Joshua 18:14

14 There the border took a turn on the west side and swung south from the mountain to the south of Beth Horon and ended at Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim), a town of the people of Judah. This was the west 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 The northern border began at the Jordan, then went up to the ridge north of Jericho, ascending west into the hill country into the wilderness of Beth Aven.

13 From there the border went around to Luz, to its southern ridge (that is, Bethel), and then down from Ataroth Addar to the mountain to the south of Lower Beth Horon.

14 There the border took a turn on the west side and swung south from the mountain to the south of Beth Horon and ended at Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim), a town of the people of Judah. This was the west side.

15 The southern border began at the edge of Kiriath Jearim on the west, then ran west until it reached the spring, the Waters of Nephtoah.

16 It then descended to the foot of the mountain opposite the Valley of Ben Hinnom (which flanks the Valley of Rephaim to the north), descended to the Hinnom Valley, just south of the Jebusite ridge, and went on to En Rogel.