Commentaria in Josue
Finally note: There were in Chanaan several cities having the same name, so that it is not wonderful that the same name of a city is ascribed to different tribes. So there was one Bethlehem of Juda, in which Christ was born, another Bethlehem given to the Zabulonites, chapter 19:15. So one Samaria was attributed to the tribe of Ephraim, which was afterwards called Sebaste, and was the metropolis of the kings of Israel; another was given to the tribe of Zabulon, chapter 19:15. So there was one Bethoron in the tribe of Ephraim, called the upper, chapter 16:5; another, the lower, in the tribe of Benjamin, chapter 18:13.
2. THE BEGINNING THEREOF WAS FROM THE TOP OF THE MOST SALT SEA,—that is, from the extremity of the Dead Sea or Asphaltite lake, into which Sodom and the Pentapolis were changed.
AND FROM THE BAY THEREOF.—The tongue (bay) of the Dead Sea, says Masius, is an inlet of the sea, in which its narrower part runs out into the mainland in the shape of a tongue, where, namely, this sea ends near Idumea. Adrichomius represents this graphically in his Geographical Tables of the Holy Land. So in Isaias 11:15 the tongue of the sea of Egypt is the name of the part of the Arabian gulf which, in the shape of a tongue, washes Egypt.
4. THE GREAT SEA,—that is, the Mediterranean, which is great in respect of the sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Otherwise, absolutely, the great sea is the Ocean.
6. AND THE BORDER GOETH UP INTO BETH-HAGLA.—Beth Hagla, now so called, once called the threshing-floor of Atad, is a place beyond the Jordan, where Joseph and the children of Israel mourned for Jacob their father, when they carried him out of Egypt. Whence also Bethagla, that is, place of the circle, was so called, because there, after the manner of mourners, they went round about at the funeral of Jacob. So St. Jerome in the Hebrew Places, Borchard, Adrichomius and others. For hagla in Hebrew signifies a circle and ring. See what is said on Genesis 50:10.
7. LOOKING TOWARD GALGAL, WHICH IS OVER AGAINST THE ASCENT OF ADOMMIM,—This Galgal, as it seems, is another from the Galgal near the Jordan, where Josue had his camp. For that was far distant from Adommim; the Galgal of this verse, in chapter 18, verse 17, is called in Hebrew geliloth, where St. Jerome translates, hillocks. Masius is of opinion that the Galgal of this verse is the same as the Galgal in which there were idols in the time of the judge Aod, Judges 3:19. Moreover Adommim was a place on the road to Jericho, infested by robbers. Whence it was called Adommim, that is, rednesses, on account of the frequent shedding of blood which took place there; and Christ notes this place in the parable of the Samaritan, when he says: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers.”
ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE TORRENT,—not Carith, as someone will have it, but Cedron, which through the valley of Josaphat near Jerusalem flows, and at length falls into the Dead Sea. So Adrichomius.
AND THE GOINGS OUT THEREOF SHALL BE AT THE FOUNTAIN OF ROGEL,—as if to say:
The same goes out and ends “at the fountain of Rogel,” that is, at the Fuller’s fountain: which in Hebrew is called rogel, from regel, that is, foot, because the fuller, treading cloths with his feet, washes them. This fountain was near Jerusalem, and watered the royal gardens; near it Isaias foretold to King Achaz that Christ would be born of a Virgin, Isaias 7.
8. AND IT GOETH UP BY THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF ENNOM,—namely by Gehennom: for ge signifies a valley. Moreover Gehennom, says Adrichomius, which is also Benhennom, that is, the valley of the sons of Ennom, was a place in the suburbs of Jerusalem, toward the east under the Mount of Offence, near the Fuller’s pool, most pleasant as Tempe, watered by the fountains of Siloe and the flow of the torrent Cedron, planted with gardens and orchards, and wholly wooded and full of delights.
In this valley parents sacrificed and burned their infants to the idol Moloch, and that their wailing might not be heard, they beat the toph, that is, the drum. Whence the place was called Tophet. It was a foretaste and living image of hell, which from this is called gehenna. See what is said on Leviticus 18:21.
THE SAME IS JERUSALEM.—You will say: How is Jerusalem here numbered in the lot of the tribe of Juda, when elsewhere it is said to be in the tribe of Benjamin? Abulensis answers, chapter 18, at the end, that Jerusalem properly belonged to the lot of Benjamin, as is plain from chapter 18, last verse, and Judges 1:21, but was yet adjacent to the tribe of Juda, as is signified in this place; whence it came about in the following years that, with the Benjamites winking at it, or even inviting them, the Jews sprung from Juda drove out of it the very strong Jebusites, who were occupying Jerusalem, and claimed the city for themselves by the right of war, and made it the head of the kingdom. As David wrested the city Siceleg, which is here numbered among the Simeonites, from the Philistines and joined it to his own tribe of Juda, 1 Kings 27:6. So also Josephus assigns Jerusalem to the Benjamites, book 5 of the Antiquities, chapters 1 and 2. Hence Moses also, Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse 12, foretells that in the lot of Benjamin, that is, in Jerusalem, the temple would be built in which God would dwell. Yet some part of Jerusalem belonged to the tribe of Juda, as will appear from the words immediately following.
AND FROM THENCE IT RISETH UP TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN (Sion or Moria, on which Solomon built the temple), WHICH IS OVER AGAINST GEENNOM TO THE WEST, IN THE END OF THE VALLEY OF RAPHAIM (that is, of the giants, who, sprung from Rapha, were called Raphaim), NORTHWARD.—The sense is, as if to say: The northern lot of the tribe of Juda, after it has reached from the valley of Ennom to the seats of the Jebusite, rises at the foot of Mount Moria, and thence extends to the top of the same mountain, which mountain is opposite the valley of Ennom, and has it on the east; the same mountain then bends toward the west of Jerusalem, and there ends at the extremity of the valley of Raphaim, which looks northward. Hence it is plain that some part of the city of Jerusalem belonged to the tribe of Juda, another and greater part to the tribe of Benjamin. Whence in Esdras 11:4 both the children of Juda and of Benjamin are said to have dwelt in Jerusalem; namely, as is said here, the line of Juda was drawn along the top of Mount Moria to the side of the Jebusite, who occupied the citadel, so that it left him on the south: wherefore the more southern, modest part of Mount Moria belonged to Juda, so that it left the rest of the mountain, the northern part, on which the temple was built, and the rest of the lower city, to the Benjamites. For the Hebrews and Christians agree that the temple was in the lot of the tribe of Benjamin, not of Juda.