Joshua 15:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Joshua 15:3
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 up to Adar, and fetched a compass to Karkaa:
to go (causatively · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
side
מִנֶּ֜גֶבmi.Ne.gev
H5045
the south (from its drought) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Maaleh-acrabbim
עַקְרַבִּים֙'ak.ra.Bim
H4610
Steep of Scorpions · proper noun, a place name
passed
וְעָ֣בַרve.'A.var
H5674
to cross over · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Zin
צִ֔נָהTzi.nah
H6790
Tsin · proper noun, a place name + directional suffix
up
וְעָלָ֥הve.'a.Lah
H5927
to ascend · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
side
מִנֶּ֖גֶבmi.Ne.gev
H5045
the south (from its drought) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Kadesh-barnea
לְקָדֵ֣שׁle.ka.Desh
H6947
Kadesh-Barnea · preposition + proper noun, a place name
passed
וְעָבַ֤רve.'a.Var
H5674
to cross over · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Hezron
חֶצְרוֹן֙chetz.rOn
H2696
Chetsron · proper noun, a place name
up
וְעָלָ֣הve.'a.Lah
H5927
to ascend · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Adar
אַדָּ֔רָה'a.Da.rah
H146
Addar · proper noun, a place name + directional suffix
compass
וְנָסַ֖בve.na.Sav
H5437
to revolve · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Karkaa
הַקַּרְקָֽעָהha.kar.Ka.'ah
H7173
Karka (with the article prefix) · definite article + proper noun, a place name + directional suffix
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 34:4 And your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass on to Zin: and the going forth thereof shall be from the south…
Judges 1:36 And the coast of the Amorites was from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.
Genesis 14:7 And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt i…
Numbers 20:1 Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; an…
Numbers 32:8 Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.
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…
Maaleh-akrabbim--Hebrew, "the ascent of scorpions"; a pass in the "bald mountain" (see on Jos 11:17), probably much infested by these venomous reptiles.
Adam Clarke on Joshua 15:3
Maaleh-acrabbim - The ascent of the Mount of Scorpions, probably so called from the multitude of those animals found in that place.
Kadesh-barnea - This place was called Enmishpat, Gen 14:7. It was on the edge of the wilderness of Paran, and about twenty-four miles from Hebron. Here Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, died; and here Moses and Aaron rebelled against the Lord; hence the place was called Meribah-Kadesh, or the contention of Kadesh.
Karkaa - Supposed to be the Coracea of Ptolemy, in Arabia Petraea. - Calmet.
John Gill on Joshua 15:3
And it went out to the south side of Maalehacrabbim,.... Or the ascent of Akrabbim, as it is called; see Gill on Numbers 34:4,
and passed along to Zin, and ascended upon the south side unto Kadeshbarnea; which perfectly agrees with the southern border of the land, as described in Numbers 34:4,
and passed along to Hezron, and went up to Adar; which two places being near to one another, as is very likely, are put together, as if one place, and called Hazaraddar, Numbers 34:4; and mention is made of Hezron, which is Hazor, Joshua 15:25; but not of Adar:
and fetched a compass to Karkaa; which Jerom (w) calls Acchara, a village in the wilderness; and if the same with Carcaria, it was according…
The Church Fathers
After this it says "from the hills that stretch toward the west; and thence one ascends from the west as far as Cades Barne," and thus it stretches from the west "to the west of Cades." And these are their borders on the southwest, and thence it went on "as far as the valley of Egypt." Do you see how in the western parts it names both the "southwest" and "Egypt" and the sunset? Without doubt, so that each one may know that all these things must be escaped and passed through by him, so that at last he may thus be able to arrive at the royal tribe, of which the Apostle says: "it is evident, moreover, that our Lord arose from Judah." Now "from the borders of Idumaea" is "the desert of Sin." A little earlier we said of the desert of Sin that it signifies temptations, and therefore it is necessary for us to pass through the wilderness of temptations, so that we may thus be able to arrive at the inheritance of the sons of Judah. But it is also necessary for us "to ascend the ascent of the hills of Acrabin," which is interpreted "scorpions." We must therefore also pass through and "tread upon" even the "scorpions," those, without doubt, of which the Savior says: "behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions." Whoever, then, wishes and desires to enter into the inheritance of the tribe of Judah must ascend these ascents and "tread upon" and escape the "scorpions" that stand in the way. Whence I think that it was to a man making this journey that the Lord also said to the prophet Ezekiel: "son of man, you dwell in the midst of scorpions." "And the borders are," it says, "as far as Cades." "Cades" is interpreted "holy" or "sanctification." The "borders" of Judah, therefore, reach as far as sanctification.
