Joshua 15:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Joshua 15:1
This then was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah by their families; even to the border of Edom the wilderness of Zin southward was the uttermost part of the south coast.
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
tribe
לְמַטֵּ֛הle.ma.Teh
H4294
a branch (as extending) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
children
בְּנֵ֥יbe.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Judah
יְהוּדָ֖הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
families
לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֑םle.mish.pe.cho.Tam
H4940
a family · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
border
גְּב֨וּלge.Vul
H1366
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
Edom
אֱד֧וֹם'e.Dom
H123
Edom · proper noun, a man's name
wilderness
מִדְבַּרmid.bar-
H4057
a pasture (i.e. open field · noun, common masculine singular construct
Zin
צִ֛ןtzin
H6790
Tsin · proper noun, a place name
southward
נֶ֖גְבָּהNeg.bah
H5045
the south (from its drought) · noun, common masculine singular absolute + directional suffix
part
מִקְצֵ֥הmik.Tzeh
H7097
an extremity · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
coast
תֵימָֽןtei.Man
H8486
the south (as being on the right hand of a person facin… · noun, common feminine 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
Numbers 26:55-56 Notwithstanding the land shall be divided by lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.
Numbers 33:36-37 And they removed from Ezion-gaber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh.
Numbers 34:3-5 Then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of…
Joshua 14:2 By lot was their inheritance, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half tribe.
Ezekiel 47:19 And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And this is the south side sout…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 15:1-12
Judah and Joseph were the two sons of Jacob on whom Reuben's forfeited birth-right devolved. Judah had the dominion entailed on him, and Joseph the double portion, and therefore these two tribes were first seated, Judah in the southern part of the land of Canaan and Joseph in the northern part, and on them the other seven did attend, and had their respective lots as appurtenances to these two; the lots of Benjamin, Simeon, and Dan, were appendant to Judah, and those of Issachar and Zebulun, Naphtali and Asher, to Joseph. These two were first set up to be provided for, it should seem, before there was such an exact survey of the land as we find afterwards, Jos 18:9. It is probable that the mo…
This then was the lot of the tribe of - Judah - The geography of the sacred writings presents many difficulties, occasioned by the changes which the civil state of the promised land has undergone, especially for the last two thousand years. Many of the ancient towns and villages have had their names so totally changed, that their former appellations are no longer discernible; several lie buried under their own ruins, and others have been so long destroyed that not one vestige of them remains. On these accounts it is very difficult to ascertain the situation of many of the places mentioned in this and the following chapters. But however this may embarrass the commentator, it cannot affect the…
This then was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah by their families,.... The land of Canaan was divided by lot to the several tribes, and the tribe of Judah had its lot first; of the manner of casting lots; see Gill on Numbers 26:55; It seems as if the lot was first cast for the tribes of Judah and Joseph, when the former had the southern, and the latter the northern part of the land for their portion, which was done in Gilgal; after this lots were cast in Shiloh for the other seven tribes, who had the land divided among them, which lay between Judah and Joseph, or between the southern and northern parts of the land, see Joshua 18:1, &c. and it seems that not only the land was divi…
The Church Fathers
Then, further, since it is the custom of holy Scripture to name the four regions of the world, which they call either poles or zones, in the description of "the borders of the tribe of Judah" only two are named and two are passed over in silence. For it is written thus: "and the borders of the tribe of the sons of Judah according to their peoples were from the borders of Idumaea, from the desert of Sin toward the west." And when it had described the borders on the west, it then says: "and on the east all the salt sea," and it passed over the other two regions in silence, that is, the north and the south. See, therefore, whether these things are not filled with mysteries. Although we cannot perceive or explain each one, nevertheless, insofar as the Lord deigns to grant it and we are able to grasp it, we will attempt to examine each single point. "The borders of Judah," it says, "were according to their peoples from the borders of Idumaea, from the desert of Sin toward the west." Therefore "the borders of Judaea" are next to "the borders of Idumaea." Now "Idumaea," as we have often already said, is interpreted "earthly." After the earthly things, then, "the borders of Judaea" immediately follow. But it also says "from the desert of Sin." And "Sin" is interpreted "temptations." After the temptations, then, follow "the borders" of the inheritance "of Judaea." The "west" and the "east" are named, and those neighboring places which we mentioned above, indeed the bordering regions. But also "the valley of Egypt" is designated as neighboring to the western parts, which is "from the desert toward the west," while "on the east" the "borders" are girded "by the salt sea."
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
Dagon’s house — (1 Sam. 5:2), or Beth-dagon, as elsewhere rendered (Josh. 15: 41; 19:27), was the sanctuary or temple of Dagon. The Beth-dagon of Josh. 15:41 was one of the cities of the tribe of Judah, in the…
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…
Judah, Tribe of — Judah and his three surviving sons went down with Jacob into Egypt (Gen. 46:12; Ex. 1:2). At the time of the Exodus, when we meet with the family of Judah again, they have increased to the number of…
Lot — (Heb. goral, a “pebble”), a small stone used in casting lots (Num. 33:54; Jonah 1:7). The lot was always resorted to by the Hebrews with strictest reference to the interposition of God, and as a…
Zin — A low palm-tree, the south-eastern corner of the desert et-Tih, the wilderness of Paran, between the Gulf of Akabah and the head of the Wady Guraiyeh (Num. 13:21). To be distinguished from the…
Canaan · According to the promise — According to the promise
Judah, The Tribe Of · Bounds of inheritance — Bounds of inheritance
Tribes Of Israel, The · Situation of, and bounds of the inheritance of each — Situation of, and bounds of the inheritance of each
Zin · A — A
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).
Joshua 15:1-13
1. This then was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah by their families; even to the border of Edom the wilderness of Zin southward was the uttermost part of the south coast.
1. Fuitque sors tribui filiorum Jehuda per familias eorum juxta terminum Edom, et desertum Sin ad austrum ab extremo austri.
2. And their south border was from the shore of the salt sea, from the bay that looketh southward:
2. Fuitque ejus terminus meridici ab extremo maris salis, hoc est a petra quae respicit ad meridiem.
3. And it went out to the south side to Maalehacrabbim, and passed along to Zin, and ascended up on the south side unto Kadeshbarnea, and passed along to Hezron, and went…
Boundaries of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah. - Jos 15:1. Its situation in the land. "And there was (i.e., fell, or came out; cf. Jos 16:1; Jos 19:1) the lot to the tribe of Judah according to its families to the frontier of Edom (see at Num 34:3), to the desert of Zin southward, against the extreme south" (lit. from the end or extremity of the south), i.e., its inheritance fell to it, so that it reached to the territory of Edom and the desert of Zin, in which Kadesh was situated (see at Num 13:21), on the extreme south of Canaan.
Jos 15:2-4
The southern boundary. This was also the southern boundary of the land of Israel generally, and coincided with the southern boundary of Canaan as…
Judah’s tribal allotment is described in greater detail than that of the other tribes. The failures of Judah’s elder brothers (Gen 34:25-31; 35:22) put him in line to receive the mantle of leadership. Thus, the tribe of Judah received a central geographical position among the tribes, guaranteeing its leadership in the nation (Gen 49:8-12; Deut 33:7).
Rashi on Joshua 15:1
To the border of Edom. Close to the boundary of Edom.
Southward. Referring to the southern boundary of Eretz Yisroel.1The wilderness of Tzin borders the territory of Yehudah on the south.
The extreme southern end. Referring to the very end of the boundary.
