Joshua 16:3

3 Then it goes down, to the west, to the territory of the Japhletites, up to the territory of Lower Beth-horon, then to Gezer, and {it ends} 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 The allotment of the descendants of Joseph went from [the] Jordan by Jericho, at the waters of Jericho to the east, [into] the wilderness, going up from Jericho into the hill country [to] Bethel;

2 it continues from Bethel to Luz, and it passes [along] to the territory of the Arkites at Ataroth.

3 Then it goes down, to the west, to the territory of the Japhletites, up to the territory of Lower Beth-horon, then to Gezer, and {it ends} at the sea.

4 And the descendants of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, received their inheritance.

5 [This] was the border of the descendants of Ephraim according to their families: the border of their inheritance to the east [was] Ataroth Addar, up to Upper Beth-horon.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "Japhletite"
• [b]. Literally "the goings out of it were"