Matthew Henry on Joshua 15:20–end
We have here a list of the several cities that fell within the lot of the tribe of Judah, which are mentioned by name, that they might know their own, and both keep it and keep to it, and might neither through cowardice nor sloth lose the possession of what was their own.
I. The cities are here named, and numbered in several classes, which they then could account for the reason of better than we can now. Here are, 1. Some that are said to be the uttermost cities towards the coast of Edom, Jos 15:21-32. Here are thirty-eight named, and yet said to be twenty-nine (Jos 15:32), because nine of these were afterwards transferred to the lot of Simeon, and are reckoned as belonging to that, as appea…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Joshua 15:21
CITIES OF JUDAH. (Jos. 15:21-63)
the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah--There is given a list of cities within the tribal territory of Judah, arranged in four divisions, corresponding to the districts of which it consisted--the cities in the southern part (Jos 15:21-32), those in the lowlands (Jos 15:33-47), those in the highlands (Jos 15:48-60), and those in the desert (Jos 15:61-62). One gets the best idea of the relative situation of these cities by looking at the map.
Next: Joshua Chapter 16
Adam Clarke on Joshua 15:19
Give me a blessing - Do me an act of kindness. Grant me a particular request.
Thou hast given me a south land - Which was probably dry, or very ill, watered.
Give me also springs of water - Let me have some fields in which there are brooks or wells already digged.
The upper springs, and the nether springs - He gave her even more than she requested; he gave her a district among the mountains and another in the plains well situated and well watered. There are several difficulties in this account, with which I shall not trouble the reader. What is mentioned above appears to be the sense.
John Gill on Joshua 15:23
And Kedesh,.... The first of these cities seems to be Kadeshbarnea, which was to the south of the land, and on the borders of Edom, from whence the spies were sent, Numbers 32:8,
and Hazor is another city from that which is mentioned, Joshua 11:1; and was in the tribe of Naphtali:
and Ithnan, which Jerom (c) calls Jedna, was, according to him, six miles from Eleutheropolis, as you go to Hebron; the Greek version joins this and the former city together, and makes them one.
(c) De loc. Heb. fol. 92. H.
