Joshua 15:7 Komentář

Though the land was not completely conquered, yet being (as was said in the close of the foregoing chapter) as rest from war for the present, and their armies all drawn out of the field to a general rendezvous at Gilgal, there they began to divide the land, though the work was afterwards perfected at Shiloh, Jos 18:1, etc. In this chapter we have the lot of the tribe of Judah, which in this, as in other things, had the precedency. I. The borders or bounds of the inheritance of Judah (Jos 15:1-12). II. The particular assignment of Hebron and the country thereabout to Caleb and his family (Jos 15:13-19). III. The names of the several cities that fell within Judah's lot (v. 20-63).

INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 15 In this chapter are related the boundaries of the lot of the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:1; and the assignment of Hebron to Caleb, from whence he drove out the giants, and of Debir, which was taken by Othniel his brother, to whom, on that account, he gave his daughter in marriage, who made a further request to her father, which was granted, Jos 15:13; and then follows an account of the several cities by name, which fell to the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:20.

And the border went up towards Debir,.... This was neither the Debir in the tribe of Gad, on the other side Jordan, Jos 13:26; nor that in the tribe of Judah near Hebron, Jos 15:15; but a third city of that name, and was not far from Jericho: from the valley of Achor; where Achan was put to death, and had its name from thence; which, according to Jarchi, lay between the stone of Bohan and Debir: and so northward, looking towards Gilgal; not the place where Israel were encamped when this lot was made, but it seems to be the same that is called Geliloth, Jos 18:17, that is, the going up to Adummim; which, Jerom says (c), was formerly a little village, now in ruins, in the lot of the tribe of Judah, which place is called to this day Maledomim; and by the Greeks "the ascent of the red ones", because of the blood which was there frequently shed by thieves: it lies on the borders of Judah and Benjamin, as you go from Jerusalem to Jericho, where there is a garrison of soldiers for the help of travellers, and is supposed to be the place where the man fell among thieves in his way from the one to the other, Luk 10:30. It was four miles distant from Jericho to the west, according to Adrichomius (d), and was a mountain, and part of the mountains of Engaddi: which is on the south side of the river; which some take to be the brook Kidron; but that is not very likely, being too near Jerusalem for this place: it may be rendered "the valley", so Jarchi, either the valley of Achor, before mentioned, or however a valley that ran along by the mount or ascent of Adummim, which lay to the south of it: and the border passed to the waters of Enshemesh: or the "fountain of the sun"; but of it we have no account what and where it was. It might be so called, because dedicated to the sun by the idolatrous Canaanites, or because of the sun's influence on the waters of it. Our city, Bath, is, by Antoninus (e), called "aquae solis", the waters of the sun; though there is a fountain in Cyrene, so called, for a reason just the reverse, it being, as Mela (f) and Pliny (g) affirm, hottest the middle of the night, and then grows cooler by little and little; and when it is light is cold, and when the sun is risen is colder still, and at noon exceeding cold; and, according to Vossius (h), it is the same with the fountain of Jupiter Ammon; and so it appears to be from Herodotus (i), by whom it is also called the "fountain of the sun", and which he places in Thebes, though Pliny distinguishes them: and the goings out thereof were at Enrogel; which signifies "the fountain of the fuller"; so the Targum renders it, and probably was a fountain where fullers cleansed their clothes; and was called Rogel, as Jarchi and Kimchi say, because they used to tread them with their feet when they washed them. This was a place near Jerusalem, as appears from Kg1 1:9; near to which perhaps was the fuller's monument, at the corner tower of Jerusalem, Josephus (k) speaks of, as there was also a place not far from it called the fuller's field, Isa 7:3; according to Bunting (l), it had its name from travellers washing their feet here. (c) De loc. Heb. fol. 88. E. F. (d) Theatrum Terrae Sanct. p. 14. (e) Vid. Cambden's Britannia, p. 141. (f) De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 8. (g) Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 103. (h) Observat. in Pompon. Mel. ut supra. (De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 8.) (i) Melpomene, sive, l. 4. c. 181. (k) De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 4. sect. 2. (l) Travels, p. 148.

