The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 336

The nntuml ndvnnt11ges ol the territory border of N aphtali is more lightly traced must h11ve been great. Not only was it than any previous one, and is regarded as described propheUc111ly by Jacob (Gen. being sufficiently defined, save toward the xlix. 20) and h,: Moses (Deut. xxxiii. 24, 25), north, by the boundaries of the other but the prosperity of the two great maritime tribes. cities of Tyre ancl Sidon was due to the Ver. 31.-And then the coast turneth immense commercia,l advantages the neigh- westward. Here the worrls are literally bourhood afforded. St. Jean d'Acre, within translated without any conrusion between the territory once assigned to Asher, bas the west and the sea, nor any misappre- inherited the prosperity, so for as anything hension of the meaning of the word ::lDJ. under the Turkish mle can be prosperons, Reacheth. This is the same word translate,! once enjoyed by her two predecessors. skirteth above, ver. 11, note. We have it here Maunclrell, the acute English chaplain at clearly stated that Naphtali was bordered Aleppo, who visited Palestine in 1696, de- on the south by Zebulun, on the west by ~cribes the plain of Acre in his day as about Asher, and on the east by "Judah upon six hours' journey from north to south, and Jordan." To Judah. These words ha,e two from west to east ; as being well watered, causecl great trouble to translators and ex- and possessing " everything else that might positors for 2,000 years. The LXX. omits render it both pleasant and fruitful. them altogether, rendering, "and the But," he adds, " this delicious plain is Jordan to the eastward." The Masorites, now almost desolate, being suffered, for by inserting a disjuncti,e accent bet,,.een want of culture, to run up to rank weeds, them and the words that follow, would as high as our horses' backs." Asher, how- have us render, "and to Judah: Jordan ·ever, never employed the advantages its towards the sonrising," or, " is towards the situation offered. They never subdued the sunrising," a rendering which gh·es no Canaanites around them, bot, unquestion- reasonable sen.-e. They unquestionably ably at a very early date (see Judg. v. 17) form part of the text, since no version but preferred a life of compromise and ignoble the LXX. omits them. A suggestion of ease to the national welfare. But it would Von Raumer's has fonnd favour that the be incorrect to suppose that because the cities called Havoth J air, which were on tribe is omitted in the list of rulers given the eastern side of Jordan, opposite the in 1 Chron. xxvii., it had ceased to be a inheritance of Naphtali, are meant. Jai.r power in Israel. For Gad is also omitted was a descendant of Judah by the father's in that list, while among the warriors who side, through Hezron. So Ritter, iv. 338 co.me to greet David when he became un- (see 1 Chron. ii. 21-23). It would seem disputed king of Israel, Asher sent 40,000 that the principle of female inheritance, trainecl warriors, a number exceeding the having cince been admitted in the tribe of men of Ephraim, and those of Simeon, of Manasseh, was found capable of fnrther Dan, and of the half-tribe of Manasseh (see extension. But to the majority of the 1 Chrou. xii.), and far erceeding the num- Israelites this settlement would no clonbt bers of Benjamin, which had never recovered be regarded as an offshoot of the tribe the wo.r of almost extermination waged of Judah. ag1tinst it, in consequence of the 1ttrocity at Ver. 35.-And the fenced cities. The Gibeah (Judg. xx.). Possibly the reason remark is made in the 'Speaker's Com- why so few are mentioned of the tribe of mentary ' that the number of fenced cities Judah on that occasion is because so many in the north were no doubt owing to a were already with David. There seems no determination to protect the northern 1:round for the idea of Dean Stanley, that boundary of Israel by a chnin of fortresses. the allusion to Asher in Judg. v. 17 is any The word fenced is the same that is rendered more contemptuous than the allusion to strong in ver. 29, "the strong city Tyre." 11ny other tribe. Chinnereth (see eh. xi. 2). Ver. 33.-From Allon to Za.a.nannlm. Or, Ver. 36.-Hazor (see above, eh. :<i.1-10). the oak which is at Zaanannim (cf. Allon- Ver. 37.-Xedesh (see eh. xii. 22). It was bachuth, the oak of weeping, Gen. xxxv. 8). the residence of Barak (Jndg. iv. 6). Known Zaanannim is the same as the Zaanaim to Josephus (Bell. Juel., 4. 2 3.) as. Cydoessa, mentioned in Judg. iv. 11. For (1) the Keri to Eusebius and Jerome as Cyd1ssus; 1t IS id Z1111nannim there, and the word here now Kedes (see Robinson, 'Later l:liblical rightly tro.nslated "oak" is rendered there Researches'). Edre!. Not the Edrei of Og, "plain," o.s in Gen. xii. 6 and elsewhere. which was beyond Jordan. It has been supposed to lie north-west of Ver. 38.-M!gdal-el. The l\lagdala of Lake Huleh, the ancient Merom, whence the New Testament. It lay on the lake of we find that the scene of that famous battle Gennesareth. Beth-shemesh. A common was assignecl to the tribe of Naphtali. The name, derived from the worship of the sun-  'l'HE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [en. xtx. 1-61,