Judges 1:10

And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron,.... Hebron was first taken by Joshua, and the inhabitants of it put to the sword, Joshua 10:36; but while Joshua was employed in making

And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron: (now the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba:) and they slew Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai. Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron.

Judah went, under the conduct of Caleb, as it is recorded, , &c.; for that relation, and this here following, are doubtless one and the same expedition and war, as appears by all the circumstances; and it is mentioned either there by anticipation, or here by repetition. Of this and the following verses, see the notes there.

10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Ver. 10. Of those things which they] So do the Papists in railing against imputed righteousness, assurance of salvation, the testimony of God’ s Spirit witnessing with our spirits, &c. In those things they corrupt themselves] As in eating, drinking, carnal copulation, &c., holding neither mean nor measure, as he in Aristophanes (in Ranis), οστιςγεπινεινοιδεκαιβινεινμονον, who was good for nothing else but to epicurize.

(10) That dwelt in Hebron.—See Joshua 10:36-37. Hebron is midway between Jerusalem and Beersheba, and twenty miles from either. The first name of the city, which is one of the most ancient in the world (Numbers 13:22), was Mamre (Genesis 13:18), from the name of its chief (Genesis 14:24). It is now called El-Khulîl (“the friend”), from Abraham. It was a city of refuge (Joshua 21:11-13). If the view taken as to the chronology of this chapter is correct, this assault is identical with those touched upon in Joshua 11:21; Joshua 14:6-15; Joshua 15:13-14. The LXX. have, “Hebron came forth against Judah.” For later references to Hebron, see Nehemiah 11:25; 1Ma 5:65. Kirjath-arba.—That is, “the city of Arba.” The word afterwards became archaic and poetical (Psalms 48:2; Isaiah 25:2). All the cities thus named (Kir-jath-huzoth, Kirjath-jearim, &c.) existed before the conquest of Palestine. We find the root in Iskariot (i.e., man of Kerioth, a town in the south of Judah). Arba was the father of Anak (Joshua 15:13; Joshua 14:15), and Fürst interprets the name “hero of Baal.” Some, however, take Arba for the numeral “four,” so that Kirjath-arba would mean Tetrapolis; and connect the name Hebron with the Arabic “Cherbar,” a confederation, “the cities of Hebron” (2 Samuel 2:3). Sheshai, and Animan, and Talmai.—Possibly the names of three clans of the Anakim (Numbers 13:22-23). The Anakim are connected with the Nephilim—giant races sprung from the union of the sons of God with the daughters of men. Josephus says that giant bones of the race were shown in his day (Antt. v. 2, § 3). They were doubtless the bones of extinct animals, and being taken for human remains might well lead to the conclusion of Josephus, that these giants “had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight.”

10. The conquest of Hebron (contrast Joshua 10:36-37 D) is here ascribed to Judah as part of the general operations against the Canaanites (Judges 1:9); later on, the Judahites, having taken the city, made it over to Caleb (Judges 1:20). In Joshua 15:14 J, however, Hebron is captured by Caleb; it was a victory over the Anβkim, not over Canaanites in general; and such was undoubtedly the original version of the story. The editor here has altered the original narrative to fit his scheme of Judah’s victories; this has involved the removal of Jdg 1:20 from its proper place before Judges 1:10. Fortunately the parallel passage in Joshua helps us to recover the original form of the text: Joshua 15:13-15.Judges 1:20; Judges 1:10-11.And unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave [Hebron]†[22]. And Caleb drove out thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak. And he went up thence against the inhabitants of Debir etc. [22] The words which intervene come from P.And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses had spoken: and he drove out thence the three sons of Anak (20), Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai (10b). And he went thence against the inhabitants of Debir etc. (11).Thus the whole of Jdg 1:10, except the names of the giants, is due to the editor. Arranging the text in this way we obtain a consistent narrative, a proper subject for the verb ‘and he went’ in Judges 1:11, and the introduction of Caleb at a point which explains how he came to be speaking in Judges 1:12. Hebron] The modern el-Ḥ ?alξl (= the friend), so called from its association with Abraham the friend of God, is the highest point in the Judaean Highlands, 3040 ft. above the sea. Its position made it the metropolis of the Negeb, which began a little to the south. now the name of Hebron beforetime was Kiriath-arba] An archaeological gloss, cf. 11b. The ancient name of Hebron is frequently mentioned by P, e.g. Genesis 23:2, Joshua 15:54 etc.; in Genesis 23:19; Genesis 35:27 P it is given as Mamre. Kiriath-arba = lit. ‘city of four,’ i.e. Tetrapolis, perhaps because the city was divided into four quarters inhabited by different races; cf. Tripolis on the Phoenician coast, founded by Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus. The word arba is not a proper name, as a late Jewish tradition took it, Joshua 14:15; Joshua 15:13; Joshua 21:11; in all three places the LXX has preserved the original reading ‘Kiriath-arba the metropolis of Anak.’ Burney in Journ. Theol. Studies 12:118 f. explains the name as ‘the city of (the god) Four’; he quotes Babyl. parallels for this usage; which, however, is questioned by some Assyriologists. Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai] Either ‘the three sons of the Anak’ from Judges 1:20 (cf. Joshua 15:14) should precede; or we may place ‘the children of Anak’ after the names, following the LXX here and Joshua 15:14. The names may refer to families rather than to individuals; they look as if they were Aramaic.

OF HEBRON, AND EXPLOIT AND REWARD OF OTHNIEL, Judges 1:10-15. This passage is nearly identical with Joshua 15:14-19. It may have been copied from the Book of Joshua, or from some older work.