Joshua 15
Summary for Josh 15:1-63: 15:1-63 a Judah’s tribal allotment is described in greater detail than that of the other tribes. The failures of Judah’s elder brothers (Gen 34:25-31 b; 35:22 c) put him in line to receive the mantle of leadership. Thus, the tribe of Judah received a central geographical position among the tribes, guaranteeing its leadership in the nation (Gen 49:8-12 d; Deut 33:7 e).Summary for Josh 15:2-4: 15:2-4 f Judah’s southern boundary extended well into the desert of the Negev, which had little if any settled population throughout the Old Testament period.
Summary for Josh 15:5-11: 15:5-11 g Although Judah’s northern boundary is described in great detail, some sections of this border cannot be determined with certainty.
15:7 h This Debir was not the same town as the Debir/Kiriath-sepher of 15:15 i.
• This Gilgal was not the same Gilgal where the Israelites earlier established their camp (4:19 j).
15:8 k The valley of Ben-Hinnom marked Judah’s northern border. Jerusalem occupied a ridge rising northward from the lower end of this valley within the tribe of Benjamin’s territory. Neither tribe occupied Jerusalem, so when David captured it, it became the royal city of his dynasty rather than just another tribal city.
15:9 l the spring at the waters of Nephtoah: It is possible that the place name is a reference to Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah (late 1200s BC); an Egyptian papyrus refers to the “wells of Merneptah” on the mountain ridges of Canaan.
15:12 m These were the boundaries of Judah when the settlement process began. Later, the tribes of Simeon and Dan received their allotments from some of Judah’s southern and western territories, and within a few decades the Philistines came from the Greek islands, settling all the southern coastal plain allotted to Judah (see study note on 13:2).
15:16 n Cp. 1 Sam 17:25 o; 18:27 p.
15:17 q Othniel, Caleb’s nephew, became Israel’s first judge (Judg 3:9-11 r).
Summary for Josh 15:18-19: 15:18-19 s What’s the matter? No water source existed for the town Othniel conquered. Negev means “dry land.”
• The upper and lower springs were close together but too far from Debir to belong to it naturally, so Acsah asked for the rights to the water.
Summary for Josh 15:20-63: 15:20-63 t Not all of these locations can be identified with certainty. Many are unknown except for their occurrence in this and other lists. Some receive passing reference in other texts.
15:21 u in the extreme south: Or in the Negev (see study note on 1:4). The Hebrew word negeb can refer either to the general direction (“south”) or the desert region named “Negev.”
• The location of Eder is otherwise unknown. Some propose translating this word as “Arad” because Arad should be about here in the list and was too important to have been left out. This translation would simply reverse two Hebrew letters that are very similar in shape.
15:33 v From the perspective of the highlanders of the Judean hill country, the lower hills between them and the coastal plain were the western foothills. These hills were separated geologically from the hill country by a series of north–south valleys. In this list, the western foothills are divided into four districts.
Summary for Josh 15:45-47: 15:45-47 w The fourth district of the western foothills included most of the territory soon to be occupied by the Philistines—the tribe of Judah held it only briefly.
15:48 x The hill country was in the central highlands of Judah from Jerusalem in the north to just past Debir (15:15 y) in the south. It was divided into five districts.
15:56 z This Jezreel in Judah was not the northern Jezreel. This city was the hometown of Ahinoam, David’s wife and the mother of his eldest son, Amnon (2 Sam 3:2 aa).
15:59 ab Following this verse, the Greek Old Testament includes another district of 11 cities: Tekoa, Ephrathah (that is, Bethlehem), Phagor, Etam, Kulon, Tatam, Saris, Karem, Gallim, Bether, Manoch—eleven towns with their surrounding villages. The inclusion of this district accounts for Bethlehem; this town’s omission would be surprising. Perhaps an early copyist of the Hebrew text accidentally omitted this twelfth district.
15:61 ac The wilderness of Judea included the eastern slopes of the central mountain highlands and extended to the western shore of the Dead Sea; three of its six towns were on or near that shoreline.
15:63 ad Even though Jerusalem was assigned to the tribe of Benjamin (18:28 ae), it was not conquered in Joshua’s day.
• to this day: The Jebusites’ continued presence later caused Judah trouble (Judg 1:21 af).
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