Joshua 17:1

Joshua 17:1-6. The Inheritance of Western Manasseh

1. There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh Although the tribe of Manasseh had already, as we have seen, obtained an extensive inheritance east of the Jordan, where a portion of the warlike descendants of Machir had left their families, the rest of the tribe now claimed a further grant of land in addition to what they had acquired by force of arms.

for he was the firstborn of Joseph Comp. Genesis 41:51, "And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh (a forgetter); for God, said he, hath made me forgetall my toil, and all my father's house." And again, Genesis 48:14, "And Israel stretched out his … left hand, and laid it upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn." The birth of this child in Egypt, before the commencement of the famine, was the first alleviation of Joseph's sorrows since he left his home and his father, who loved him with such passionate affection.

for Machir The eldest son of the patriarch Manasseh. His mother was an Aramæan or Syrian concubine (1 Chronicles 7:14-15). Her name is not preserved, but her children are commemorated as having been caressed by Joseph before his death; "the children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were brought up (borne, marg.) upon Joseph's knees (Genesis 50:23).

the father of Gilead The word "Gilead" here in the original has the article. This denotes not a person, but the province, or district of Gilead, and the word rendered father = "lord," or "possessor." The expression "father of Gilead" therefore = "lord" or "possessor of Gilead."

therefore he had Gilead and Bashan Machir is here used for his family, for it was not he himself, but his descendants Jair and Nobah, who conquered the territory east of the Jordan. Jair captured the whole of the tract of Argob (Deuteronomy 3:14), and in addition took possession of some nomad villages in Gilead, which he called after his own name, Havoth-Jair(Numbers 32:41; 1 Chronicles 2:23). Nobah possessed himself of the town of Kenath and the hamlets dependent upon it, and gave them his own name (Numbers 32:42). For the territory of the half tribe of Manasseh east of the Jordan, see above, ch. Joshua 13:29-32. The district called "Gilead" is also sometimes called "Mount Gilead" (Genesis 31:25); sometimes "the land of Gilead" (Numbers 32:1); and sometimes simply "Gilead" (as here, and Genesis 37:25; Psalms 60:7). The name signifies the physical aspect of the country = a "hard rocky region." It extended from the parallel of the south end of the Sea of Galilee to that of the north end of the Dead Sea, about 60 miles, and its average breadth scarcely exceeded 20. See Smith's Bibl. Dict.