Joshua 16:3

3 and turns to descend to the westward sea to the border of Japhleti until the border of Bethhoron the lower, and to Gezer, and comes out at the 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 And the lot of the sons of Joseph fell from the Jordan of Jericho unto the water of Jericho towards the east to the wilderness that goes up from Jericho to Mount Bethel,

2 and from Bethel going to Luz and passing the border of Archi in Ataroth,

3 and turns to descend to the westward sea to the border of Japhleti until the border of Bethhoron the lower, and to Gezer, and comes out at the sea.

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

5 And this was the border of the sons of Ephraim according to their families; this was the border of their inheritance on the east side from Atarothaddar unto Bethhoron the upper;