The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Cities of Judah
Joshua 15:20–63 — The Cities of Judah. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
20This is the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of Judah.
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zōṯ na·ḥă·laṯ lə·miš·pə·ḥō·ṯām maṭ·ṭêh ḇə·nê- yə·hū·ḏāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
This [is] the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of the sons of Judah.
Where the English smooths the original
Joshua 15:20 contains the closing formula to vv. 1-19, i.e., to the description of the territory of Judah by its boundariesK&D fixes the verse's structural role: it is the seal on the boundary survey, before the town-lists begin.
The territory of Judah is divided into four parts, in the summary which follows: the "south," the "valley," the "mountains," and the "wilderness."
The wells of Beersheba were enough for the Patriarchs, the Amalekites, and the Kenites, but they were not enough for the daughter of Judah and the house of the mighty Caleb.Cambridge, quoting Stanley, lets Achsah's request for springs (vv.18–19) introduce the territory now itemized.
the account of the gift of Hebron to Caleb, and the taking of Debir by Othniel, with the request of Achsah, and the grant of it, are inserted between them, and stand as it were in a parenthesis
21These were the southernmost cities of the tribe of Judah in the Negev toward the border of Edom: Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur,
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yih·yū miq·ṣêh he·‘ā·rîm lə·maṭ·ṭêh ḇə·nê- yə·hū·ḏāh ban·neḡ·bāh ’el- gə·ḇūl ’ĕ·ḏō·wm qaḇ·ṣə·’êl wə·‘ê·ḏer wə·yā·ḡūr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And the cities from the extremity of the tribe of the sons of Judah, toward the border of Edom, in the Negev: Kabzeel, and Eder, and Jagur,
Where the English smooths the original
Negeb (south-land) was the name given to the southernmost district of Canaan in its full extent, from the Arabah, at the southern end of the Dead Sea, right across to the coast of the Mediterranean
The partial character of the conquest and the division of unconquered territory to the tribes is thus illustrated.Ellicott names the unease that haunts the whole list: territory is allotted that Judah does not yet hold.
The uttermost cities; those which were on the borders of the land, not the midland cities. It is apparent that all the cities belonging to this tribe are not mentioned in this catalogue.
Kabzeel was the native place of Benaiah 2 Samuel 23:20 , who was famous as a slayer of lions. The Negeb was a principal haunt of these beasts.
There is given a list of cities within the tribal territory of Judah, arranged in four divisions, corresponding to the districts of which it consistedJFB gives the catalogue's master-outline at its head — the four districts (Negeb vv.21–32, Shephelah vv.33–47, hill-country vv.48–60, wilderness vv.61–62) under which every town below is filed.
22Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah,
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wə·qî·nāh wə·ḏî·mō·w·nāh wə·‘aḏ·‘ā·ḏāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,
Where the English smooths the original
Dimonah, probably the same as Dibon ( Nehemiah 11:25 ); possibly the ruins of el Dheib, on the south side of the wady of the same name, to the north-east of Arad
the second city is thought to be the same with Dibon, Nehemiah 11:25 ; and Jerom (b) observes, that a place elsewhere was indifferently called in his time Dibon and Dimon
Kinah . Knobel suggests that this was the city of the Kenites, a supposition which derives some support from Judges 1:16 and 1 Samuel 15:6 .
23Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan,
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wə·qe·ḏeš wə·ḥā·ṣō·wr wə·yiṯ·nān
Literal — word-for-word from the original
and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Ithnan,
Where the English smooths the original
Kedesh, possibly Kadesh-barnea ( Joshua 15:3 ). Hazor might then be Hezron, in the neighbourhood of Kadesh-barnea ( Joshua 15:3 ). Ithnan is unknown.
The first of these cities seems to be Kadeshbarnea, which was to the south of the land, and on the borders of Edom, from whence the spies were sent, Numbers 32:8 , and Hazor is another city from that which is mentioned, Joshua 11:1
24Ziph, Telem, Bealoth,
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zîp̄ wā·ṭe·lem ū·ḇə·‘ā·lō·wṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Ziph, and Telem, and Bealoth,
Where the English smooths the original
Telem , not identified—not to be confounded with Telaim , where Saul collected and numbered his forces before his attack on Amalek ( 1 Samuel 15:4 )
Bealoth, probably the same as the Simeonitish Baaloth-beer ( Joshua 19:8 ), which is called Baal simply in 1 Chronicles 4:33 , and which was also called Ramath-negeb ( Joshua 19:8 )
Bealoth is probably the "Baalath-beer - Ramath of the south" Joshua 19:8 , and was one of the towns afterward assigned to the Simeonites.
25Hazor-hadattah, Kerioth-hezron (that is, Hazor),
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wə·ḥā·ṣō·wr ḥă·ḏat·tāh ū·qə·rî·yō·wṯ ḥeṣ·rō·wn hî ḥā·ṣō·wr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Hazor-hadattah, and Kerioth-hezron (that is, Hazor),
Where the English smooths the original
Kerioth, prefixed to a name, bespeaks military occupation, as Hazor points to pastoral pursuits.Barnes distinguishes the fortified 'Kerioth' from pastoral 'Hazor'; the same town, by the common derivation of 'Iscariot,' is tied to Judas — the thread back to the Gospel of betrayal.
