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The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:2
The river Jabbok. Literally, the pouring or emptying stream. It is remarkable that, while the LXX. renders here by χείμαρρος, a winter torrent, it steadily renders the same Hebrew word, when referring to Aruon, by φάρ…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:3
And from the plain. There is no "from" in the original, which here ceases to describe the territories of Sihon, but continues the account of the Israelite dominions, which included the Arabah (not the plain as in our ve…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:4
The giants. Hebrew, Rephaim cf. Genesis 14:5; Genesis 15:20; also Joshua 17:15). The word, according to Ewald, is equivalent to "stretched out." It was also applied to the dead. The Rephaim were one of the various tribe…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:5
The Geshurites. See Joshua 13:2, Joshua 13:11, Joshua 13:13; and Deuteronomy 3:14; also 2 Samuel 13:37, where we find the principality of Geshur still in possession of its independence. It was in the northeast corner of…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:6
Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave. Theodoret makes the tribes which received their inheritance through Moses the types of the believing Jews, and those who received it through Jesus (Joshua) the types of the believin…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:7-24
The catalogue of the vanquished. A melancholy document, meaning little more to us than a column in a directory, but meaning much to multitudes. Many of these kings would be lamented in elegies as sweet as David's song o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:7
And these are the kings of the country. We now proceed to the enumeration of the kings whom Joshua had overcome on the western side of Jordan. And the first thing that strikes us is their immense number, as compared to…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:8
The mountains. "Which, as the mountains of Judah (Joshua 15:48), Ephraim (Joshua 16:1), and Naphtali (Joshua 19:32), ran through the midst of the land" (Knobel). See Joshua 11:16, Joshua 11:21, and note.
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:9
The list of the cities subdued. The king of Jericho, one. Here follows a list of the royal cities of the Canaanites, the remainder being daughter, or dependent cities, or else, perhaps, like Gibeon, cities whose governm…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:13
The king of Geder. Perhaps the same as Gederah in Joshua 15:36. If so, it is the Gedor of the Onomasticon, ten miles from Beit-Jibrin, or Eleutheropolis, now Jedireh. Conder, however, with whom Vandevelde seems to agree…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:14
Hormah, Arad. Cities in the Negeb, near the border of Edom (see Numbers 14:45; Numbers 21:1, Numbers 21:3; Numbers 33:40). Hor-mah was originally known as Zephath (see 1:16, 1:17, where the fullest description of the lo…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:15
Adullam. In the Shephelah (valley in our version. See Joshua 15:33-35). Canon Tristram in his 'Bible Lands,' as well as Conder in his 'Handbook,' identify this with Aid-el-Me, or Mich. In the Quarterly Paper of the Pale…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:16
Bethel. This city is here mentioned as smitten by Joshua. See notes on the capture of Ai, and 1:22-25.
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:17
Tappuah. Literally "apple city." It is difficult say whether this was Tappuah in Judah (Joshua 15:34; cf. Joshua 15:53), or in Manasseh (Joshua 16:8; Joshua 17:7, Joshua 17:8). The mention of Aphekah in Joshua 15:53, an…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:22
Kedesh, i.e; Kedesh-Napbtali (see Joshua 19:7). Jokneam of Carmel. This city is mentioned as one of the cities of purveyance to Solomon's court (1 Kings 4:12), with Beth-shean, Taanach, and Megiddo. It has been identifi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:23
The nations of Gilgal. Or the nations that belong to Gilgal. This is identified by Yandevelde and Conder with Jiljulieh in the plain of Jordan, north of Antipatris, and is therefore, if this identification be correct, a…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 12:24
Tirzah meets us as the residence of the kings of Israel for a time in the narrative in 1 Kings. Jeroboam's wife went thither after her interview with Ahijah (Joshua 14:1-15 :17). Baasha dwelt there (Joshua 15:21, Joshua…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 13:1
Old age. The most active servant of God may be overtaken by old ago before he has completed what he believes to be the task of his life. This fact suggests various reflections. I. THE GREATNESS OF DUTY AND THE LIMITS OF…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 13:1-33
EXPOSITION THE DIVISION OF THE TERRITORY.—
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 13:1
Now Joshua was old. This is usually regarded as the second part of the Book of Joshua; the first being devoted to the history of the conquest of Palestine, while the second is engaged with the history of its division am…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 13:1
Life ending and the work not done. The rest of the land from war, then (Joshua 12:23), was not that of final and completed victory. It was only a temporary truce. The whole land was not yet in the possession of Israel,…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 13:2
This is the land which yet remaineth. The powerful league of the Philistines, as well as the tribes near them, remained unsubdued. In the north, likewise, the neighbourhood of Sidon, and the territory of Coele, Syria, w…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 13:3
From Sihor. This word, which has the article in Hebrew, is literally the black river. This has been thought to be the Nile, known to both Greeks and Latins by that title. The Greeks called it μέλας. So Virgil says of i…
The Pulpit Commentary on Joshua 13:4
From the south. The LXX. and the best modern commentators connect these words with what precedes. This gives a better sense than joining it to what follows. For the south was not "all the land of the Canaanites," but a…