Joshua 16:2

2 and it goeth out from Bethel into Luz, and it passeth the term of Archi (to) Ataroth, (and it goeth out from Bethel to Luz, and then it passeth the border of the Archites at Atarothaddar,)

Joshua 16:2 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 16:2

And goeth out from Bethel to Luz
For though these two places in time became one, yet they were originally distinct. Bethel, at which Jacob stopped, and who gave it its name, was a field adjacent to the city of Luz, ( Genesis 38:11 Genesis 38:19 ) ; and therefore with propriety may be, as they here are, distinguished:

and passeth along unto the borders Archi to Ataroth;
or to Archiataroth; these two words being the name of one and the same place, and to be joined as they are, in the Greek version, and others; and is the same with Atarothaddar, ( Joshua 16:5 ) ( 18:13 ) . Ataroth was its proper name, but it had these additional epithets to distinguish it from another Ataroth; see ( Joshua 16:7 ) ; Jerom ^F2 makes mention of Atharoth by Ramma, in the tribe of Joseph, and of another in the tribe of Ephraim, now a village at the north of Sebaste, or Samaria, four miles from it, called Atharus; the former is here meant.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 De loc. Heb. fol. 88. G.

Joshua 16:2 In-Context

1 And the lot, either part, of the sons of Joseph felled from (the) Jordan against Jericho, and to the waters thereof, from the east; (that) is, (to) the wilderness, that goeth up from Jericho to the hill of Bethel,

2 and it goeth out from Bethel into Luz, and it passeth the term of Archi (to) Ataroth, (and it goeth out from Bethel to Luz, and then it passeth the border of the Archites at Atarothaddar,)

3 and it goeth down to the west, beside the term of Japhleti, unto the terms of the lower Bethhoron, and of Gezer; and the countries thereof be ended with the great sea, (and it goeth down to the west, beside the border of the Japhletites, unto the border of Lower Bethhoron, and Gezer; and their land endeth at the Mediterranean Sea,)

4 which countries Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph, wielded. (which lands the tribes of western Manasseh and of Ephraim, the sons of Joseph, took.)

5 And the term of the sons of Ephraim, by their families, and the possession of them was made against the east, (from) Atarothaddar till to the higher Bethhoron. (And the border of the possession of the sons of Ephraim, by their families, on the east, went from Atarothaddar unto Upper Bethhoron.)