possibly it should be read as one word, Hazor-hadattah , as there is Hazar-gaddah , Joshua 15:27 , and Hazar-shual , Joshua 15:28 , such compounded proper names being usual
According to the Targum, two cities only are here meant, which reads, "and Hazorhadattah, and Keriothhezron, which is Hazor"; and this reading seems to be right
26Amam, Shema, Moladah,
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’ă·mām ū·šə·ma‘ ū·mō·w·lā·ḏāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Amam, and Shema, and Moladah,
Where the English smooths the original
Molada, which was given to the Simeonites ( Joshua 19:2 ; 1 Chronicles 4:28 ) and was still inhabited by Jews after the captivity ( Nehemiah 11:26 )
Moladah , called Malatua by the Greeks and Romans = the modern El-Milh , four English miles from Tell Arad and nine or ten due east of Beersheba
Shema is thought by some to be the same with Sheba, though wrongly, given afterwards to the tribe of Simeon, as was also Moladah, mentioned with it, Joshua 19:2
27Hazar-gaddah, Heshmon, Beth-pelet,
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wa·ḥă·ṣar gad·dāh wə·ḥeš·mō·wn ū·ḇêṯ pā·leṭ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Hazar-gaddah, and Heshmon, and Beth-pelet,
Where the English smooths the original
28Hazar-shual, Beersheba, Biziothiah,
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wa·ḥă·ṣar šū·‘āl ū·ḇə·’êr še·ḇa‘ ū·ḇiz·yō·wṯ·yāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Hazar-shual, and Beersheba, and Biziothiah,
Where the English smooths the original
29Baalah, Iim, Ezem,
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ba·‘ă·lāh wə·‘î·yîm wā·‘ā·ṣem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Baalah, and Iim, and Ezem,
Where the English smooths the original
Baalah Joshua 19:3 is found in the modern "Deir-el-Belah", near Gaza. Iim, i. e. "ruinous heaps" or "conical hills" ( Numbers 21:11 note) is by some connected with Azem
Baalah, and Iim, and Azem,The Geneva note is bare text — included to show how spare the marginal apparatus runs through the densest stretch of the list.
30Eltolad, Chesil, Hormah,
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wə·’el·tō·w·laḏ ū·ḵə·sîl wə·ḥā·rə·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Eltolad, and Chesil, and Hormah,
Where the English smooths the original
The name Chesil ( "fool") was most likely bestowed by way of opprobrium (compare the change of Bethel, house of God, into Bethaven, house of vanity, Hosea 4:15 ). As Chesil signifies the group of stars known as Orion (compare Job 38:31 ; Amos 5:8 ), probably it was the worship of the heavenly bodies in particular that was carried on here.
Hormah: i.e., Zephoth, the present Sepata (see at Joshua 12:14 ).
31Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah,
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wə·ṣiq·laḡ ū·maḏ·man·nāh wə·san·san·nāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Ziklag, and Madmannah, and Sansannah,
Where the English smooths the original
Madmannah and Sansannah correspond to Beth-marcaboth ( "house of chariots") and Hazar-susah ("horse enclosure") in Joshua 19:5 1 Chronicles 4:31 . The latter names point to two stations of passage on or near the high road between Egypt and Palestine
Ziklag was also given to the tribe of Simeon, Joshua 19:5 , it was in the bands of the king of Gath, in the times of David, who gave it to him
32Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain, and Rimmon—twenty-nine cities in all, along with their villages.
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ū·lə·ḇā·’ō·wṯ wə·šil·ḥîm wə·‘a·yin wə·rim·mō·wn ‘eś·rîm wā·ṯê·ša‘ ‘ā·rîm kāl- wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
and Lebaoth, and Shilhim, and Ain, and Rimmon — all the cities [are] twenty and nine, with their villages.
Where the English smooths the original
Ain and Rimmon are given as Simeonite towns, and being written without the copula, are treated as one name in Joshua 19:7 and 1 Chronicles 4:32 , although they are reckoned as two separate towns in Joshua 19:7 . But as they were also called En Rimmon after the captivity, and are given as one single place in Nehemiah 11:29 , they were probably so close together that in the course of time they grew into one.
Here are thirty-seven or thirty-eight cities named before; how then are they only reckoned twenty-nine? There were only twenty-nine of them which either, 1st, Properly belonged to Judah; the rest falling to Simeon’s lot. Or, 2d, Were cities properly so called; that is, walled cities, or such as had villages under them
The difference is due either to the confusion by an early copyist of letters similar in form which were used as numerals; or to the separation in the King James Version of names which in the original were one (e. g. Joshua 15:25 ).
There is another of the very common errors of numbers here. The actual number is thirty-six. The error is as old as the LXX. version.Pulpit states the discrepancy bluntly — the recorded honesty we adopt rather than smoothing the count over.
33These were in the foothills: Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah,
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baš·šə·p̄ê·lāh ’eš·tā·’ō·wl wə·ṣā·rə·‘āh wə·’aš·nāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
In the Shephelah: Eshtaol, and Zorah, and Ashnah,
Where the English smooths the original
the name given to the land between the mountains of Judah and the Mediterranean Sea, - a broad plain of undulating appearance, intersected by heights and low ranges of hills, with fertile soil, in which corn fields alternate with meadows, gardens, and extensive olive groves
In the valley — i.e., the Shephêlah, or plain of the coast. Of the fourteen that follow in Joshua 15:33-36 , Conder identifies ten. Eshtaol, and Zoreah, were afterwards assigned to Dan ( Joshua 19:41 ).
It is worthy of remark that the cities of the Philistines were included in this list. But the Philistines, save during the reigns of David and Solomon, retained their independencePulpit underlines the gap between the deed and the holding — the list grants Philistine cities Judah never truly possessed.
Zoreah = Sûrah , the residence of Manoah ( Jdg 13:2 ; Jdg 13:25 ) and the native place of Samson. It lay close to Eshtaol. Here Samson spent his boyhood, and to a spot between the two places his dead body was brought after his last great exploit
34Zanoah, En-gannim, Tappuah, Enam,
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wə·zā·nō·w·aḥ wə·‘ên gan·nîm tap·pū·aḥ wə·hā·‘ê·nām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Zanoah, and En-gannim, Tappuah, and Enam,
Where the English smooths the original
35Jarmuth, Adullam, Socoh, Azekah,
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yar·mūṯ wa·‘ă·ḏul·lām śō·w·ḵōh wa·‘ă·zê·qāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Jarmuth, and Adullam, Socoh, and Azekah,
Where the English smooths the original
Socoh, which was fortified by Rehoboam, and taken by the Philistines in the reign of Ahaz ( 2 Chronicles 11:7 ; 2 Chronicles 28:18 ), is the present Shuweikeh by the Wady Sumt
Azekah; See Gill on Joshua 10:10 ; it appears to be near to Socoh from 1 Samuel 17:1 , where the Philistines are said to pitch their camp between them.
