Joshua 11:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Joshua 11:2
And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west,
a king · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
north
מִצְּפ֗וֹןmi.tze.Fon
H6828
properly · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
mountains
בָּהָ֧רba.Har
H2022
a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
plains
וּבָעֲרָבָ֛הu.va.'a.ra.Vah
H6160
a desert · conjunction + preposition with the article + proper noun, a place name
south
נֶ֥גֶבNe.gev
H5045
the south (from its drought) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Chinneroth
כִּֽנֲר֖וֹתki.na.Rot
H3672
Kinneroth or Kinnereth · proper noun, a place name
valley
וּבַשְּׁפֵלָ֑הu.va.she.fe.Lah
H8219
Lowland · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
borders
וּבְנָפ֥וֹתu.ve.na.Fot
H5299
a height · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct
Dor
דּ֖וֹרDor
H1756
Dor · proper noun, a place name
west
מִיָּֽםmi.Yam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joshua 12:3 And from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea on the east, the way to Beth-jeshi…
Judges 1:27 Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her to…
Numbers 34:11 And the coast shall go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of…
Joshua 17:11 And Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher Beth-shean and her towns, and Ibleam and her towns, and the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, and…
Joshua 12:23 The king of Dor in the coast of Dor, one; the king of the nations of Gilgal, one;
1 Kings 4:11 The son of Abinadab, in all the region of Dor; which had Taphath the daughter of Solomon to wife:
Joshua 10:6 And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save…
Joshua 10:40 So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remai…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 11:1-9
We are here entering upon the story of another campaign that Joshua made, and it was a glorious one, no less illustrious than the former in the success of it, though in respect of miracles it was inferior to it in glory. The wonders God then wrought for them were to animate and encourage them to act vigorously themselves. Thus the war carried on by the preaching of the gospel against Satan's kingdom was at first forwarded by miracles; but, the war being by them sufficiently proved to be of God, the managers of it are now left to the ordinary assistance of divine grace in the use of the sword of the Spirit, and must not expect hail-stones nor the standing still of the sun. In this story we ha…
the kings that were on the north of the mountains--the Anti-libanus district.
the plains south of Chinneroth--the northern part of the Arabah, or valley of the Jordan.
the valley--the low and level country, including the plain of Sharon.
borders of Dor on the west--the highlands of Dor, reaching to the town of Dor on the Mediterranean coast, below mount Carmel.
Adam Clarke on Joshua 11:2
On the north of the mountains - Or the mountain, probably Hermon, or some mountain not far from the lake of Gennesareth.
And of the plains - That is, the valleys of the above mountains, which had the sea of Chinneroth or Gennesareth on the south.
Chinneroth - This city is supposed by St. Jerome and several others since his time, to be the same as was afterwards called Tiberias. From this city or village the sea of Chinneroth or Gennesareth probably had its name.
And in the borders of Dor - Calmet supposes this to mean the champaign country of the higher and lower Galilee, on to the Mediterranean Sea, and to the village or city of Dor, which was the farthermost city of Phoenicia. Dor was in t…
And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains,.... Of Libanus and Antilibanus, with others near them; so Josephus (t) says, the kings about Lebanon being Canaanites, fought against them, i.e. the Israelites; for Lebanon lay to the north of the land:
and of the plains south of Cinneroth; or Gennesaret, of the land and lake of which we read in the New Testament, Matthew 14:34; and seems to have respect chiefly to the famous plain of Jezreel, or Esdraelon, of which See Gill on Hosea 1:5,
and in the valley; which may more especially design the valley of Jezreel, as it is called in the above place, and distinguish it from other plains; it was two miles broad, and ten long:
and in th…
The Church Fathers
But the devil calls against the sons of Israel also those who are around "great Sidon." I indeed, since I have several times lingered in the regions of Sidon, have never found that there are two Sidons, one great and another small, as far as pertains to the earthly place. But if I return to the interpretation of the name, which signifies a huntress or hunters, I see that of the adversary powers, among which there are many differences, some are hunters in small things and some hunters in great things; that is, some deceive souls through small sins, others through great ones. For example, when a soul is deceived in the pleasures of the age and the delights of the flesh, it must be said to be caught in a small thing; but when it either denies providence or worships demons as though God, this must be reckoned to have been deceived in a great thing. And therefore now he "sends to great Sidon," those who assemble as though to a great hunt against the sons of Israel. He "sends" also "to the mountain regions." By the "mountain