Joshua 19:48

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.

This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan,.... Before described by its cities, which were in it. This tribe was bounded by Ephraim on the north, by Judah on the east, by Simeon on the south, and by the Mediterranean sea on the west. Josephus (h) says, the Danites enjoyed the vale which lies to the setting sun, bounded by Azotus and Doris, and all Jamnia and Getta, from Accaron (or Ekron) to the mountain from whence the tribe of Judah begins: according to their families; which inheritance was distributed according to the number of their families: their cities with their villages; before named. (h) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 22.

48 . This is the inheritance of the tribe … of Dan ] In length it extends but 14 miles from Joppa to Ekron, but it was one of the most fertile tracts in the land, the cornfield and garden of southern Palestine. The dying Jacob had said of the tribe ( Genesis 49:16 ): “Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way , An adder in the path, That biteth the horse heels , So that his rider shall fall backward;” and, as it has been observed, “the privilege of Dan was, that he was to lie in wait for the invader from the south or from the north.” “ A serpent ,” an indigenous, home-born “ adder ,” to bite the heels of the invading stranger’s horse; “ a lion’s whelp ” ( Deuteronomy 33:22 ), small and fierce, to “ leap from the heights of Bashan ,” on the armies of Damascus or Nineveh. “ For thy salvation, O Lord, have I waited ” seems to have been his war cry, as if of a warrior in the constant attitude of expectation. Once only in the history of the tribe, so far as we know, was this expectation fully realised—in the life of Samson. Stanley’s Lectures , i. p. 269.

47. the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem—The Danites, finding their inheritance too small, decided to enlarge its boundaries by the sword; and, having conquered Leshem (Laish), they planted a colony there, calling the new settlement by the name of Dan (see on [200]Jud 18:7).

The words "too little" are an insertion of the King James Version Render rather, "the border of the children of Dan was extended." The Hebrew appears to mean "the children of Dan enlarged their border because they had not room enough." The reason of this was that the Danites, a numerous tribe (Numbers 26:5 note), found themselves Judges 1:34-35 cooped up among the hills by the powerful and warlike Amorites. Hence, the Danite expedition (see the marginal reference), which surprised the Sidonion inhabitants of Leshem, an unwarlike and peaceable race, exterminated them, and annexed their city and territory to the portion of Dan.

Besides this inheritance, the Danites of Zorea and Eshtaol went, after Joshua's death, and conquered the town of Leshem or Laish, on the northern boundary of Canaan, and gave it the name of Dan, as the territory which was allotted to them under Joshua was too small for them, on account of their inability to drive out the Amorites from several of their towns ( Judges 1:34-35 ; Judges 18:2 ). For further particulars concerning this conquest, see Judges 18 . Leshem or Laish ( Judges 18:7 , Judges 18:27 ), i.e., Dan, which the Onom. describes as viculus quarto a Paneade milliario euntibus Tyrum, was the present Tell el Kadi, or el Leddan, the central source of the Jordan, to the west of Banjas, a place with ancient ruins (see Rob. iii. p. 351; Bibl. Res. pp. 390, 393). It was there that Jeroboam set up the golden calves ( 1 Kings 12:29-30 , etc.); and it is frequently mentioned as the northernmost city of the Israelites, in contrast with Beersheba, which was in the extreme south of the land ( Judges 20:1 ; 1 Samuel 3:20 ; 2 Samuel 3:10 : see also Ritter, Erdk. xvi. pp. 207ff.).

Verse 27. - Bethel cannot be the famous city of that name, but is probably the Bethul of Joshua 19:4 , where it is mentioned as lying near Hormah and Ziklag. South Ramoth. Hebrew, "Ramoth-Negeb," called Ramath-Negeb in Joshua 19:8 . Like Bethul, it was a Simeonite village. Jattir belonged to Judah ( Joshua 15:48 ), and was one of the cities assigned to the priests ( Joshua 21:14 ). 1 Samuel 30:27

27 . Bethel ] Not the well known Bethel in the tribe of Benjamin, but Bethul or Bethuel , called also Chesil , a city in the neighbourhood of Ziklag and Hormah, originally assigned to Judah, and subsequently transferred to Simeon ( Joshua 15:30 ; Joshua 19:4 ; 1 Chronicles 4:30 ). south Ramoth ] Ramoth-Negeb , or Ramoth in the south country , as distinguished from Ramoth Gilead , is probably the same as Ramath-Negeb in Joshua 19:8 . Perhaps “Shimei the Ramathite,” the overseer of David’s vineyards, came from it ( 1 Chronicles 27:27 ). Jattir ] A priestly city in the mountains of Judah ( Joshua 15:48 ; Joshua 21:14 ), probably the modern Attîr , 4½ miles S.W. of Eshtemoa. It may have been the native place of David’s heroes Ira and Gareb the Ithrites ( 2 Samuel 23:38 ).

When David returned to Ziklag, he sent portions of the booty to the elders of Judah, to his friends, with this message: "Behold, here ye have a blessing of the booty of the enemies of Jehovah" (which we took from the enemies of Jehovah); and this he did, according to 1 Samuel 30:31 , to all the places in which he had wandered with his men, i.e., where he had wandered about during his flight from Saul, and in which he had no doubt received assistance. Sending these gifts could not fail to make the elders of these cities well disposed towards him, and so to facilitate his recognition as king after the death of Saul, which occurred immediately afterwards. Some of these places may have been plundered by the Amalekites, since they had invaded the Negeb of Judah ( 1 Samuel 30:14 ). The cities referred to were Bethel, - not the Bethel so often mentioned, the present Beitin, in the tribe of Benjamin, but Betheul ( 1 Chronicles 4:30 ) or Bethul, in the tribe of Simeon ( Joshua 19:4 ), which Knobel supposes to be Elusa or el Khalasa (see at Joshua 15:30 ). The reading Βαιθσούρ in the lxx is a worthless conjecture. Ramah of the south, which was allotted to the tribe of Simeon, has not yet been discovered (see at Joshua 19:8 ). Jattir has been preserved in the ruins of Attir, on the southern portion of the Mountains of Judah (see at Joshua 15:48 ).