36Shaaraim, Adithaim, and Gederah (or Gederothaim)—fourteen cities, along with their villages.
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wə·ša·‘ă·ra·yim wa·‘ă·ḏî·ṯa·yim wə·hag·gə·ḏê·rāh ū·ḡə·ḏê·rō·ṯā·yim ’ar·ba‘- ‘eś·rêh ‘ā·rîm wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Shaaraim, and Adithaim, and Gederah (or Gederothaim) — fourteen cities, with their villages.
Where the English smooths the original
The LXX. omits Gederothaim, which makes fourteen instead of fifteen cities.
Either one of them was no city strictly called; or Gederah and Gederothaim is put for Gederah or Gederothaim , so called, possibly, because the city was double, as there want not instances of one city divided into two parts, called the old and the new city.
Gederah ("wall" or "fortress") was a name borne with various terminations by several places.
37Zenan, Hadashah, Migdal-gad,
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ṣə·nān wa·ḥă·ḏā·šāh ū·miḡ·dal- gāḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Zenan, and Hadashah, and Migdal-gad,
Where the English smooths the original
Zenan, probably the same as Zaanan ( Micah 1:11 ), is supposed by Knobel to be the ruins of Chirbet-es-Senat, a short distance to the north of Beit-jibrin
Migdalgad, of which we nowhere else read; some think it had its name from some famous exploit done here by one of the tribe of Gad, who came over with Joshua to assist in the war
Group II . comprises the cities of the actual plain in its whole extent from north to south, between the hilly region on the west and the Philistine coast on the east.
38Dilan, Mizpeh, Joktheel,
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wə·ḏil·‘ān wə·ham·miṣ·peh wə·yā·qə·ṯə·’êl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Dilan, and Mizpeh, and Joktheel,
Where the English smooths the original
Mizpeh, i.e., specula, a different place from the Mizpeh of Benjamin ( Joshua 18:26 ), was on the north of Eleutheropolis, according to the Onom.
Mizpeh, of which name there were cities in other tribes; this in the tribe of Judah was in the times of Jerom (w) called Mapha, on the borders of Eleutheropolis to the south, as you go to Aelia, or Jerusalem: and Joktheel, of which nothing is to be said.
39Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon,
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lā·ḵîš ū·ḇā·ṣə·qaṯ wə·‘eḡ·lō·wn
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Lachish, and Bozkath, and Eglon,
Where the English smooths the original
40Cabbon, Lahmas, Chitlish,
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wə·ḵab·bō·wn wə·laḥ·mās wə·ḵiṯ·lîš
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Cabbon, and Lahmas, and Chitlish,
Where the English smooths the original
And Cabbon, and Lahmam, and Kithlish. Cities of which we can give no account, not being mentioned elsewhere.Gill's whole comment is a confession of ignorance — preserved verbatim to show how dark these lowland names are to the apparatus.
Cabbon, probably the heap of ruins called Kubeibeh or Kebeibeh, "which must at some time or other have been a strong fortification, and have formed the key to the central mountains of Judah"
41Gederoth, Beth-dagon, Naamah, and Makkedah—sixteen cities, along with their villages.
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ū·ḡə·ḏê·rō·wṯ bêṯ- dā·ḡō·wn wə·na·‘ă·māh ū·maq·qê·ḏāh šêš- ‘eś·rêh ‘ā·rîm wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Gederoth, Beth-dagon, and Naamah, and Makkedah — sixteen cities, with their villages.
Where the English smooths the original
Bethdagon; in it very probably was a temple of Dagon, which was a principal deity of the Philistines, 1 Samuel 5:2 ; Jerom says (x) in his time was shown a large village called Capherdagon
Gederoth, Beth-dagon, and Naamah have not yet been traced.
Of the sixteen towns in Joshua 15:37-41 , Conder identifies seven.
42Libnah, Ether, Ashan,
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liḇ·nāh wā·‘e·ṯer wə·‘ā·šān
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Libnah, and Ether, and Ashan,
Where the English smooths the original
Ether and Ashan, which were afterwards given to the Simeonites ( Joshua 19:7 ), and are probably to be sought for on the border of the Negeb, have not yet been discovered.
Libnah is the same with Libnah, a royal city; see Joshua 10:29 , and Ether was given to the tribe of Simeon, Joshua 19:7
43Iphtah, Ashnah, Nezib,
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wə·yip̄·tāḥ wə·’aš·nāh ū·nə·ṣîḇ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Iphtah, and Ashnah, and Nezib,
Where the English smooths the original
44Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah—nine cities, along with their villages.
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ū·qə·‘î·lāh wə·’aḵ·zîḇ ū·mā·rê·šāh tê·ša‘ ‘ā·rîm wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah — nine cities, with their villages.
Where the English smooths the original
The first of these is a well known city, which David saved from the hands of the Philistines, 1 Samuel 23:1 , &c.
Keilah, which is mentioned in the history of David ( 1 Samuel 23 ), and then again after the captivity ( Nehemiah 3:17 )
Of the nine towns in Joshua 15:42-44 , Conder identifies five.
45Ekron, with its towns and villages;
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‘eq·rō·wn ū·ḇə·nō·ṯe·hā wa·ḥă·ṣê·re·hā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Ekron, with her daughters and her villages;
Where the English smooths the original
One of the five principalities of the Philistines, which with two more next mentioned, though they fell to the lot of the tribe of Judah, were never possessed by them
The fourth group, consisting of the towns of the Philistine line of coast, the northern part of which was afterwards given up to the tribe of Dan (Dan Jos 19:43), but which remained almost entirely in the hands of the Philistines
Ekron was afterwards given to Dan ( Joshua 19:43 ).
46from Ekron to the sea, all the cities near Ashdod, along with their villages;
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mê·‘eq·rō·wn wā·yām·māh kōl ’ă·šer- ‘al- yaḏ ’aš·dō·wḏ wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
from Ekron and seaward, all that [is] beside Ashdod, and their villages;
Where the English smooths the original
The different places in this district are not given, because Judah never actually obtained possession of them.K&D states plainly why the coastal towns go unnamed: they were allotted but never held.
this is the Azotus of the New Testament, Acts 8:40Gill bridges Ashdod to its NT name Azotus — where Philip is found after the Ethiopian eunuch's baptism.
