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 15:53
Beth-tappuah - The house of the apple or citron tree. Probably a place where these grew in great abundance and perfection.
Aphekah - See the note on Jos 12:18.
John Gill on Joshua 15:53
And Janum,.... Under the word "Janum", Jerom writes (l), there is a village called Janua, three miles from Legion to the south, but seems not to be what is written:
and Bethtappuah is by Jerom called Bethaphu (m), and said to be a village in the tribe of Judah, fourteen miles beyond Raphia, as you go to Egypt, which is the border of Palestine:
and Aphekah; Jerom speaks (n) of a large castle in his time called Apheca, near the town of Palestine; there were several places of the name of Aphek; See Gill on Joshua 12:18. As for Bethtappuah, it seems to be a place which was dedicated to a deity to which apples were sacred, in memory of the apple by which mankind was seduced; there was in later…
