Matthew Henry on Joshua 19:32-39
Naphtali lay furthest north of all the tribes, bordering on Mount Libanus. The city of Leshem, or Liash, lay on the utmost edge of it to the north, and therefore when the Danites had made themselves masters of it, and called it Dan, the length of Canaan from north to south was reckoned from Dan to Beersheba. It had Zebulun on the south, Asher on the west, and Judah upon Jordan, probably a city of that name, and so distinguished from the tribe of Judah on the east. It was in the lot of this tribe, near the waters of Merom, that Joshua fought and routed Jabin, Jos 11:1. etc. In this tribe stood Capernaum and Bethsaida, on the north end of the sea of Tiberias, in which Christ did so many mighty…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Joshua 19:34
Aznoth-tabor--on the east of Tabor towards the Jordan, for the border ran thence to Hukkok, touching upon that of Zebulun; and as the territory of Zebulun did not extend as far as the Jordan, Aznoth-tabor and Hukkok must have been border towns on the line which separated Naphtali from Issachar.
to Judah upon Jordan toward the sunrising--The sixty cities, Havoth-jair, which were on the eastern side of the Jordan, opposite Naphtali, were reckoned as belonging to Judah, because Jair, their possessor, was a descendant of Judah (1Ch. 2:4-22) [KEIL].
Adam Clarke on Joshua 19:38
Nineteen cities - But if these cities be separately enumerated they amount to twenty-three; this is probably occasioned by reckoning frontier cities belonging to other tribes, which are only mentioned here as the boundaries of the tribe. See on Jos 19:30 (note).
John Gill on Joshua 19:38
And Iron,.... Of Iron no mention is made elsewhere:
and Migdalel, which Jerom calls Magdiel, he says (m) was shown a small village, five miles from Dara, as you go to Ptolemais:
and Horem is not mentioned anywhere elsewhere;
and Bethanath; Jerom also relates (n), that Bathana, in the tribe of Naphtali, was a village that went by the name of Betbanes, fifteen miles from Caesarea:
and Bethshemesh was another city, in which was a temple dedicated to the sun, when inhabited by the Canaanites; see Joshua 19:22; and so in Bethanath there might be a temple dedicated to some deity, though now uncertain what:
nineteen cities with their villages; there are more mentioned, but some of them might b…