47Ashdod, with its towns and villages; Gaza, with its towns and villages, as far as the Brook of Egypt and the coastline of the Great Sea.
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’aš·dō·wḏ bə·nō·w·ṯe·hā wa·ḥă·ṣê·re·hā ‘az·zāh bə·nō·w·ṯe·hā wa·ḥă·ṣê·re·hā ‘aḏ- na·ḥal miṣ·rā·yim ū·ḡə·ḇūl hag·gå̄·ḇōl wə·hay·yām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Ashdod, her daughters and her villages; Gaza, her daughters and her villages, as far as the Brook of Egypt and the Great Sea and [its] border.
Where the English smooths the original
Gath and Askalon are not mentioned, because they are both of them included in the boundaries named. Askalon was between Ashdod and Gaza, by the sea-coast
unto the {i} river of Egypt, and the great sea, and the border thereof : (i) Meaning, the Nile
the great sea, and the border thereof; the Mediterranean sea, called so in comparison of the lesser seas in Judea, the salt sea, and the sea of Tiberias
48These were in the hill country: Shamir, Jattir, Socoh,
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ū·ḇā·hār šā·mîr wə·yat·tîr wə·śō·w·ḵōh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And in the hill country: Shamir, and Jattir, and Socoh,
Where the English smooths the original
The mountains of Judah, which rise precipitously from the Negeb, between the hilly district on the west, which is reckoned as part of the shephelah, and the desert of Judah, extending to the Dead Sea on the east
Jattir ("Attir"), and Eshtemoh ("Semua") were priestly cities Joshua 21:14 ; 1 Chronicles 6:57 , and the place to which David, after routing the Amalekites, sent presents 1 Samuel 30:27-28 .
Compare the expression, "the hill country of Judaea" ( τῇ ὀρεινῇ , the same as here in the LXX.), Luke 1:65 .
The mountains — That is, in the higher grounds, called mountains or hills, in comparison of the sea-coast.
49Dannah, Kiriath-sannah (that is, Debir),
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wə·ḏan·nāh wə·qir·yaṯ- san·nāh hî ḏə·ḇir
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Dannah, and Kiriath-sannah (that is, Debir),
Where the English smooths the original
50Anab, Eshtemoh, Anim,
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wa·‘ă·nāḇ wə·’eš·tə·mōh wə·‘ā·nîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Anab, and Eshtemoh, and Anim,
Where the English smooths the original
51Goshen, Holon, and Giloh—eleven cities, along with their villages.
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wə·ḡō·šen wə·ḥō·lōn wə·ḡi·lōh ’a·ḥaṯ- ‘eś·rêh ‘ā·rîm wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
and Goshen, and Holon, and Giloh — eleven cities, with their villages.
Where the English smooths the original
52Arab, Dumah, Eshan,
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’ă·raḇ wə·rū·māh wə·’eš·‘ān
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Arab, and Dumah, and Eshan,
Where the English smooths the original
Of these Dumah is perhaps the ruined village "Ed Daumeh," in the neighborhood of Hebron
Duma, Jerom says (k), was a large village in the south, also on the borders of Eleutheropolis, seventeen miles from it: and Eshean, of which we have no account.
Group II . includes nine cities to the north of those just enumerated in the country round Hebron
53Janim, Beth-tappuah, Aphekah,
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wə·yå̄·nīm ū·ḇêṯ- tap·pū·aḥ wa·’ă·p̄ê·qāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
and Janim, and Beth-tappuah, and Aphekah,
Where the English smooths the original
Beth-tappuah, i. e. "house of apples," "Teffuh," a place which has still a good number of inhabitants, is conspicuous for its olive groves and vineyards, and bears on every side the traces of industry and thrift.
Beth-tappuah has been preserved in the village of Teffuh, about two hours to the west of Hebron (Rob. ii. p. 428). Apheka has not been discovered.
54Humtah, Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), and Zior—nine cities, along with their villages.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·ḥum·ṭāh wə·qir·yaṯ ’ar·ba‘ hî ḥeḇ·rō·wn wə·ṣî·‘ōr tê·ša‘ ‘ā·rîm wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
and Humtah, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), and Zior — nine cities, with their villages.
Where the English smooths the original
55Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mā·‘ō·wn kar·mel wā·zîp̄ wə·yūṭ·ṭāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Maon, Carmel, and Ziph, and Juttah,
Where the English smooths the original
Maon is to be remembered as David's hiding place from the enmity of Saul ( 1 Samuel 23:24-26 ), and as the home of Nabal ( 1 Samuel 25:2 ). Carmel (not the famous mountain of that name) meets us again in the history of Saul and of David
Juttah, which was assigned to the priests ( Joshua 21:16 ), and was a vicus praegrandis Judaeorum in the time of the fathers
Reland (t) conjectures that this was the native place of John the Baptist; and that, instead of "a city of Judah", it should be read "the city Juta", Luke 1:39Gill records Reland's conjecture linking Juttah to the Baptist's birthplace — interesting, but explicitly a guess, which we do not assert.
56Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah,
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wə·yiz·rə·‘el wə·yā·qə·ḏə·‘ām wə·zā·nō·w·aḥ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
and Jezreel, and Jokdeam, and Zanoah,
Where the English smooths the original
57Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah—ten cities, along with their villages.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
haq·qa·yin giḇ·‘āh wə·ṯim·nāh ‘e·śer ‘ā·rîm wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah — ten cities, with their villages.
Where the English smooths the original
Maon, Carmel, and Ziph became famous in David’s wanderings (see the story of Nabal, 1 Samuel 25); and the Ziphites have covered themselves with infamy by their repeated efforts to betray him to Saul, who sought his life
whether the name was given it by the old Canaanites, in memory of Cain, the son of Adam, is not certain
58Halhul, Beth-zur, Gedor,
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ḥal·ḥūl bêṯ- ṣūr ū·ḡə·ḏō·wr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Halhul, Beth-zur, and Gedor,
Where the English smooths the original
Beth-zur, which was fortified by Rehoboam ( 2 Chronicles 11:7 ), and is frequently mentioned in the time of the Maccabees as a border defence against the Idumaeans
near which was a fountain at the bottom of a mount, where it is said the eunuch was baptized by PhilipGill preserves the local tradition tying Beth-zur to the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8) — tradition, not assertion.
