Joshua 19:49 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Joshua 19:49
When they had made an end of dividing the land for inheritance by their coasts, the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun among them:
to end · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
land
הָאָ֖רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
inheritance
לִנְחֹלlin.chol-
H5157
to inherit (as a (figurative) mode of descent) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
coasts
לִגְבֽוּלֹתֶ֑יהָlig.vu.lo.Tei.ha
H1367
a boundary · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
children
בְנֵיve.nei-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֧לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
gave
וַיִּתְּנ֨וּvai.yi.te.Nu
H5414
to give · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
inheritance
נַחֲלָ֛הna.cha.Lah
H5159
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Joshua
לִיהוֹשֻׁ֥עַli.ho.Shu.a'
H3091
Jehoshua (i.e. Joshua) · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
son
בִּןbin-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Nun
נ֖וּןnun
H5126
Nun or Non · proper noun, a man's name
among
בְּתוֹכָֽםbe.to.Kham
H8432
a bisection · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
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
Ezekiel 45:7-8 And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, and of the possession of th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 19:49–end
Before this account of the dividing of the land is solemnly closed up, in the last verse, which intimates that the thing was done to the satisfaction of all, here is an account of the particular inheritance assigned to Joshua. 1. He was last served, though the eldest and greatest man of all Israel, and who, having commanded in the conquest of Canaan, might have demanded the first settlement in it for himself and his family. But he would make it to appear that in all he did he sought the good of his country, and not any private interest of his own. He was content to be unfixed till he saw them all settled; and herein is a great example to all in public places to prefer the common welfare befo…
the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem--The Danites, finding their inheritance too small, decided to enlarge its boundaries by the sword; and, having conquered Leshem (Laish), they planted a colony there, calling the new settlement by the name of Dan (see on Jdg 18:7).
Adam Clarke on Joshua 19:47
Went out too little for them - This is certainly the meaning of the passage; but our translators have been obliged to add the words too little to make this sense apparent. Houbigant contends that an ancient copyist, meeting frequently with the words ויצאהגבול vaiyetse haggebul, in the preceding history, became so familiarized to them that he wrote them here instead of ויאץ הגבול vaiyaats haggebul, and the border of the children of Dan was Strait for them. It was on this account that they were obliged to go and fight against Leshem, and take and possess it, their former inheritance being too strait for their increasing population.
And called Leshem, Dan - This city was situated near the origi…
And when they made an end of dividing the land for inheritance by their coasts,.... That is, Eleazar, Joshua, and the ten men appointed for this, purpose; when all the lots were drawn, and the several inheritances which came up to them were divided among the families of the respective tribes, this work being finished:
the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun among them; most interpreters observe the modesty of Joshua, that though the oldest and the greatest man in the nation, the chief governor, yet had his inheritance last of all; nor did he take any part to himself, it was given to him by the people, who had the whole land divided among them; in which he was a t…
The Church Fathers
But since we are accustomed to refer the things that are written about Jesus to our Lord and Savior, perhaps this whole people of ours too gives some portion to my Lord Jesus and grants him, as it were, a certain place for his dwelling. But lest what is said seem to be injurious, let us inquire how we, his servants, give him a place of habitation. If I could become good, I would give a place to the Son of God within me, and the Lord Jesus would build up and adorn the place received from me in my soul, and would make in it unassailable walls and lofty towers, so that he might build in me, if I were worthy, a dwelling worthy of himself and of the Father, and would so adorn my soul as to make it capable of his wisdom and knowledge and all holiness to such a degree that he would even make God the Father enter in with him "and make his dwelling in it," and even dine in such a soul upon the foods which he himself had given. And that we may be worthy to attain this, let us prepare in ourselves a clean heart, into which the Lord Jesus may deign willingly and gratefully to enter as the guest-lodging of our clean heart, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
