Joshua 15:38

15:20-63 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, Mic 5:2, except that it was thus honoured, was now so little as not to be accounted one of the cities.

And Dilean,.... Of the first of these nothing is to be said: and Mizpeh, of which name there were cities in other tribes; this in the tribe of Judah was in the times of Jerom (w) called Mapha, on the borders of Eleutheropolis to the south, as you go to Aelia, or Jerusalem: and Joktheel, of which nothing is to be said. (w) De loc. Heb. fol. 93. D.

Jos 15:21-63. Cities of Judah. 21-63. the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah—There is given a list of cities within the tribal territory of Judah, arranged in four divisions, corresponding to the districts of which it consisted—the cities in the southern part (Jos 15:21-32), those in the lowlands (Jos 15:33-47), those in the highlands (Jos 15:48-60), and those in the desert (Jos 15:61, 62). One gets the best idea of the relative situation of these cities by looking at the map.

Dilean is unknown; for Bet Dula, three full hours to the east of Beit-jibrin, with some relics of antiquity (Tobler, pp. 150-1), with which Knobel identifies it, is upon the mountains and not in the plain. Mizpeh, i.e., specula, a different place from the Mizpeh of Benjamin ( Joshua 18:26 ), was on the north of Eleutheropolis, according to the Onom. (s. v. Maspha), and therefore may possibly be the castle Alba Specula, or Alba Custodia of the middle ages, the present Tell es Saphieh, in the middle of the plain and upon the top of a lofty hill, from which there is an extensive prospect in all directions (see Rob. ii. p. 363). Joktheel has possibly been preserved in the ruins of Keitulaneh (Rob. Pal. iii. App.), which are said to lie in that neighbourhood.

Verse 7. - Beth-zur . About five miles north of Hebron (see Joshua 15:58 ; 1 Chronicles 2:45 ; Nehemiah 3:16 ). Shoco; properly, Socoh , in the Shefelah ( Joshua 15:35 ). According to Jerome and Eusebius, it was about nine miles from Eleutheropolis, on the road to Jerusalem (see also 1 Samuel 17:1 ). Adullam . In the Shefelah ( Joshua 15:35 ). It was an ancient place ( Genesis 38:1, 12, 20 ; Joshua 12:15 ; Nehemiah 11:30 ). See also the familiar passages ( 1 Samuel 22:1 ; 2 Samuel 23:13 ; 1 Chronicles 11:15 ). 2 Chronicles 11:7

(12) Timnath. —There were two places of this name ( Joshua 15:10 ; Joshua 15:57 ). One was a little to the west of Bethlehem, the other upon the Philistine border, beyond Bethshemesh. As it lay, however, only about seven miles beyond Adullam, and as the flocks there were Judah’s private property ( Genesis 38:13 ), and under the charge of Hirah, this remoter place, now called Tibneh, is probably the Timnath meant, as at Bethlehem the pastures were occupied by his father. (See also Genesis 38:14 .) For the sheep-shearing, see Genesis 31:19 . Instead of “his friend Hirah,” the LXX. and Vulg. render his shepherd Hirah. This would require no change in the consonants, but only in the vowels. Most of the other authorities agree with the Authorised Version; but even so, there was most probably some partnership between Judah and Hirah in these flocks, and they would be under Hirah’s charge whenever Judah was absent, tending the flocks of his father.