Bible Commentaries

Ch. Joshua 16:1-4. The Lot of the Children of Joseph

1. the lot of the children of Joseph] Having described the inheritance of the royal tribe of Judah, the Author proceeds to relate the distribution of the descendants of the great house of Joseph.

fell] Heb. went forth, i.e. “came out of the urn or chest.” See above, ch. Joshua 7:16, and Joshua 14:2.

from Jordan by Jericho] We have first the southern boundary, which coincided for part of its length with the northern boundary of Benjamin. It began at the Jordan, at the port, or reach, exactly opposite to Jericho. Compare for the expression, above ch. Joshua 13:32, and below Joshua 20:8.

unto the water of Jericho] From this point it ran to “the water of Jericho,” i.e. to the one brook, which is found in the neighbourhood of Jericho. It rises at the fountain Ain es Sultân, the waters of which were healed by Elisha (2 Kings 2:19), and flows into the Jordan.

to the wilderness that goeth up] i.e. by one of the ravines, the Wâdy Harith or Wâdy Suweinît, to the wilderness or uncultivated waste hills (Midbah), to the mountains in the vicinity of Bethel.

2. and goeth out] Thence it passed on to Luz. It seems impossible to determine exactly whether Bethel and Luz were the same town, Luz being the Canaanite and Bethel the Hebrew name, or whether they were distinct places close to one another.

(a) This verse, Joshua 18:13, and Genesis 28:19, seem to favour the last interpretation.

(b) Genesis 35:6, Jdg 1:23, favour the former.

The conclusion of Mr Grove is “that the two places were distinct during the times preceding the conquest, Luz being the city, and Bethel the pillar and altar of Jacob; but after the destruction of Luz by the tribe of Ephraim the town of Bethel arose.” See his Article in Smith’s Bibl. Dict.

unto the borders of Archi] Comp. 2 Samuel 16:16, 1 Chronicles 27:33, where we read of Hushai the Archite. The precise locality is unknown.

to Ataroth] See below Joshua 16:5, and comp. Joshua 18:13.

3. and goeth down westward] Hence the boundary passed unto the “coast” of Beth-horon the nether, i.e. the “Lower Beth-horon,” and Gezer, to the Mediterranean Sea at Jaffa.

Japhleti] is unknown.

Beth-horon] See above, ch. Joshua 10:10-11.

Gezer] See above ch. Joshua 10:33. It probably lay between Beth-horon and Lydda. “The territory assigned to ‘the house of Joseph’ may be roughly estimated at 55 miles from east to west, by 70 from north to south, a portion about equal in extent to the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk combined.”

5–10. The Inheritance of the Tribe of Ephraim

5. And the border] The border given is not traced out with the same completeness as that given above of the tribe of Judah. No mention, it will be observed, is made of the northern boundary line of the tribes descended from Joseph, although the eastern and western boundaries are implied, viz. the Jordan and the Mediterranean.

on the east side] It is to be borne in mind that the border traced above in Joshua 16:1-3 is here presupposed. The boundary is not drawn de novo, but is based upon the other.

Ataroth-addar] Comp. ch. Joshua 18:13. It is a little remarkable that the “Upper Beth-horon” is mentioned in this verse instead of Lower Beth-horon, as in Joshua 16:3. But both places were situated close to each other.

6. and the border went out] The line appears to run north towards the Beth-horons, where it meets the southern boundary common to both tribes. Then it went north-westward (or toward the sea) to Michmethah, which lay “facing Shechem” (Joshua 17:7), but which has not been discovered by any travellers.

Taanath-shiloh] identified by some with Ain Tâna, which lay between Shechem and the Jordan.

Janohah] Doubtless identical with the modern Yanûn, about 10 miles south-east of Shechem, where extensive ruins of great antiquity exist.

7. went down] The border “went down” because it descended along the slopes in the direction of the Jordan valley.

to Ataroth] which place, it is thought, is to be sought somewhere in this valley, “at the point where the border makes an angle in turning southward.”

and to Naarath] Eusebius and Jerome mention it as well known to them. It is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:28, and was, it is thought, about five miles north of Jericho.

came to Jericho] i.e. to the region in the neighbourhood of Jericho (which belonged to Benjamin), where the eastern border formed an angle with the southern.

8. The border] In this verse the western half of the northern border is described.

from Tappuah] It ran from Tappuah, which has not yet been met with at all in the central district of Palestine, south of Shechem, “westward unto the river Kanah,” or rather “the brook of reeds.” This is probably the modern Nahr el Khassab, which reaches the Sea between Joppa and Cæsarea, under the name of Nahr Falaik, or as some think, the Nahr el Aujeh, just below the last-mentioned city.

9. And the separate cities] Or, the places which were portioned off.

were] This verb, introduced into our Version, should be omitted, and the full stop at the end of Joshua 16:8 should be replaced by a colon. The author intended us to add to “the inheritance of the children of Ephraim” the “separate” or “single” cities allotted to the tribe within the borders of Manasseh. It is supposed that after their relative boundaries had been fixed—though the subdivision of the territory assigned to the two brother tribes does not seem to have been very definite—it was found that the territory of Ephraim was too small in proportion to its strength.