The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 306

Ziklo.g ie fa.moue ne the reeidence of David lived the prophet who foretold the destruc- (1 Sam. xxvii. 6). It ie noteworthy that tion of ,Jehoehaphat's navy (2 Chron. xx. 37. it wne given to him by Achieh, king of Gath, See e.lso Micah i. 15). Now Marash, close in whoee poeeeeeion it therefore was at that to Beit-Jibrin or Elentheropolis (Tristram, time. It wae burnt by the roving banda of Conder). If it be the same as Moresheth- Amalekitee (1 Sam. xxx. 1). Gath in Micah i. 14, this adds additional Ver. 22.-Thelr villages (eee note eh. xiii. probability to the identification of Gath 28). with Beit-Jibrin (see note on eh. xiii. 3). Ver. 22.-KiDah. Knobel suggeete that Ver. 45.-Ekron, with her towne and her thie wae the city of the Kenitee, a suppo- villages. Literally, her daughter., and her eition which derives some support from fltrm-hamlets (see note on eh. xiii. 28). These Judg. i. 16 and 1 Sam. xv. 6. cities of the Philistines had, like Gibeon, Ver. 24.-Telem. '£his is identified by daughter-cities dependent on them, and Knobel with the Telaim mentioned in 1 must therefore have been, like Gibeon, Sam. xv. 4. Conder, in his 'Handbook,' "great cities as the royal cities" (eh. x. 2). supports this view, but nothing more is They do not appear to have come under known of the place. regal government till later times (cf. 1 Sam. Ver. 29.-lim. The Alexandrian version v. 8, ll, with 1 Sam. xxvii. 2). "Around it of LXX. has 'Aveip, here.· If this be correct, (Gezer) and along the sides were distributed the city was named after theAvim (see note a series of small isolated centres of agglome- on eh. xiii. 4). lfwe take the reading in the ration. . . . This disposition to scatter itself, text we must interpret by ruins (see note on of which Gezer snrely does not offer us the Ai, eh. vii. 2). only specimen, explains in a striking man- Ver. 32.-.Aill, Rim.man (see eh. xix. 7 ; ner the Biblical phrase, • the city and her 1.Chron. iv. 32 ; Neh. xi. 29). ¥ore likely daughters'" (Pal. Exp!. Fond, Quart. Paper, the name of one ple.ce Ain-Rimmon, the Jan., 1874). This explanation, however, is fountain of the godRimmon. For _Rimmon doubtful (see eh. ix. 17). According to see 2 Kings v. 18. The .word signifying Knobel, this passage cannot have been eye, or fountain, is written indifferently written by the Elohist, because he confines Ain or En in our version (see En-shemesh himself to the description of the cities the and En-rogel in this chapter). Rimmon Israelites actually possessed. Why a later ie mentioned in Zech. xiv. 10 e.e " south writer, writing presumably when Israel's of Jerusalem." Now Umm er-Rumamin fortunes were at a lower ebb, should have (Conder). added a description of the territory Israel _ Ver. 32. Twenty-nine. There is another did not possess, he does not explain. of the very common errors .of numbers here. Ver. 48.-The mounta.llls. Compo.re the The actual number is thirty-six. The error expression," the hill country of Judrea ,. (r,/ is e.s old as the LXX. version. ~pnvy, the same as here in the LXX.), Luke i. 65. It extends northwards from near Ver. 33. The valley. rl~;l~il (see note Debir to Jerusalem, attaining at Hebron a OD eh. ix. 1; x. 40). This was the fertile hei~ht of about 2,700 feet. The physical po.rt of Judah, and formed a part of the rich ch~acteristics of the country are vividly plain which has been described ae extending described in Dent. viii. 7, 8. Dean Stanley northward as far as Carmel. Ii wo.s " re- (' Sinai and Palestine,' p. 100) descants on nowned for the beauty of its flowers " the home-like charo.cter of the scenery and (Delitzsch). With the exception of Zorah vegetation to an Englishman, o.nd remarks and Eshtaol, border towns to the tribe of on the contrast between the life, activity, Dan (eh. xix. 41; Judg. xiii. 25), famous in nud industry displayed there, as contrasted the history of Samson (see Judg. xiii.-xvi.), ,vith the desolation of the greater po.rt of and mentioned in 2 Chron. xi. 10; Neh. xi. Palestine. A later tra'l'eller, who would not, 29, the citiee remarkable in history have of course, be so struck with the resemblance been noticed already. It is worthy of re- to English scenery, speaks of the fertility of mark that the cities of the Philistines were the ground o.s a matter of possibility, rather included in this list. But the Philistines, than of fa.et. The rocky soil, when broken save during the reigns of David nnd Solo- up by the combined influence~ of heat, mon, retained their. independence, and in rain and frost, is like the soil of other earlier o.nd later times a.like even encroached rocky districts, c;trewely s1~sceptible of upon the Jewish territory (see 1 So.m. xiii. cultivation when !,Li,! out Ill terraces. 6; 2 Chron. xxviii. 18; o.nd note on ver. ll). He remarks how tho signs of ancient Ver. 44.-Mareehah. One of Rehoboii.m's cultivation in this m~nner a.re to be seen on fortifiecl cities (2 Chron. xi. 8). Here Asa all sides and ]C\lllcats the misrule which met Zerah the Ethiopian, or Cushite, and he.s couv~rted the "laud flowing with milk overthrew him (2 Chron. xiv. 9). Here and honey" into a wilderness (see Bartt.ett, 252 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. (cu. xv. 1-88.