The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 315

have v.dmired tho picturesque situation of methe.h be e.t once the northern border of Bhechcm. It hv.e even extorted a tribute Ephraim and Me.nasseh, the territory of from Dr. Peterman, in hie • Reisen im Mane.sash ie cut e.lmost in half. And, in Orient,' v. work which, however fall of fact, such a supposition makes confusion vo.luable informo.tion regarding the con- worse confounded. Is it probable that in dition and cnetoms of the people, does vers. 7 and 10 Asher-he.m-)Iichmethah is not abound m description of scenery. He mea.nt ; that the town Asher is mentioned becomes e.lmoa t poetical e.e he epev.ks of this in similar terms to the tribe Issachar in the town, resting on the elopes of Gerizim, a latter verse; e.nd that in ver. 11, without mountain fruitful to its summit, and having a single intimation of the change of mean- opposite the be.re, stony el Ebe.I, its outline ing, the tribes Issa.char and Asher are men- unrelieved by verdure, the haunt of jackals, tioned ? Again : if Dor-considerably to the whose howls, like the cry of wailing chil- south of Monnt Carmel- was within the dren in distress, disturb the silence of the territory of Asher (ver. 11), how can we night. Thomson (' Land and the Book,' p. possibly, ae Conder's • Handbook' does, 470) thus describes the scene: "A valley place the limits of Asher at Acebo, and green with grass, grey with oli vee, gardens bring Zebulun to the sea. (which it never sloping down on each side, fresh springs reaches, for" toward the see.," in eh. xix. 11 rushing down in all directions ; at the end a clearly means "westward"), interposing e. white town embosomed in all this verdure large strip of territory between Manasseh lodged between the two high mountains and Asher, placing Dor, in spite of ver. 11, which extend on each side of the valley ; far within the limits of Manasseh, and this is the aspect of Nablous, the most giving this last tribe, or rather half.tribe, beautiful, perhaps it might be said the only an extraor <linarily clisproportioned she.re of beautiful, spot in Central Palestine. Thirty- the la.nd? (See the complaint in ver. 16). t_wo springs can be traced in different parts. Zebulun, too, was on the eastern border of Here the bilbul delights to sit and sing, and Asher ( eh. xix. 27), and it is by no means thousands of other birds delight to swell certain that Shihor Libnath (see eh. xix. 26) the chorus." is not the Wady Zerka, south of Dor. This Ver. 9.-Southwa.rd of the brook. It is the view of Knobel, a commentator by would seem e.e if some words had fallen no means void of acuteness. This contrac. a.way here also. The LXX. a.dde Jariel, tion of Me.nasseh's territory explains why cities ha.cl to be given to it oot of Asher and translates n';,~ (these) by terebinth, a.nd Issache.r, as well as the complaint in the omits the word ••cities." The cities sonth- latter part of this chapter. Issachar, too, wa.rd of the brook belonged of course to must have stretched considerably southward. Ephraim. But what is meant here ie that But the vagueness of the description of Ephraim had cities north of the brook, That Manasseh 's border, especially on the north, the border of Manasseh lay to the northward prevents us from assigning any limits to of the brook is asserted twice over in the Issa.char in this direction ; wbile it is im- latter part of this and the next verse. possible, with a writer in the Quarterly These cities of Ephraim a.re among (lite- Papers of the Palestine Exploration Fund, rally, in tlw midst of) the cities of Manasseh to suppose that it extended from J ezreel (see eh. xvi. 9). If exact a.nd minute and Shunem a.nd Endor on the north as accurv.cy is found in this record, how for as Jericho to the south. ie it that accusations of inaccuracy are Ver. 11.-AD.d Manasseh had in lesacha.r so readily made against its author, when and 1n Asher (see eh. xvi. 9). Beth-ehean. his narrative is clearly very much abbre- Afterwards ca.lled Scythopolis, now Beisa.n. viated, and where a fuller knowledge of the It was a "noble city" in the days of facts might possibly clear up what now Eusebius and Jerome. Many travellers appears obecnrc? Our present text has not have remarked on its splendid situation, the na.mee of these cities. " in this vast area of plain a.nd mountains, Ver.10.-And they met together. Rv.ther, in the midst of abundant we.ters a.nd ex- they (i.e., the Manassites) impinged (this is uberant fertility " (Robinson, • Later Bibi. the very sv.me word a.a the Hebrew ~ll~!)'. ), Res.' sec. 7). "Jnst beyond, a.nd separated i.e., "touched upon." There has been great by a narrow ridge, is another stream, slso discussion concerning this passage. The perennial, and on the peninsular formed by literal meaning ie clearly that Manasseh these two, with e. bold, steep brow overlook. was bordered by Asher on the north, and ing the Ghor, stood the citadel of ancient Ieeachar on the east. The idev. of s.n Asher- Beth-shea.n -a sort of Gibraltar on v. small bam-Miohmethah must be given up if we scale-of remarkable natural strength, and take this rendering of the Hebrew. Its inaccessible to horsemen. No wonder that only justification- ie the fact that if Mich- it was long ere Israel could wrest it fro111  THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. (cR. XVII. 1-18,