Joshua 16
PATrecords left to make us understand whereabouts in the east it was situated; which was perfectly understood when this country was inhabited by the Ephraimites.
Joshua 16:7
And it went down from Jdnohah to Ataroth, and Naarath, and came to Jericho. Not to the very city, for that belonged to Benjamin; but to the country adjoining. And ivent out at Jordan.] Which was the eastern bounds of this country*.
Joshua 16:8
And the border went out from Tappuah westward unto the river Kanah. He returns to describe the length of it from east to west; if the river or brook Kanah be the same with the brook Cherith, mentioned 1 King3 xvii. 3. And s& not only Adricoinius understands it, but that great man’Bochartus; who observes, it was called the brook Cherith, from the Hebrew word cara, which signifies to eat or feed, because here God commanded the ravens to feed Elijah; and it was called Kanah, from the multitude of reeds which grew there (and so the Vulgar here translates it, the valley of reeds), in which it may be supposed Elijah lay hid. (Hierozoicon, par. ii. lib. ii. cap. 14.) But there is so much to be objected against this situation of the brook Kanah, that I must leave it in suspense whether it were in the east, or in the west; and confess, with Conradus Pellicanus, that as none of the Hebrews or Latins have given a satisfactory account of these four last verses, so I do not pretend to it And the goings out thereof were at the sea.] “Where sea alone is mentioned, it is commonly understood to signify the Mediterranean; which quite overthrows the opinion, which makes Kanah the same with Cherith. But the Vulgar hero took it for the salt sea (adding the word salsissimum), which favours the forenamed opinion. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Ephraim by their families.] A gross description of it.
Joshua 16:9
And the separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, &c. What these separate cities were cannot now be known, because we have not a particular account given of all the cities of this tribe (as we had of Judah), but only of those which were the limits of their country. But they seem to have’been some cities in the tribe of Manasseh, which were inhabited by the children of Ephraim, though the territories about them belonged to the ManassiteS, and were occupied by them. (See xvii. 8, 9.)
Joshua 16:10
And they drove not out tlie Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day. The inhabitants of Gezer were properly Canaanites; who dwelt upon the sea-coast, where Gezer was situated. (See ver. 3.) This is mentioned also Judg. i. 29. And serve under tribute.] They so far subdued them, as to make them tributaries; and, some fancy, imposed on them the precepts of the sons of Noah. But they ought to have destroyed them, and were forbidden to make peace with them upon any conditions. (Seo Judg. ii. 1 — 3.) Unless Grotius’s conjecture be true, that the inhabitants of Gezer submitted and accepted the terms of peace, which Joshua was bound to offer them, before he began the war; as the Girgashites, he thinks, also did; who remained even in our Saviour’s time: for they delivered up themselves at the first summons to surrender; which is the reason, he imagines, that they are omitted in the enumeration of their enemies, both in xi. 1. and in Dent. xx. 17. (See his annot on his thirteenth chapter of the second book de Jure Belli et Pacis, sect. 4.), This city, and the people of it, were destroyed in Solomon’s time by Pharaoh, king of Egypt; who made a present of it to his daughter, Solomon’s wife; who thereupon rebuilt it, (1 Kings ix. 16, 17,) Till then the -Canaanites lived in it; from whence Spinoza would have it concluded, that this book was not written by Joshua, because we find the same thing recorded in the book of Judges, (i. 29.) which is of a later date. But this is a very frivolous cavil; for, as Huetius well observes, if an historian should have said in the life of Tiberius the Germans were not destroyed, the same might, in like manner, have been said in Ithe life of Vespasian; and just so, when Joshua saith the Geizerites were not cut off by the Ephraimites, it did not hinder him that wrote in the following age from saying the same; because they still remained in the possession of their ancient habitation.