59Maarath, Beth-anoth, and Eltekon—six cities, along with their villages.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·ma·‘ă·rāṯ ū·ḇêṯ- ‘ă·nō·wṯ wə·’el·tə·qōn šêš ‘ā·rîm wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
and Maarath, and Beth-anoth, and Eltekon — six cities, with their villages.
Where the English smooths the original
Between Joshua 15:59 and Joshua 15:60 , the fifth group of towns given in the Septuagint is wanting in the Masoretic text. This group lay to the north of the fourth, and reached as far as Jerusalem, It comprised a district in which even now there are at least fifteen places and ruins, so that we have not an arbitrary interpolation made by the lxx, as Jerome assumed, but rather a gap in the Hebrew text, arising from the fact that an ancient copyist passed by mistake from the word וחצריהן in Joshua 15:59 to the same word at the close of the missing section.K&D's full diagnosis of the homoioteleuton scribal slip that dropped Bethlehem from the Hebrew text — the central text-critical point of the unit.
The omitted group contains the towns of an important, well-known, and populous district lying immediately south of Jerusalem, and containing such towns as Tekoah 2 Samuel 14:2 ; Nehemiah 3:5 , Nehemiah 3:27 ; Amos 1:1 ; Bethlehem, the native town of David and of Christ Genesis 35:19
Five of these six have been identified.Ellicott's terse note on the surviving Hebrew six — set against the eleven the Greek adds.
60Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), and Rabbah—two cities, along with their villages.
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qir·yaṯ- ba·‘al hî qir·yaṯ yə·‘ā·rîm wə·hā·rab·bāh šə·ta·yim ‘ā·rîm wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), and Rabbah — two cities, with their villages.
Where the English smooths the original
Kirjath-baal, or Kirjath-jearim, the present Kureyet el Enab; see at Joshua 15:9 , and Joshua 9:17 . Rabbah (Ha-rabbah, the great) is quite unknown.
the verse inserted here by the LXX. is genuine, since Bethlehem was, in early times, a town of sufficient importance to be noticed in a list like this, and that its omission in the Hebrew text is due to the mistake of some transcriber.Pulpit independently confirms K&D: the LXX's eleven cities (Tekoa and Bethlehem among them) belong here, dropped by a Hebrew copyist's error.
Rabbah, of which we nowhere else read; for this is a very different city from the Rabbah of the children of Ammon, 2 Samuel 12:26 , two cities with their villages; why these are reckoned by themselves is not certain.Gill keeps the honest gap: why this two-town group stands alone is simply not known — and the great ark-town is filed here without fanfare.
61These were in the wilderness: Beth-arabah, Middin, Secacah,
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bam·miḏ·bār bêṯ hā·‘ă·rā·ḇāh mid·dîn ū·sə·ḵā·ḵāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
In the wilderness: Beth-arabah, Middin, and Secacah,
Where the English smooths the original
This district, including the towns in "the wilderness," the scene of David's wanderings ( 1 Samuel 23:24 ; Psalm 63:1-11 title), and of the preaching of the Baptist Matthew 3:1 , and perhaps of our Lord's temptation Matthew 4
A true wilderness it is, but no desert, with the sides of the limestone ranges clad with no shrubs larger than a sage or a thymeCambridge, quoting Tristram, corrects the popular image: the Judaean wilderness is wild pasture, not dead sand.
Here David took refuge from the pursuit of Saul ( Psalm 63:1 ), here St. John the Baptist prepared the way of Christ.
62Nibshan, the City of Salt, and En-gedi—six cities, along with their villages.
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wə·han·niḇ·šān wə·‘îr- ham·me·laḥ wə·‘ên ge·ḏî šêš ‘ā·rîm wə·ḥaṣ·rê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
and Nibshan, and the City of Salt, and En-gedi — six cities, with their villages.
Where the English smooths the original
The city of salt (salt town), in which the Edomites sustained repeated defeats ( 2 Samuel 8:13 ; Psalm 60:2 ; 2 Kings 14:7 ; 1 Chronicles 18:12 ; 2 Chronicles 25:11 ), was no doubt at the southern end of the Dead Sea, in the Salt Valley
En-gedi. The "fountain of the kid." Here David took refuge from Saul ( 1 Samuel 24:1 ). This place, now Ain Jidy, is situated in "a plain or slope about a mile and a half in extent from north to south" (Tristram, 'Land of Israel,' p. 281). Here the ruins of the ancient city of Hazezon Tamar, or "the felling of the palm trees" ( Genesis 14:7 ), are to be found
City of Salt — So called, either from the salt sea, which was near it, or from the salt which was made in, or about it.
63But the descendants of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. So to this day the Jebusites live there among the descendants of Judah.
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ḇə·nê- yə·hū·ḏāh yū·ḵə·lū lō- lə·hō·w·rî·šām wə·’eṯ- hay·ḇū·sî yō·wō·šə·ḇê yə·rū·šā·lim ‘aḏ haz·zeh hay·yō·wm hay·ḇū·sî ’eṯ- way·yê·šeḇ bî·rū·šā·lim bə·nê yə·hū·ḏāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And the Jebusites, dwelling in Jerusalem — the sons of Judah were not able to dispossess them; and the Jebusites have dwelt with the sons of Judah in Jerusalem until this day.
Where the English smooths the original
Origen and Theodoret see in the Jebusites the type of the nominal members of Christ's Church, who are not His disciples indeed. The former refers to Matthew 13:25 . Unto this day. A clear proof that this book was written before David became king.Pulpit preserves the ancient (Origen, Theodoret) typological reading of the Jebusites — the tares among the wheat, the nominal within the visible Church.
They could not drive them out because of their unbelief; as Christ could do no mighty work because of the people’s unbelief, Mark 6:5-6 ; and because of their sloth, cowardice, and wickedness, whereby they forfeited God’s help.Benson reads the 'could not' as forfeited grace, not mere weakness — the unit's moral verdict on incomplete obedience.
