Joshua 19:21

19:17-51 Joshua waited till all the tribes were settled, before he asked any provision for himself. He was content to be unfixed, till he saw them all placed, and herein is an example to all in public places, to prefer the common welfare before private advantage. Those who labour most to do good to others, seek an inheritance in the Canaan above: but it will be soon enough to enter thereon, when they have done all the service to their brethren of which they are capable. Nor can any thing more effectually assure them of their title to it, than endeavouring to bring others to desire, to seek, and to obtain it. Our Lord Jesus came and dwelt on earth, not in pomp but poverty, providing rest for man, yet himself not having where to lay his head; for Christ pleased not himself. Nor would he enter upon his inheritance, till by his obedience to death he secured the eternal inheritance for all his people; nor will he account his own glory completed, till every ransomed sinner is put in possession of his heavenly rest.

And Remeth,.... Remeth seems to be the same with Jarmuth, Joshua 21:29 ; and with Ramoth, 1 Chronicles 6:73 , and Engannim seems to be the same with Anem in 1 Chronicles 6:73, there were several of this name, which seem to have been places full of gardens, and well watered; for the word signifies a fountain of gardens. Engannim is now called Jenine, distant from Tabor twenty two miles, a place of gardens, of water, and of pleasure, as a traveller (b) of ours tells us; who also declares (c), that, in his whole journey from Damascus to Jerusalem, he saw not more fruitful ground, and so much together, than he did in twenty two miles of riding between Mount Tabor and Engannim. This seems to be the same place Mr. Maundrell (d) calls Jeneen, a large old town on the outskirts of Esdraelon. Dr. Lightfoot (e) is inclined to believe, that Nain, where the widow's son was raised to life, Luke 7:11, is the same with Engannim, for which he gives various reasons: and Enhaddah; Jerom says, in his time (f) there was a village called Enadda, ten miles from Eleutheropolis, as you go from thence to Aelia; but seems not to be the same with Enhaddah here: and Bethpazzez; of Bethpazzez no mention is made elsewhere. "Beth" signifies a "house", and "Pazzez" in the Arabic tongue signifies "silver"; so this with the old Canaanites might be a treasure city, like those in Egypt, Exodus 1:11.

But where a word begins with "Beth", as the name of a place, I always suspect there was an idol temple there; now as the word in Hebrew signifies the same as "Peor", opening, here might be a temple to that deity, or to one that was similar to the god of the Moabites, and design a Priapus, among the Canaanites like that; or as the word in the Syriac and Chaldee languages signifies to redeem, deliver, and save, this temple might be dedicated to some idol as their deliverer and saviour. (b) Biddulph apud Lightfoot. Talmud. Exercitat. in John iv. 1.((c) lb. apud Fuller's Pisgah Sight, p. 161. (d) Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 111. (e) Chorograph. notes in Luke, p. 370. (f) Ut supra. (De. loc. Heb. fol. 94. B.)

En-gannim - i. e. "fountain of gardens;" also a Levitical city Joshua 21:29 , and called Ahem 1 Chronicles 6:73 , the modern "Jenin," a place on the main road from Jerusalem to Nazareth, just where it enters the plain of Jezreel. Many of the places enumerated in these verses are not known. Tabor Joshua 19:22 is perhaps not the famous mountain, but the town on it of the same name 1 Chronicles 6:77 , given up to the Levites. Beth-shemesh (perhaps "Bessum") is not the same as Beth-shemesh of Judah Joshua 15:10 , nor of Naphtali Joshua 19:38 .

Verse 21. - En-gannim. Supposed to be the same as the "garden house" (the Bethgan of the LXX.) mentioned in 2 Kings 9:27 ) where Ahaziah, king of Judah, met with the wound of which he afterwards died at Megiddo. It was one of the Levitical cities of Issachar ( Joshua 21:29 ). Robinson, Vandevelde, and others identify it with the modern Jenin, the Ginaea of Josephus. The meaning of the name is "fountain of the gardens" and the present Jenin is situated, so Robinson tells us, in the midst of gardens. Joshua 19:21

Remeth, for which Jarmuth stands in the list of Levitical towns in Joshua 21:29 , and Ramoth in 1 Chronicles 6:58 , is also unknown. (Note: Knobel imagines Remeth, whose name signifies height, to be the village of Wezar, on one of the western peaks of Gilboa (Seetzen, ii. p. 156; Rob. iii. p. 166, and Bibl. Res. p. 339), as the name also signifies "a lofty, inaccessible mountain, or a castle situated upon a mountain." This is certainly not impossible, but it is improbable. For this Mahometan village evidently derived its name from the fact that it has the appearance of a fortification when seen from a distance (see Ritter, Erdk. xv. p. 422). The name has nothing in common therefore with the Hebrew Remeth, and the travellers quoted by him say nothing at all about the ruins which he mentions in connection with Wezar (Wusar).) En-gannim, which was also allotted to the Levites (Joshua 21:29; also 1 Chronicles 6:73, where it is called Anem), has been associated by Robinson (iii. p. 155) with the Γιναία of Josephus, the present Jenin. The name En-gannim signifies fountain of gardens, and Jenin stands at the southern side of the plain of Jezreel in the midst of gardens and orchards, which are watered by a copious spring (see Seetzen, ii. pp. 156ff.); "unless perhaps the place referred to is the heap of ruins called Um el Ghanim, on the south-east of Tabor, mentioned by Berggren, ii. p. 240, and Van de Velde, Mem. p. 142" (Knobel).

En-chadda and Beth-pazzez are only mentioned here, and have not yet been discovered. According to Knobel, the former of the two may possibly be either the place by Gilboa called Judeideh, with a fountain named Ain Judeideh (Rob. Bibl. Res. p. 337), or else Beit-kad or Kadd near Gilboa, mentioned by Seetzen (ii. p. 159) and Robinson (iii. p. 157).

( 1 Chronicles 6:56-61 ). The cities of the Gershonites; cf. Joshua 21:27-33 . "To the sons of Gershon (they gave) out of the family of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan and Ashtaroth;" see on Joshua 21:27 . In 1 Chronicles 6:72 , קדשׁ is a mistake for קשׁיון, Joshua 21:28 (see on Joshua 19:20 ); in 1 Chronicles 6:73 , ראמות for the more correct ירמות, Joshua 21:29 , a city which was also called רמת, Joshua 19:21 , or had been so called originally; and ענם for עין־גּנּים (Josh.), as the city is called also in Joshua 19:21 . It cannot be determined whether ענם is a transcriber's error, or another name for עין־גּנּים. In 1 Chronicles 6:74 , משׁל (which should perhaps be pointed משׁל) is a contracted form of משׁאל, Joshua 31:30 ; Joshua 19:26 ; and in 1 Chronicles 6:75 , חוּקק is probably an error for חלקת, Joshua 21:31 ; Joshua 19:25 , occasioned by its being confounded with חקּק in the tribe of Naphtali, Joshua 19:34 . In 1 Chronicles 6:76 the fact that Kadesh was a city of refuge is not mentioned, as it is in Joshua 21:32 . חמּון is a shortened form of חמּות־דּאר, Joshua 21:32 ; for this city is called in Joshua 19:35 חמּת, from the warm springs in the neighbourhood. Finally, Kirjathaim is contracted in Joshua 21:32 into קרתּן.