Everyone, therefore, who wants to enter into the portion of the children of Judah must first pass through the Salt Sea. That is to say, he must surmount the waves and billows of this life and escape from all things in this world that, by virtue of their own uncertainty and hazardousness, are compared with the waves of the sea. Then he may be able to reach the land of Judah and to approach the fountain of the sun. But what is the fountain of the sun, or of which sun? Of that sun, of course, about which it is written, "But for the ones fearing my name, the sun of righteousness will arise." Therefore you will find the fountain of this sun in the land of Judah, if you move away from the Salt Sea. Which fountain? That one of which Jesus said, "The water that I give will become a fountain of water leaping up into eternal life within the person who drinks from it." Therefore, when you have found the kind of fountain of this sun that we have described, you will also find its city.

The lot of the tribe of Judah described, Jos 15:1. Their south border, Jos 15:2-4. Their east border, Jos 15:5-11. Their west border, Jos 15:12. Caleb's conquest, Jos 15:13-15. Promises his daughter to the person who should take Kirjath-sepher, Jos 15:16. Othniel his kinsman renders himself master of it, and gets Achsah to wife, Jos 15:17. Her request to her father to get a well watered land, which is granted, Jos 15:18, Jos 15:19. The cities of the tribe of Judah are enumerated, vv. 20-63.

The valley of Achor - Debir mentioned in this verse is unknown. The valley of Achor had its name from the punishment of Achan. See the account, Jos 7:24 (note), etc. En-shemesh - The fountain of the sun; it was eastward of Jerusalem, on the confines of Judah and Benjamin.

BORDERS OF THE LOT OF JUDAH. (Jos 15:1-12) This then was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah--In what manner the lot was drawn on this occasion the sacred historian does not say; but it is probable that the method adopted was similar to that described in Jos 18:10. Though the general survey of the country had not been completed, some rough draft or delineation of the first conquered part must have been made, and satisfactory evidence obtained that it was large enough to furnish three cantons, before all the tribes cast lots for them; and they fell to Judah, Ephraim, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. The lot of Judah came first, in token of the pre-eminence of that tribe over all the others; and its destined superiority thus received the visible sanction of God. The territory, assigned to it as a possession, was large and extensive, being bounded on the south by the wilderness of Zin, and the southern extremity of the Salt Sea (Num 34:3-5); on the east, by that sea, extending to the point where it receives the waters of the Jordan; on the north, by a line drawn nearly parallel to Jerusalem, across the country, from the northern extremity of the Salt Sea to the southern limits of the Philistine territory, and to the Mediterranean; and on the west this sea was its boundary, as far as Sihor (Wady El-Arish).

Achor--(see on Jos 7:26). Adummim--a rising ground in the wilderness of Jericho, on the south of the little brook that flowed near Jericho (Jos 16:1). En-shemesh--"the fountain of the sun"; "either the present well of the apostle, below Bethany, on the road to Jericho, or the fountain near to St. Saba" [ROBINSON]. En-rogel--"the fuller's fountain," on the southeast of Jerusalem, below the spot where the valleys of Jehoshaphat and Hinnom unite.

Inheritance of the Tribe of Judah - Joshua 15 Under the superintending providence of God, the inheritance which fell to the tribe of Judah by lot was in the southern part of Canaan, where Caleb had already received his inheritance, so that he was not separated from his tribe. The inheritance of Judah is first of all described according to its boundaries (Jos 15:1-12); then for the sake of completeness it is stated once more with regard to Caleb, that he received Kirjath-arba for his inheritance, and took possession of it by expelling the Anakites and conquering Debir (Jos 15:13-20); and after this a list is given of the towns in the different parts (vv. 21-63).