regions" is to be understood every sense "that exalts itself and rises up against the knowledge of God." He "sends" also "into the Arabah." Now "Arabah" is interpreted as ambushes. He invites, therefore, the ambushing powers, which deceive human souls not by force nor by open assaults, but by unforeseen ambushes and cunning ones — such perhaps as those of whom the prophet says: "He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his den; he lies in wait, that he may seize the poor man." But if anyone is such as Paul is, he says confidently: "For we are not ignorant of his devices." He "sends" also to "Chinneroth." Now "Chinneroth" is interpreted as though lamps; not lamps, but as though lamps. For a lamp is one thing, as though a lamp is another. John "was a burning lamp," because he was an "angel of light." But that one is as though a lamp "who transfigures himself into an angel of light." And if you wish to know still more evidently the differences of the lamps and the as-though-lamps which are "in Chinneroth," hear the Savior saying to his disciples: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning." There are, then, of those who teach the catholic faith in the church and illumine the people of God with the word of truth, "burning lamps." But these who teach heretical doctrines out of the testimonies of Holy Scripture by false assertions, in that…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Chinnereth — Lyre, the singular form of the word (Deut. 3:17; Josh. 19:35), which is also used in the plural form, Chinneroth, the name of a fenced city which stood near the shore of the lake of Galilee, a little…
Cinnereth — A harp, one of the “fenced cities” of Naphtali (Josh. 19:35; comp. Deut. 3:17). It also denotes, apparently, a district which may have taken its name from the adjacent city or lake of Gennesaret,…
Dor — Dwelling, the Dora of the Romans, an ancient royal city of the Canaanites (Josh. 11:1, 2; 12:23). It was the most southern settlement of the Phoenicians on the coast of Syria. The original…
Hazor — Enclosed; fortified. (1.) A stronghold of the Canaanites in the mountains north of Lake Merom (Josh. 11:1-5). Jabin the king with his allied tribes here encountered Joshua in a great battle. Joshua…
Jabin — Discerner; the wise. (1.) A king of Hazor, at the time of the entrance of Israel into Canaan (Josh. 11:1-14), whose overthrow and that of the northern chief with whom he had entered into a…
Necho II — An Egyptian king, the son and successor of Psammetichus (B.C. 610-594), the contemporary of Josiah, king of Judah. For some reason he proclaimed war against the king of Assyria. He led forth a…
Plain — (1.) Heb. ‘abel (Judg. 11:33), a “grassy plain” or “meadow.” Instead of “plains of the vineyards,” as in the Authorized Version, the Revised Version has “Abel-cheramim” (q.v.), comp. Judg. 11:22; 2…
Salmon — Garment, the son of Nashon (Ruth 4:20; Matt. 1:4, 5), possibly the same as Salma in 1 Chr. 2:51.
Vale, Valley — It is hardly necessary to state that these words signify a hollow sweep of ground between two more or less parallel ridges of high land. The structure of the greater part of the holy land does not…
Canaanites · General references — General references
Joshua 11:1-15
1. And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,
1. Quum autem Jabim rex Hasor, misit ad Jobab regem Madam, et ad regem Simeron, et ad regem Achsaph,
2. And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west,
2. Ad reges quoque qui habitabunt ab aquilone in montanis, et in planitie ad meridiem Cineroth, et in planitie in Naphoth-Dor ab occidente.
3. And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and…
The War in Northern Canaan. - Jos 11:1-3. On receiving intelligence of what had occurred in the south, the king of Hazor formed an alliance with the kings of Madon, Shimron, and Achshaph, and other kings of the north, to make a common attack upon the Israelites. This league originated with Jabin the king of Hazor, because Hazor was formerly the head of all the kingdoms of northern Canaan (Jos 11:10). Hazor, which Joshua conquered and burned to the ground (Jos 11:10, Jos 11:11), was afterwards restored, and became a capital again (Jdg 4:2; Sa1 12:9); it was fortified by Solomon (Kg1 9:15), and taken by Tiglath-Pileser (Kg2 15:29). It belonged to the tribe of Naphtali (Jos 19:36), but has not…
Through the more detailed accounts of Joshua’s campaign in southern Canaan (chs 6-10), the narrator established firmly that the Israelites needed God’s help to succeed. Because what had been true in the southern campaign would also be true in the northern campaign (ch 11), those details were unnecessary here.
11:1-3 Hazor lay along the international trade route and was by far the largest and most important inland city of Canaan (see 11:10). • Virtually all of northern Canaan joined the coalition of King Jabin against Israel. This region stretched from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the desert in the east and from the borders of Phoenicia in the north to the hill country and the Jordan…
South of Kinros.— South of Ginosar.1Genosar is an area near Tiberias, around Lake Kinneres.
The region of Dor.—The districts of Dor. Contree in French.
מִיָם—on the west.
Dor · A town and district of Palestine — A town and district of Palestine
Jabin · Names of two kings of Hazor — Names of two kings of Hazor
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
