Joshua 18:14

14 Then the border extended around the west side to the south, from the hill that lies before Beth Horon southward; and it ended at Kirjath Baal (which is Kirjath Jearim), a city of the children 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 Their border on the north side began at the Jordan, and the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north, and went up through the mountains westward; it ended at the Wilderness of Beth Aven.

13 The border went over from there toward Luz, to the side of Luz (which is Bethel) southward; and the border descended to Ataroth Addar, near the hill that lies on the south side of Lower Beth Horon.

14 Then the border extended around the west side to the south, from the hill that lies before Beth Horon southward; and it ended at Kirjath Baal (which is Kirjath Jearim), a city of the children of Judah. This was the west side.

15 The south side began at the end of Kirjath Jearim, and the border extended on the west and went out to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah.

16 Then the border came down to the end of the mountain that lies before the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is in the Valley of the Rephaim on the north, descended to the Valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite city on the south, and descended to En Rogel.