"And the sons of Ephraim went forth to traverse the land according to their borders." And when he had recounted that history, in what follows he makes clear how great was the meekness and humility of the blessed Jesus, who was truly worthy to bear the name of Jesus our Lord and Savior! For he says: "And the sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus [son] of Nave among themselves by the command of the Lord; and they gave him the city which he asked for, Thamnasac, which is on Mount Ephraim; and he built a city there, and dwelt in it." He it is who gave the inheritance to all "the sons of Judah," who gave to "Ephraim" and to "the half tribe of Manasseh"; he gave to that magnificent "Caleb [son] of Jephone" an inheritance also; he sent "three men through each of the tribes" to "traverse" the whole "land and describe it in a book" and return and show it to him; he "sent lots" to all and reserved himself for the very last. Why do you think he wished to be "last" of all? Without doubt, that he might be "first" of all. And he did not even presume the lot of an inheritance for himself, but received it from the people, and the people "give an inheritance" to him from whom he himself had received it. For thus it is written: "and the sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus [son] of Nave." But "these things happened to them figuratively," which were set before us as a model, that we too might keep that precept which this man fulfilled in deed, where it is said: "the greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you will find grace before the Lord," and again what is written: "if they appoint you leader, do not be lifted up, but be among them as one of themselves." See therefore how he himself was "leader" of the people, who had led them "into the holy land," into "the land of promise"; he himself was the successor of Moses, and he does not permit himself to take a lot of the land, but waits to receive a little portion from the people, he the leader of the people, and having received his little portion, Jesus, worthy of this name, builds up that very place which he received, and constructs it, that he may make it truly worthy of the gift of God and of the divine inheritance.
Dictionary and topics
Tabor — A height. (1.) Now Jebel et-Tur, a cone-like prominent mountain, 11 miles west of the Sea of Galilee. It is about 1,843 feet high. The view from the summit of it is said to be singularly extensive…
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 19:32-51
32. The sixth lot came out to the children of Naphtali, even for the children of Naphtali according to their families.
32. Filiis Nephtali exivit sors sexta, filiis inquam, Nephtali, per familias suas.
33. And their coast was from Heleph, from Allon to Zaanannim, and Adami, Nekeb, and Jabneel, unto Lakum; and the outgoings thereof were at Jordan:
33. Fuitque terminus eorum ab Heleph, et ab Elon in Saanannim, et Adami, Neceb, et Jabneel, usque ad Lacum: suntque exitus ejus ad Jordanem.
34. And then the coast turns westward to Aznothtabor, and goeth out from thence to Hukkok, and reacheth to Zebulun on the south side, and reacheth to Asher on the west side, and to Judah up…
Conclusion of the Distribution of the Land. - Jos 19:49, Jos 19:50. When the land was distributed among the tribes according to its territories, the Israelites gave Joshua an inheritance in the midst of them, according to the command of Jehovah, namely the town of Timnath-serah, upon the mountains of Ephraim, for which he asked, and which he finished building; and there he dwelt until the time of his death (Jos 24:30; Jdg 2:9). "According to the word of the Lord" (lit. "at the mouth of Jehovah") does not refer to a divine oracle communicated through the high priest, but to a promise which Joshua had probably received from God at the same time as Caleb, viz., in Kadesh, but which, like the pr…
The piece of land given to Joshua closes the section on the allocation of land to the tribes of Israel (see study note on 14:1–19:51).
Rashi on Joshua 19:47
The boundary of Bnei Don extended from them. At this point they took only a small portion, but the lot also fell for them in another place which was a distance from their boundary, and thus the other tribes intervened between them.4Others explain the words, וַיֵצֵא גְבוּל בְנֵי־דָן מֵהֶם to mean, “the boundary of the Bnei Don was too small for them,” and they went out to capture the city of Leshem to make room for their population.
They fought against Leshem. This took place later in the time of Osniel, the son of Kenaz, in the days of the graven image of Michoh, as it is said in the Book of Shoftim.5Shoftim 17:3,4. 18:2. (See Rashi to 17:1.)
Leshem This is the city of Layish, that is ment…