Commentaria in Josue
Chapter 13. Synopsis of the Chapter
to be divided, as Moses had distributed the same land lying on this side of the Jordan to three tribes, namely Ruben, Gad and half Manasses. Whence, verse 15, he recounts and repeats the lot and borders given by Moses to the tribe of Ruben, and verse 24, those given to the tribe of Gad, and verse 29, those given to the tribe of Manasses.
1. Josue was old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him: Thou art grown old and advanced in age, and there is a very large country left, which is not yet divided by lot: 2. all Galilee, Philistia, and all Gessuri. 3. From the troubled river, that watereth Egypt, to the borders of Accaron northward: the land of Chanaan, which is divided among the five lords of the Philistines, the Gazites, the Azotians, the Ascalonites, the Gethites, and the Accaronites. 4. But toward the south are the Hevites, all the land of Chanaan, and Maara of the Sidonians, as far as Apheca, and the borders of the Amorrhite, and its confines. 5. Moreover the country of Libanus toward the east, from Baalgad under mount Hermon, till you enter into Emath. 6. Of all that dwell in the mountain, from Libanus unto the waters of Maserephoth, and all the Sidonians. I am he that will destroy them from before the face of the children of Israel. Let their land come in for a part of the inheritance of Israel, as I have commanded thee. 7. And now divide the land in possession to the nine tribes, and to the half tribe of Manasses, 8. with whom Ruben and Gad have possessed the land which Moses the servant of the Lord delivered to them beyond the Jordan, on the east side. 9. From Aroer, which is situate on the bank of the torrent Arnon, and in the midst of the valley, and all the plains of Medaba as far as Dibon, 10. and all the cities of Sehon the king of the Amorrhites, who reigned in Hesebon, to the borders of the children of Ammon, 11. and Galaad, and the borders of Gessuri and Machati, and all mount Hermon, and all Basan as far as Salecha, 12. all the kingdom of Og in Basan, who reigned in Astaroth and Edrai: he was of the remnant of the Raphaim: and Moses defeated and destroyed them. 13. And the children of Israel would not destroy Gessuri and Machati: and they dwelt in the midst of Israel unto this present day. 14. But to the tribe of Levi he gave no possession, but the sacrifices and victims of the Lord the God of Israel; this is his inheritance, as he spoke to him. 15. Moses therefore gave a possession to the tribe of the children of Ruben according to their kindreds. 16. And their border was from Aroer, which is situate on the bank of the torrent Arnon, and in the midst of the valley of the same torrent: all the plain that leadeth to Medaba, 17. and Hesebon, and all the villages thereof which are in the champaign country; Dibon also, and Bamothbaal, and the town of Baal- in the mountain of the valley. 20. Bethphogor, and Asedoth, Phasga, and Bethjesimoth, 21. and all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdoms of Sehon king of the Amorrhites, who reigned in Hesebon, whom Moses slew with the princes of Madian: Hevi, and Recem, and Sur, and Hur, and Rebe, captains of Sehon, inhabitants of the land. 22. And Balaam the son of Beor the soothsayer the children of Israel slew with the sword, with the rest that were slain. 23. And the border of the children of Ruben was the river Jordan. This is the possession of the Rubenites by their kindreds, of cities and villages. 24. And Moses gave to the tribe of Gad and to his children by their kindreds a possession, of which this is the division: 25. The border of Jaser, and all the cities of Galaad, and half the land of the children of Ammon, as far as Aroer, which is over against Rabba, 26. and from Hesebon as far as Ramoth, Masphe and Bethonim; and from Manaim as far as the borders of Dabir; 27. and in the valley Betharan, and Bethnemra, and Socoth, and Saphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sehon king of Hesebon: the border of this also is the Jordan, to the uttermost part of the sea of Cenereth beyond the Jordan on the east side;
28. this is the possession of the children of Gad by their families, cities and villages. 29. He gave also to the half tribe of Manasses, and to his children, a possession according to their kindreds, 30. of which this is the beginning: from Manaim all Basan, and all the kingdoms of Og king of Basan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Basan, threescore cities: 31. and half Galaad, and Astaroth, and Edrai, cities of the kingdom of Og in Basan: to the children of Machir, the son of Manasses, to the one half of the children of Machir according to their kindreds. 32. This possession Moses divided in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan over against Jericho on the east side. 33. But to the tribe of Levi he gave no possession, because the Lord the God of Israel himself is their possession, as he spoke to him.
1. WHICH IS NOT YET DIVIDED BY LOT.—In Hebrew, the land remains to be possessed, namely by the division to be made by casting lots by thee, O Josue, as our version clearly expresses, whether it has already been occupied by thee, as Galilee, or remains to be occupied, as the land of the Philistines.
2. ALL GALILEE.—The Chaldean, the Septuagint and more recent writers take the Hebrew word geliloth not as proper but as common, and translate it boundaries, or shores of the Philistines (I said something similar on Joel 3:4), and from this, says Masius, the name of Galilee was given, either on account of the winding recesses of the shores and banks, or because the waves there are tossed to and fro by winds or by the tide and play rolling (for galal signifies to roll, roll back, roll together), or finally from the heaps and rolled mounds of sand piled up there here and there. For Galilee is twofold, and both lie by the sea, and therefore in Hebrew the name is plural, geliloth, as if to say Galilees. For one Galilee is the lower, around Tiberias and the lake of Genezareth, which the tribes of Zabulon and Issachar occupied; the other is the upper, around Capharnaum, Tyre and Ptolemais, which the tribes of Aser and Nephthali occupied: this was called Galilee of the Gentiles, because it was frequented by the Gentiles neighbouring on every side, as I said in chapter 12; both were rich and fertile, with perennial springs of water, watered by torrents, and bearing abundance of grain, wine, oil and all fruits, and therefore the whole was inhabited and cultivated: hence in it was a great multitude of cities and villages, and very many inhabitants, and those brave and warlike. Josephus, leader of the Galileans against the Romans, relates in his Life that in Galilee there were two hundred and four cities and villages, of which the smallest contained fifteen thousand men.