The Author closes the catalogue of the cities of Judah with an announcement that the children of this royal tribe failed to drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem.
In Joshua 15:63 there follows a notice to the effect that the Judaeans were unable to expel the Jebusites from Jerusalem, which points back to the time immediately after Joshua, when the Judaeans had taken Jerusalem and burned it ( Judges 1:8 ), but were still unable to maintain possession.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit is a surveyor's deed, and it knows it. Verse 20 seals the boundary survey with a feminine demonstrative agreeing with naḥălâh (H5159) — not 'property' but the heritable allotment received by lot and passed down the bloodline: 'This is the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of the sons of Judah.' Keil & Delitzsch fixes its function exactly — it 'contains the closing formula to vv. 1-19.' What follows is filed under four headings, and the Pulpit Commentary names them in order: 'the south, the valley, the mountains, and the wilderness.' Each district opens with a single resetting word — banneḡbāh (toward the Negeb, v.21), baššəp̄êlāh (in the Shephelah, v.33), ū-ḇā-hār (in the mountain, v.48), bam-miḏbār (in the wilderness, v.61) — and closes with the accountant's signature, 'X cities and their ḥăṣêrîm (villages).' Cambridge, drawing on Stanley, captures the human texture beneath the bookkeeping: 'The wells of Beersheba were enough for the Patriarchs, the Amalekites, and the Kenites, but they were not enough for the daughter of Judah and the house of the mighty Caleb.' The catalogue is dry; the land it deeds is thirst and harvest, fortress and oasis.
Read with the lexicon open, the list is a palimpsest. Pagan cult-names survive intact inside the holy allotment: Bealoth and Baalah carry baʻal (vv.24, 29); Beth-dagon names the Philistine god whose idol fell before the ark (v.41); Beth-anoth likely embeds the war-goddess ʻAnath (v.59); Kiriath-baal is the 'city of Baal' (v.60). Other names preach. Albert Barnes hears judgment in Chesil ('fool'): the name 'was most likely bestowed by way of opprobrium… probably it was the worship of the heavenly bodies in particular that was carried on here' (v.30). Hormah is the place 'under the ban' (ḥērem). And then the redemptive irony: the very Kiriath-baal of v.60 is Kiriath-jearim, where the ark of the LORD would rest twenty years before David carried it to Zion. The list also doubles as a concordance of narrative: Enam and Timnah (vv.34, 57) frame the Judah–Tamar story; Adullam and Azekah (v.35) the valley of Elah; Maon, Carmel, and Ziph (v.55) David's flight, of which Ellicott writes that 'the Ziphites have covered themselves with infamy by their repeated efforts to betray him to Saul'; Giloh (v.51), as Ellicott notes, is 'the home of Ahithophel the Gilonite.' Every name is a seed of a later chapter.
The unit is conspicuously honest about its own arithmetic, and so must we be. Verse 32 tallies 'twenty-nine' after listing thirty-six names; verse 36 says 'fourteen' where a fifteenth (Gederothaim) may stand. The voices preserve the whole spectrum of explanation rather than papering it over. Joseph Benson lays out the old options: 'There were only twenty-nine of them which either… properly belonged to Judah; the rest falling to Simeon's lot,' or were 'cities properly so called; that is, walled cities.' Barnes blames the copyists: the difference is due 'to the confusion by an early copyist of letters similar in form which were used as numerals; or to the separation in the King James Version of names which in the original were one.' The Pulpit Commentary simply states the fact: 'The actual number is thirty-six. The error is as old as the LXX. version.' Keil & Delitzsch, weighing every theory, calls it 'an error of the text of old standing.' The ⚙ layer takes the under-claiming road: the tally is genuinely disputed, and the apparatus should say so plainly, not harmonize it by force.
Two silences govern the unit's close, and they are opposite in kind. The first is a wound in the text: after v.59 the Masoretic Hebrew omits an entire eleven-town group that the Greek preserves — and at its head stand Tekoa and Bethlehem. Keil & Delitzsch diagnoses it precisely as a scribe's eye-skip: 'a gap in the Hebrew text, arising from the fact that an ancient copyist passed by mistake from the word wəḥaṣrêhen in Joshua 15:59 to the same word at the close of the missing section.' Barnes notes what was lost — 'Bethlehem, the native town of David and of Christ' — and the Pulpit Commentary independently agrees the omission 'is due to the mistake of some transcriber.' Matthew Henry, who refuses to comment town by town, fastens on exactly this: 'we do not here find Bethlehem… that city, which, at the best, was but little among the thousands of Judah, Mic 5:2.' The second silence is a defeat, not an error: v.63, the unit's last word. The verb of the whole conquest, yāraš ('to dispossess'), here stands negated — 'the sons of Judah were not able to drive out the Jebusites.' Benson reads it as the catalogue's moral verdict: 'They could not drive them out because of their unbelief; as Christ could do no mighty work because of the people's unbelief… whereby they forfeited God's help.' The unit that opened 'This is the inheritance' ends with the inheritance unrealized — and, providentially, with the one city left in pagan hands being Jerusalem, the Zion that David would take and the Messiah would enter.
Under Sola Scriptura I read this chapter — and I hold this reading open to correction — as a deliberately unfinished deed. Scripture frames forty-four verses of dry geography between two theological book-ends: naḥălâh, the inheritance granted (v.20), and yāraš, the inheritance not taken (v.63). Between gift and grasp lies a list crowded with the names of gods Israel was sent to dispossess and stories of betrayal still to come. The text does not hide its own failures: it lets its numbers disagree (vv.32, 36), lets a scribe drop Bethlehem (v.59), and lets the royal tribe end its catalogue in candid defeat at Jerusalem. I take the lesson to be that allotment is not yet possession, and that an inheritance received by grace must still be entered by faith — for the same verb of 'could not' is the one the Gospel will use of unbelief (Mark 6:5). The chapter quietly insists that the LORD's promise was complete while Judah's obedience was not; and it leaves, unconquered at its very end, the precise city where the true Son of David would one day finish what the sons of Judah could not.
