Judges 1:27

The parallel text, Joshua 17:11-12, which has been adapted here and there to fit its present context, suggests that we should read was not able to drive outfor -did not drive out" (see on Judges 1:19), and that Taanach and Ibleam should change places. The verse describes the limits of Manasseh's expansion northwards; a chain of hostile fortresses, stretching westwards from Beth-shean in the E. to Dor on the sea-coast, rendered the occupation of the Great Plain impossible. A similar line cut off Manasseh-Ephraim from Judah on the S. (Judges 1:35), so that the two tribes were confined to the Central Highlands. Beth-shean(1 Samuel 31:10; 1 Kings 4:12), the Greek Scythopolis (LXX), the mod. Bçsân, commands the main ascent from the Jordan to the Great Plain by the Nahr Jâlûd. Ibleammay be identified with the ruined site Khirbet Bal-ame, about 8 m. S.E. of Taanach. The two towns Taanachand Megiddo(often together Judges 5:19; Joshua 12:21; Joshua 17:11 etc.) lay near each other on the road which goes westwards from Jenîn, skirting the S. of the Plain, which is sometimes called the valley-plain of Megiddo(Zechariah 12:11; 2 Chronicles 35:22). The former is the mod. Ta-annek, and about 5 m. W. of it lay Megiddo, in all probability on the site of Tell el-Mutesellim. Both towns are mentioned on the list of Thothmes III (c.1480 b.c.); Megiddo also appears in the Amarna letters (nos. 159, 193 195) and in Assyrian inscriptions (Schrader, COT, p. 168), for it guarded the pass by which Egyptian and Assyrian armies crossed the Carmel range into the Plain. Both these sites have recently been excavated, Ta-annek by Dr Sellin in 1902 04, Tell el-Mutesellim by Dr Schumacher in 1903 5, and have yielded results which illustrate many details of the religion and social life of Palestine from about 2000 to 100 b.c. See Driver, Schweich Lectures 1909, pp. 80 86, with illustrations. At Ta-annek were found several cuneiform tablets dating from the pre-Israelite period, c.1350 b.c.; and at Megiddo a fine Hebrew lion-seal (illustrated in Driver l.c. p. 91), bearing the legend "Belonging to Shama-, servant of Jeroboam," perhaps Jeroboam II, c.b.c. 783 743. Dôr, in Joshua 17:11 and in Phoenician more correctly D"ôr, lay near the mod. Ṭanṭûra on the coast, S. of Carmel; in Assyr. it is called Du'ru (Schrader l.c.). In order to continue the line consistently from Jordan to the sea, Dorshould be moved to the end of the verse, as in 1 Chronicles 7:29, which seems to be copied from here (Moore).

and her towns and its dependencies, lit. -daughters," cf. Judges 11:26; Numbers 21:25; Numbers 21:32 JE etc.

would dwell Judges 1:35; Joshua 17:12 b, lit. -resolved to dwell," i.e. -persisted in remaining"; cf. Hosea 5:11 -Ephraim … persisted in walking."