards spoken of; ch. Joshua 21:34-35. According to Jacob's prophesy, Genesis 49:13, the coasts of Zebulun were havens for ships, lying on the Mediterranean sea west, and the sea of Tiberias east. In this tribe lay Nazareth, where Jesus dwelt; Tabor, where he was transfigured; and the coasts of the sea of Galilee, the chief scene of his ministry and miracles, were all in this tribe: it produced also one judge, Tola, and one king of Israel, Baasha.

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Ver. 23. This is the inheritance, &c.— Issachar's lot consisted of sixteen cities with their villages. It was a numerous tribe, bordering on the sea westward, having Jordan on the east, Manasseh on the south, and Zebulun on the north. Jezreel, Ahab's royal city of Shunem, wherein dwelt the kind hostess of Elijah, Kishon famed for Deborah's victory, Gilboa where Saul fell, and the valley of Megiddo where Josiah was slain, lay in this tribe.

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Ver. 26. Alammelech,—Amad,—Misheal, &c.— These are cities unknown, but situate near mount Carmel, famous for the miracles of Elijah, and very different from that which went by the same name in the tribe of Judah, 2 Kings 18:0; Joshua 15:55. The Carmel of Asher was near the sea; and, according to Josephus, at one hundred and twenty furlongs from Ptolemais on the south. Hist. Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 9. The ancients boasted of it on account of its height, and called it the holy mountain of Jupiter. There was said to be a temple and a god of the same name with the mountain; and Jamblichus mentions, that Pythagoras often went thither to study. Several ages since, Carmel was variously honoured by the Christians, on account of the cave, where, as it is thought, Elijah remained some time before he was carried up to heaven. Hence sprung the order of the Carmelites, founded in the wilderness of Syria, in 1180, by Almerick, Bishop of Antioch. Their old convent is destroyed; that which they now inhabit is lower down, and can scarcely maintain three monks. Efforts have been made to re-establish it on the top of the mountain, but in vain, an Emir of the Arabs having made it his residence.

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Ver. 27. And goeth out to Cabul on the left hand— That is, to the north of this city, according to the custom of the Hebrews in the designation of the four cardinal points. Some learned men have concluded from this passage, that the Book of Joshua could not have been written before Solomon's time, because, say they, the land of Cabul received its name from Hiram, king of Tyre, who called it so in contempt, 1 Kings 9:11-13.; but this is a manifest mistake: the question here is not about the land of Cabul and its twenty cities, but about the town of Cabul, near Ptolemais. Josephus plainly makes a distinction between them, who, in his life, and Hist. Jud. Bell. lib. 3: cap. 4 speaks of the city of Chabul or Chabolo. See Huet. Demonst. Evang. prop. 4:

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Ver. 29. Then the coast turneth to Ramah, &c.— There were several cities of this name in Palestine. Masius supposes the present to be the same as was afterwards called Zarepta. Ramah signifies high, elevated; and such, it seems, was the situation of Zarepta, celebrated for its vineyards, which evidently suppose an elevated situation.

And to the strong city Tyre— So the LXX and Vulgate, followed by a variety of interpreters, translate the clause. Sidon is much spoken of in the Books of Moses, and even in Jacob's prophesies: the famous city of Tyre was not in being till the time of David. Homer, who makes frequent mention of Sidon, and the Sidonians, nowhere takes notice of the Tyrians. The sacred writer in this place, therefore, must have intended to point out some other city of the same name; there were four different places in Phoenicia called Tyre. Perhaps the historian here had in view Palaetyrus or Ancient Tyre, which was built on the main land, whereas the other Tyre was erected over against it, in an island. This is the opinion of Perizonius, Grotius, Calmet, Le Clerc, &c. For an ingenious account of the origin of Tyre, &c. we refer the reader to the learned chronology of M. Vignoles, lib. 4: cap. 1, &c.

And the coast turneth to Hosah—and—to Achzib— From the neighbourhood of Tyre, the western border of Asher came round towards Hosah, (a place now unknown,) and abutted on the territory or neighbouring quarter of the sea, in the next adjacent district of Achzib, which, according to St. Jerome, is the same city as Pliny calls Ecdippa. Maundrell, in his voyage to Aleppo, p. 53 gives the following account of it; "Having travelled about an hour in the plain of Acra, we passed by an old town called Zib, situate on an ascent, close by the sea side. This may probably be the old Achzib, mentioned, Jos 19:29 and Jdg 1:31 called afterwards Ecdippa; for St. Jerome places Achzib nine miles distant from Ptolemais, towards Tyre, to which account we found the situation of Zib exactly agreeing."

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Ver. 30. Twenty and two cities, with their villages— If we take away Carmel, a mountain, and Jiphthah-el, a valley, there still remain more than twenty-two cities mentioned in the foregoing verses.

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Ver. 34. And—the coast—reacheth to Zebulun on the south side, and—to Asher on the west side, and to Judah upon Jordan toward the sun-rising— Here it may be asked, how could the tribe of Naphtali border on that of Judah on the east, when there were several tribes between them? In answer, we may observe, that Naphtali adjoined to Judah by the Jordan, which united the two tribes, by supplying each with a free passage to the other. And thus, as some interpreters think, the prophesy of Moses, Deuteronomy 33:23 possess thou the west and the south, was fulfilled; not that this tribe had any lands in the south of Canaan; but because, through its situation, it could easily carry on a trade thither by means of the Jordan. This reply, however, may not be thought sufficiently full; and it may possibly be urged, why should the tribe of Naphtali meet the tribe of Judah at the Jordan, any more than the tribes of Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, who could much more easily trade with Judah by means of that river? and besides, it is well known, that the eastern limits of the tribe of Judah began rather at the point of the Dead Sea, than at the Jordan. To this, some return for answer, that the sacred writer thus expresses himself, to signify that the tribe of Naphtali, though the most northerly of all those which lay toward the river, yet communicated itself with the most southern tribes, even that of Judah. Others are of opinion, that at that time there was a city upon the Jordan, to the east of Naphtali, which went by the name of Judah. For another solution see the Miscellan. Duisburg de M. Gerdes, tom. 1: p. 683.

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