Joshua 18:14

14 Then the border changes direction and turns to the western side southward, from the mountain that {is opposite} Beth-Horon to the south. {It ends} at Kiriath Baal (that [is], Kiriath Jearim), a town belonging to the descendants of Judah. This [is the] western side.

Joshua 18:14 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 18:14

And the border was drawn [thence]
From Bethhoron:

and compassed the corner of the sea southward;
it is hard to say what sea is meant, or what by it. Fuller ^F11 conjectures, that as the Hebrews call any confluence of water a sea, as we call such a "mere", the great waters in Gibeon may be meant, ( Jeremiah 41:12 ) ; for it cannot mean the Mediterranean sea, for Dan lay between Benjamin and that; and yet if a sea is meant, no other can be; wherefore it is best to render it the "west quarter", as it is in the latter part of this verse; and so the same word is translated, ( Joshua 18:12 ) ; the "west", and not the "sea", as it sometimes is; for the border of Benjamin did not reach the sea any where; though Josephus ^F12 makes it to extend to it, and says, that the length of it was from the river Jordan to the sea:

the hill that [lieth] before Bethhoron southward;
the hill that lay to the south of nether Bethhoron, as in ( Joshua 18:13 ) :

and the goings out thereof,
the end of the western coast,

were at Kirjathbaal, which [is] Kirjathjearim, a city of the children
of Judah;
of which see ( Joshua 15:9 Joshua 15:60 ) ;

this [was] the west quarter;
as thus described.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Pisgah Sight, B. 2. c. 12. p. 251.
F12 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 22.)

Joshua 18:14 In-Context

12 Their northern border began at the Jordan and went up to the slope of Jericho on [the] north and continued into the hill country to the west; {it ends} at the wilderness of Beth Aven.

13 The border passes [on] from there to Luz, to the slope of Luz to the south (that [is], Bethel); then the border goes down to Ataroth Addar to the mountain that is south of Lower Beth-Horon.

14 Then the border changes direction and turns to the western side southward, from the mountain that {is opposite} Beth-Horon to the south. {It ends} at Kiriath Baal (that [is], Kiriath Jearim), a town belonging to the descendants of Judah. This [is the] western side.

15 [The] southern side [begins] on the outskirts of Kiriath Jearim, and the border continues to the west to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah;

16 the border goes down to the foot of the mountain, which [is] opposite the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which [is] in the valley of Rephaim to the north; then it does down the valley of Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusites to the south, and then it goes down [to] En Rogel.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "against the face of"
• [b] Literally "the goings out of it were"
• [c] Or "sons"