Joshua 18:14

14 The border extended [there], and turned about on the west quarter southward, from the mountain that lies before Beth-horon southward; and the goings out of it were at Kiriath-baal (the same is Kiriath-jearim), a city of the children of Judah: this was the west quarter.

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 quarter was from the Jordan; and the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north, and went up through the hill-country westward; and the goings out of it were at the wilderness of Beth-aven.

13 The border passed along from there to Luz, to the side of Luz (the same is Bethel), southward; and the border went down to Ataroth-addar, by the mountain that lies on the south of Beth-horon the lower.

14 The border extended [there], and turned about on the west quarter southward, from the mountain that lies before Beth-horon southward; and the goings out of it were at Kiriath-baal (the same is Kiriath-jearim), a city of the children of Judah: this was the west quarter.

15 The south quarter was from the uttermost part of Kiriath-jearim; and the border went out westward, and went out to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah;

16 and the border went down to the uttermost part of the mountain that lies before the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is in the valley of Rephaim northward; and it went down to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite southward, and went down to En-rogel;