Joshua 16:3

3 It then descended westward to the border of the Japhletites as far as the border of lower Beth-horon, then to Gezer, and ended at the Mediterranean Sea.

Joshua 16:3 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 16:3

And goeth down westward to the coast of Japhleti
This place is now unknown, though no doubt well known to the sons of Joseph, when this lot fell to them, and its border was described:

unto the coast of Bethhoron the nether:
so called to distinguish it from Bethhoron the upper, ( Joshua 16:5 ) ; this was about twelve miles from Jerusalem; (See Gill on Joshua 10:10); and to Gezer: which was about a day's journey from Bethhoron, as appears from the passages in the Apocrypha:

``39 So Nicanor went out of Jerusalem, and pitched his tents in Bethhoron, where an host out of Syria met him. 40 But Judas pitched in Adasa with three thousand men, and there he prayed, saying, ... 45 Then they pursued after them a day's journey, from Adasa unto Gazera, sounding an alarm after them with their trumpets.'' (1 Maccabees 7)

Jerom ^F3 says in his time it was a village called Gazara, four miles from Nicopolis, or Emmaus. It is the same with Gadara, as it is sometimes called by Josephus, who says ^F4, the tribe of Ephraim took in the land from the river Jordan to Gadara; this was a royal city; see ( Joshua 10:33 ) ;

and the outgoings thereof are at the sea:
the Mediterranean sea.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 De loc. Heb. fol. 92. A.
F4 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 22.

Joshua 16:3 In-Context

1 The allotment for the descendants of Joseph went from the Jordan at Jericho to the waters of Jericho on the east, through the wilderness ascending from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel.

2 From Bethel it went to Luz and proceeded to the border of the Archites by Ataroth.

3 It then descended westward to the border of the Japhletites as far as the border of lower Beth-horon, then to Gezer, and ended at the Mediterranean Sea.

4 So Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, received their inheritance.

5 This was the territory of the descendants of Ephraim by their clans: The border of their inheritance went from Ataroth-addar on the east of Upper Beth-horon.