Joshua 17:11

In Issachar and in Asher; either,

1. Bordering upon them, as in Asher is taken, Joshua 17:10, and as Aaron's rod is said to be in the ark, i.e. close by it, Hebrews 9:4; or,

2. Properly in them, as Ephraim had some cities in the tribe of Manasseh, Joshua 16:9, and as it was not unusual, when the places allotted to any tribe was too narrow for it, and the next too large, to give away part from the larger to the less portion; nay, sometimes one whole tribe was taken into another, as Simeon was into Judah's portion, when it was found too large for Judah, Joshua 19:9. The inhabitants of Dor; not the places only, but the people; whom, contrary to God's command, they spared and used for servants, whom therefore they are said to have or possess. Three countries: this may be referred either to some, to wit, the three last places, or to all the places named in this verse, which are here said either to have three countries or tracts of land belonging to them, or to be in three several countries or portions, as they seem to have been, some in Issachar, and some in Asher, and yet both belonging to Manasseh. Or, the words may be rendered the third part of that country; for the Hebrew word is of the singular number, and the article seems emphatical; and so the meaning may be, that the cities and towns here mentioned are a third part of that country, i.e. of that part of Issachar's and Asher's portion, in which those places lay.