The inheritance was deeded in full; it was only ever entered in part — and the one town Judah could not take is the town where David would reign and the Messiah would die.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
Verse 32's 'Ain, and Rimmon' are written as two towns, but the canon tracks their fusion. Both are reassigned to Simeon (whose lot lay inside Judah's, 19:1) and appear in 19:7 and 1 Chronicles 4:32 written 'without the copula' as effectively one name. Keil & Delitzsch concludes 'they were probably so close together that in the course of time they grew into one' — by Nehemiah's day they are the single 'En-Rimmon' (Neh 11:29). The verbal link to 19:7 rests on the rare proper name H5871 ʻAyin (a place-name in only five verses), confirmed by the Verifier.
Joshua 15:32 · Joshua 19:7 · 1 Chronicles 4:32
basis: shared rare lexeme H5871 ʻAyin (proper name, in only 5 vv) with H7417 Rimmôwn (in 13 vv); Joshua 15:32 and 19:7 list the identical town-pair — Verifier-confirmed verbal link
The list repeatedly deeds to Judah towns that Joshua 19 then gives to Simeon, 'because the portion of the children of Judah was too much for them' (19:9). Eltolad and Hormah (v.30) reappear together in Simeon's grant at 19:4 — the link carried by the scarce names H513 ʼEltôwlad (in only 2 verses) and H2767 Chormâh (in 9). Moladah, Hazar-shual, Beersheba, Ziklag, Lebaoth and others (vv.26–32) likewise recur in 19:2–7. The double allotment is not contradiction but administration: Simeon's inheritance is carved from within Judah's.
Joshua 15:30 · Joshua 19:4 · Joshua 19:9
basis: shared rare lexemes H513 ʼEltôwlad (in 2 vv) and H2767 Chormâh (in 9 vv) — Joshua 15:30 and 19:4 name the same towns; Verifier-confirmed verbal link
Centuries on, Rehoboam fortifies a defensive chain of cities for Judah's protection (2 Chr 11:5–12) — and they are drawn straight from this list: Socoh and Adullam (v.35), Mareshah (v.44), Ziph (v.55), Beth-zur (v.58), among others. The verbal hook from v.35 to 2 Chronicles 11:7 is the pairing of H7755 Sôwkôh (in only 7 verses) and H5725 ʻĂdullâm (in 8) — both confirmed by the Verifier. The towns Joshua allotted become Rehoboam's bulwarks; the deed of ch. 15 is the quarry from which later kings build.
Joshua 15:35 · 2 Chronicles 11:7 · Joshua 15:58
basis: shared rare lexemes H7755 Sôwkôh (in 7 vv) and H5725 ʻĂdullâm (in 8 vv) link Joshua 15:35 to 2 Chronicles 11:7 — Verifier-confirmed verbal link
'Joktheel' (v.38) is a rare name — only two verses in all Scripture. The other is 2 Kings 14:7, where King Amaziah captures the Edomite rock-fortress Sela (Petra) 'and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day.' The shared, scarce lexeme H3371 Yoqthᵉʼêl (in only 2 verses) verbally binds the lowland Judahite town to the conquered Edomite citadel. The brother-nation Edom, named at the unit's opening (v.21), is at the canon's later turn re-named with one of Judah's own town-names — a small lexical conquest.
Joshua 15:38 · 2 Kings 14:7
basis: shared rare lexeme H3371 Yoqthᵉʼêl appears in only 2 verses in all Scripture — Joshua 15:38 and 2 Kings 14:7; Verifier-confirmed verbal link
Judah's inheritance is also the reservoir from which the landless Levites are provided. Jattir (v.48), Eshtemoa (v.50), and Juttah (v.55) are all ceded to the priests in Joshua 21. The link from v.55 to 21:16 rests on the very rare name H3194 Yuṭṭâh (in only 2 verses), Verifier-confirmed. Hebron itself (v.54) becomes a city of refuge and a priestly city (21:11–13). The tribe of praise gives ground to the tribe that has no ground — inheritance shared downward to those whose portion is the LORD himself (cf. 13:33).
Joshua 15:55 · Joshua 21:16 · Joshua 15:48
basis: shared very rare lexeme H3194 Yuṭṭâh (in only 2 vv) links Joshua 15:55 to the Levitical-cities list at 21:16 — Verifier-confirmed verbal link
Nehemiah 11:25–30 records the men of Judah re-occupying their old towns after the captivity, and the names come straight from this chapter: Kabzeel/Jekabzeel (v.21), Dibon/Dimonah (v.22), Moladah, Beth-pelet, Hazar-shual, Beersheba (vv.26–28), Zanoah (v.34), and 'En-Rimmon' — the fused form of Ain and Rimmon (v.32). The Verifier finds no shared Strong's lexeme for Joshua 15:32 ↔ Nehemiah 11:29, because Nehemiah spells the two towns as one fused name (H5884, En-Rimmon) rather than the two separate words of Joshua. That very absence is the point — the link is real but historical-thematic, asserted by the commentators (K&D, Cambridge, Barnes), not by a shared lexeme; so it is flagged, not claimed as verbal.
Joshua 15:32 · Nehemiah 11:29 · Joshua 15:27
basis: Verifier finds NO shared original-language lexeme: Nehemiah 11:29 writes 'En-Rimmon' as one fused name (H5884) where Joshua 15:32 has two separate words (H5871 ʻAyin + H7417 Rimmôwn). The resettlement link is real but historical/thematic — argued by K&D, Cambridge, Barnes — not a verbal quotation; flagged accordingly
The verse glosses its own name: 'Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim)' (v.60). The older pagan label 'city of Baal' is the very town where, after the ark's return from Philistia, 'the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the LORD… and consecrated Eleazar to keep it' (1 Sam 7:1) — there it rested twenty years until David carried it up to Zion (2 Sam 6:2 calls the place 'Baale-judah'). The link is carried by the shared place-name H7157 Qiryath Yᵉʻârîym, the same lexeme across the nineteen verses that name the town — a structural identity, not a quotation. The trajectory is the book's argument in miniature: ground once named for Baal made the long custodian of the ark of the covenant, and from there borne to the place the LORD would choose.
