CHAPTER XVIII _The tabernacle is set up at Shiloh_, 1. _Seven of the tribes having not yet received their inheritance_, 2. _Joshua orders three men from each tribe to be chosen, and sent_ _to examine the land and divide it into seven parts, which_ _should be distributed among them by lot_, 3-7.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:3. _HOW LONG_ ARE _YE SLACK TO GO TO POSSESS THE LAND_] We find an unaccountable backwardness in this people to enter on the inheritance which God had given them! They had so long been supported by _miracle_, without any exertions of their own, that they found it difficult to shake t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:4. _THREE MEN FOR_ EACH _TRIBE_] Probably meaning only _three_ from each of the _seven_ tribes who had not yet received their inheritance. It is likely that these twenty-one men were accompanied by a military guard, for without this they might have been easily cut off by straggling p... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:5. _JUDAH SHALL ABIDE - ON THE SOUTH, AND THE HOUSE OF_ _JOSEPH - ON THE NORTH._] Joshua does not mean that the tribe of Judah occupied the south, and the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh the _north_ of the promised land; this was not the fact: but being now at Shiloh, a considerable w... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:7. _THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE LORD_ IS _THEIR INHERITANCE_] We have already seen that the priests and Levites had the sacrifices, oblations tithes, first-fruits, redemption-money of the firstborn, c., for their inheritance they had no landed possessions in Israel; the LORD was their port... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:9. _AND DESCRIBED IT IN A BOOK_] This as far as I can recollect, is the first act of _surveying_ on record. These men and their work differed widely from those who had searched the land in the time of Moses; _they_ went only to discover the nature of the country, and the state of its... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:11. _AND THE LOT - OF BENJAMIN CAME UP_] On the manner of casting the lot, see on Joshua 14:2, and Numbers 26:55. There were probably two _urns_, one of which contained the names of the seven tribes, and the other that of the seven portions. They therefore took out one name out of th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:12. _THE WILDERNESS OF BETH-AVEN._] This was the same as _Beth-el_; but this name was not given to it till Jeroboam had fixed one of his golden calves there. Its first name signifies the _house of God_; its second, the _house of iniquity_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:16. _TO THE SIDE OF JEBUSI_] The mountain of _Zion_, that was near _Jerusalem_; for _Jebusi_, or _Jebus_, was the ancient name of this city.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:17. _EN-SHEMESH_] The fountain of the sun; a proof of the idolatrous nature of the ancient inhabitants of this land. _GELILOTH_] As the word signifies _borders_ or _limits_, it is probably not the proper name of a place: _And went forth towards_ _the BORDERS which are over against t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:19. _THE NORTH BAY OF THE SALT SEA_] As the word לשון _leshon_ signifies the _tongue_, it may here refer to the _point_ of the Dead or Salt Sea. Of these _tongues_ or _points_ it had _two_, one on the _north_, and the other on the _south_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:21. _NOW THE CITIES_] Some of these cities have been mentioned before, and described; of others we know nothing but the _name_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:24. _AND GABA_] Supposed to be the same as _Gibeah of Saul_, a place famous for having given birth to the first king of Israel; and infamous for the shocking act towards the Levite's wife, mentioned Judges 19:16-7, which was the cause of a war in which the tribe of Benjamin was nearl... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:25. _GIBEON_] See before, Joshua 10:1. This place is famous for the confederacy of the five kings against Israel, and their miraculous defeat. _Ramah_, a place about six or eight miles north of Jerusalem. _Beeroth_, i.e., _wells_; one of the four cities which belonged to the Gibeonit... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:26. _AND MIZPEH_] This place is celebrated in the sacred writings. Here the people were accustomed to assemble often in the presence of the Lord, as in the deliberation concerning the punishment to be inflicted on the men of Gibeah, for the abuse of the Levite's wife. Judges 20:1. S... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joshua 18:28. _AND ZELAH_] This was the burying-place of Saul, Jonathan, and the family of _Kish_. See 2 Samuel 21:14. _JEBUSI, WHICH IS JERUSALEM_] We often meet with this name, and it is evident that it was the ancient name of Jerusalem, which was also called _Salem_; and was probably the... [ Continue Reading ]