Joshua 16:2

2 Bethel is also called Luz. From Bethel it crossed over to Ataroth. That's where the Arkites live.

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 The land that was given to the two tribes in the family line of Joseph began at the Jordan River near Jericho. Their border started east of the springs of Jericho. It went up from there through the desert into the hill country of Bethel.

2 Bethel is also called Luz. From Bethel it crossed over to Ataroth. That's where the Arkites live.

3 Then it went west down to the territory of the Japhletites. It went all the way to the area of Lower Beth Horon. It went on to Gezer. It came to an end at the Mediterranean Sea.

4 The tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim were from the family line of Joseph. So they received that land as their share.

5 Here is the territory that was given to the tribe of Ephraim, family group by family group. The border of their share of land started at Ataroth Addar in the east. It went to Upper Beth Horon.