Joshua 15:60 · 1 Samuel 7:1 · 2 Samuel 6:2
basis: shared place-name lexeme H7157 Qiryath Yᵉʻârîym (in 19 vv) — the verse identifies Kiriath-baal AS Kiriath-jearim, the ark-town of 1 Samuel 7:1; Verifier-confirmed shared lexeme. Tiered structural (shared motif/identity, no quotation claim), not verbal
Verse 25 names 'Kerioth-hezron (that is, Hazor),' and qərîyôṯ means simply 'towns.' A long-standing — but contested — derivation reads 'Iscariot' (Greek Iskariōtēs) as ʼîysh-qərîyôṯ, 'man of Kerioth,' making Judas the lone Judean disciple, from this very Negeb town. Barnes notes that 'Kerioth, prefixed to a name, bespeaks military occupation.' The connection cannot be a verbal link: a Greek Gospel name and a Hebrew place-name share no Strong's number, and the etymology of 'Iscariot' is genuinely disputed (it is also read as 'man of the lie' or 'the dyer'). We record it as a flagged possibility — striking if true, that the tribe of praise should furnish both the royal line of Christ and, by this reading, the name of His betrayer — but we under-claim it as unproven.
Joshua 15:25 · Matthew 10:4 · John 6:71
basis: cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): no shared Strong's lexeme is possible, so the tier cannot be verbal. The 'Iscariot = ʼîysh-qərîyôṯ / man of Kerioth' derivation is one disputed reading among several (also 'man of the lie,' 'the dyer'); the place-name itself is the rare H7152 Qᵉrîyôwth (in 4 vv). Flagged as a contested onomastic conjecture, not asserted
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The deepest Christ-witness of this chapter is an absence and its repair. The Masoretic Hebrew, by a scribe's eye-skip after v.59, drops the eleven-town group that includes Bethlehem; the Greek preserves it. Keil & Delitzsch and the Pulpit Commentary both judge the omission a copyist's error, not a real silence. Barnes names what nearly fell out of the deed: 'Bethlehem, the native town of David and of Christ.' Matthew Henry, who comments only at the chapter's head, fastens on this very town: it was 'but little among the thousands of Judah, Mic 5:2,' yet 'ennobled by the birth of our Lord Jesus in it.' That the Messianic prophecy of Micah 5:2 hangs on a town the Hebrew copyist nearly lost — and that the text-tradition itself recovers it — is, on the ancient and widely-held Christian reading, no accident: the city of the Bread of Life would not be left out of Judah's inheritance.
Joshua 15:59 · Micah 5:2 · Matthew 2:1
The chapter ends on the one city the royal tribe could not dispossess: 'the sons of Judah were not able to drive out the Jebusites' from Jerusalem (v.63). That unconquered stronghold of Zion is the very city David will storm (2 Sam 5:6–7) and make the City of David, and which the Son of David will enter as King (Matt 21:9), be crucified outside, and rise near. The Pulpit Commentary preserves an ancient typology: 'Origen and Theodoret see in the Jebusites the type of the nominal members of Christ's Church, who are not His disciples indeed' — the tares sown among the wheat (Matt 13:25), tolerated within the visible city of God until the final reckoning. Benson reads the 'could not' as the same incapacity the Gospel names — Christ 'could do no mighty work because of the people's unbelief' (Mark 6:5). What Judah's unbelief left undone, the faithful Son of David would accomplish: the true conquest of Zion is His.
Joshua 15:63 · 2 Samuel 5:6 · Matthew 13:25
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
This unit is overwhelmingly a town-catalogue, so the ⚙ apparatus carries unusual weight where the bare list is silent. Three honesty notes specific to Joshua 15:20–63: (1) Disputed numerals. The tallies of vv.32 ('twenty-nine' for ~36 names) and 36 ('fourteen' for 15) genuinely do not match the lists. We record the disagreement and the range of proposed causes (Simeonite cession, walled-vs-unwalled counting, mis-divided compound names, numeral-letter corruption) rather than harmonizing; the discrepancy is older than the Septuagint. (2) The Bethlehem gap. Between vv.59 and 60 the Masoretic Hebrew lacks an eleven-town group (with Tekoa and Bethlehem) that the LXX preserves; Keil & Delitzsch, Barnes, and the Pulpit Commentary independently judge this a scribal homoioteleuton on wəḥaṣrêhen ('their villages'), not a doctrinal omission. Our literal/divergence notes flag this at v.59. (3) Place-identifications are provisional. Many town-sites are 'still conjectural only' (Barnes); a large number are explicitly 'unknown' to the commentators. Where the voices say 'not identified' or 'has not been discovered,' we have not invented certainty. Voices: every excerpt is a verbatim contiguous substring of the sourced PD commentary. Two running summaries repeat identically at every verse — Matthew Henry's single 15:20–63 block and JFB's single 15:21–63 block — so they cannot supply fresh verse-by-verse comment; we cite Henry's block once where it bears weight (the Bethlehem omission) and JFB's once at the head (v.21) for the four-district master-outline, and otherwise draw on the verse-specific notes of Keil & Delitzsch, Gill, Barnes, Cambridge, Ellicott, Poole, Benson, and the Pulpit Commentary to keep the authors genuinely diverse. Threads & tiers: five intra-Hebrew links rest on Verifier-confirmed rare lexemes and are tiered 'verbal — confirmed' (Ain/Rimmon, Eltolad/Hormah, Socoh/Adullam, Joktheel, Juttah); the Kiriath-jearim ark-link is tiered 'structural — confirmed' (shared place-name H7157, no quotation claim); the Negeb resettlement (Neh 11:29) and the Kerioth→Iscariot conjecture are both 'flagged.' Cross-Testament caution: all Greek↔Hebrew links — the two Christ-threads (Micah 5:2 / Matthew; 2 Samuel / Matthew) and the flagged Kerioth/Iscariot thread — are typological, historical, or onomastic, never verbal; Greek↔Hebrew cannot share a Strong's number, and we have claimed none.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)