Joshua 12:23

Ver. 23. The king of Dor, in the coast of Dor— The city of this name fell to the lot of the children of Manasseh; chap. Joshua 17:11. It appears to have commanded a great territory; and Bochart observes, that it was one of the oldest royal cities in Phoenicia. The Canaanites held it; Judges 1:27. Antiochus Sydetes besieged it in after times, but could not make himself master of it. See Boch. Can. lib. 1: cap. 28.

The king of the nations of Gilgal— The LXX have it, the king of Gei of Galile, or rather, as Dr. Hammond renders it, of Galilee; for so he thinks it should be read: by which Galilee, he understands the Galilee of the nations, the same country whose king was Tidal, Genesis 14:1. See Hamm. on Matt. note e. The Gilgal here mentioned cannot be the place where Joshua had his camp; there was no city at that time, and Joshua gave the spot the name of Gilgal for the reason mentioned, chap. Joshua 5:9. Several learned men understand, by the king of the nations of Gilgal, a king who ruled over some district of Galilee of the Gentiles or nations; but, as St. Jerome remarks, this name, Galilee of the nations, was unknown in Joshua's time; and we should fix its rise in the time of Solomon, when that prince gave Hiram the twenty cities spoken of 1 Kings 9:11. St. Jerome further observes, that there was, in his time, a city named Gelgel, near the sea, not far from Joppa, and six miles from Antipatris. Perhaps this is the city we are looking for. Trade bringing people from all nations into these parts, perhaps the petty king of Gelgel might from thence have been called the king of the nations settled in the territories of this place. We must confess however, notwithstanding what Bishop Patrick mentions to the contrary in his notes on Genesis 14:1., that there seems to be a more plausible opinion respecting the matter; for, first, it is certain that the name Gojim, which we find here in the Hebrew, is the same that we read of in Genesis 14:1 where Tidal is called king of Gojim, or the nations. It is also as certain that the kingdom of this Tidal was neither near the sea, nor in the neighbourhood of Joppa: thus the conjecture of St. Jerome, approved by the Bishop of Ely, is not easily supported; on the contrary, the kingdom of Tidal may very naturally be supposed to be in north Galilee. It is strongly asserted, that the name of Galilee of the nations commenced in the time of Solomon; but it is more easy to assert than to prove. The name constantly implies a country much more extensive than the twenty cities which Solomon gave to Hiram. We do not see why it might not be anterior to that offer, and as old as Tidal. Though in the passage of Genesis the LXX render Gojim as a name appellative, they render it here as a proper name, and in all probability it should be so translated. Our historian, therefore, signifies to us, a king of Gojim of Galilee. See Wells's Paraphrase. and notes; Calmet and Le Clerc.