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
Acrabbim — See MAALEH-ACRABBIM, (Joshua 15:3) in the margin.
Adar — Large, the sixth month of the civil and the twelfth of the ecclesiastical year of the Jews (Esther 3:7, 13; 8:12; 9:1, 15, 17, 19, 21). It included the days extending from the new moon of our March…
Akrabbim — Scorpions, probably the general name given to the ridge containing the pass between the south of the Dead Sea and Zin, es-Sufah, by which there is an ascent to the level of the land of Palestine.…
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…
Hazar-addar — Village of Addar, a place in the southern boundary of Palestine (Num. 34:4), in the desert to the west of Kadesh-barnea. It is called Adar in Josh. 15:3.
Hazer — topographically, seems generally employed for the villages of people. As a proper name it appears in the Authorized Version—
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…
Hebron — A community; alliance. (1.) A city in the south end of the valley of Eshcol, about midway between Jerusalem and Beersheba, from which it is distant about 20 miles in a straight line. It was built…
Hezron — Enclosed. (1.) One of the sons of Reuben (Gen. 46:9; Ex. 6:14). (2.) The older of the two sons of Pharez (Gen. 46:12). (3.) A plain in the south of Judah, west of Kadesh-barnea (Josh. 15:3).
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…
Karkaa — A floor; bottom, a place between Adar and Azmon, about midway between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea (Josh. 15:3).
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 southern boundary extended well into the desert of the Negev, which had little if any settled population throughout the Old Testament period.
Rashi on Joshua 15:3
And it extended southward to Maalei-Akrabim. The words: וְיָצָא, and it extended, וְנַסֵּב, and it encircled, and וְתָּאַר, and it encompassed, are used only in the place where the boundary line bulges outward, or is indented inward, and does not follow a straight line, and here it bulges outward and reaches to the south of Maalei-Akrabim, in the south of Maalei Akrabim. Thus Maalei-Akrabim is within the line, and [the line] passed it and continued westward,
To Tzin. (צִנָה) is the same as לְצִין , to Tzin. Every word that requires a lamed as, a prefix will have a hei as a suffix.
And went up. Whatever rises eastward towards Yerushalayim goes up higher; and from Yerushalayim and further it…
Karkaa, Or Karkaa — (foundation), one of the landmarks on the south boundary of the tribe of Judah. (Joshua 15:3) Its site is unknown.
Maaleh-acrabbim — Ascent of the scorpions; i.e., “scorpion-hill”, a pass on the south-eastern border of Palestine (Num. 34:4; Josh. 15:3). It is identified with the pass of Sufah, entering Palestine from the great…
Maalehacrabbim — (ascent of scorpions), the full form of the name given as Akrabbim in (Joshua 15:3) [Akrabbim]
Rimmon — Pomegranate. (1.) A man of Beeroth (2 Sam. 4:2), one of the four Gibeonite cities. (See Josh. 9:17.) (2.) A Syrian idol, mentioned only in 2 Kings 5:18. (3.) One of the “uttermost cities” of Judah,…
Suph — (Deut. 1:1, R.V.; marg., “some ancient versions have the Red Sea,” as in the A.V.). Some identify it with Suphah (Num. 21:14, marg., A.V.) as probably the name of a place. Others identify it with…
Akrabbim · A chain of hills in the — A chain of hills in the
Gederah · A city in the plain of — A city in the plain of
Hazar-Addar · Al — Al
Judah, The Tribe Of · Bounds of inheritance — Bounds of inheritance
Kadesh · A city on the — A city on the
Karkaa · A city of the tribe of — A city of the tribe of
Maaleh-Acrabbim · of — of
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).
