2 This is the land that yet remaineth: all the districts of the Philistines and all the Geshurites,
and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maachathites, and all mount Hermon, and the whole of Bashan to Salcah;
Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had no experience of any war in Canaan;
Yea also, what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Zidon, and all the districts of Philistia? Will ye render me a recompence? But if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I bring your recompence upon your own head;
and the Pathrusim, and the Casluhim, out of whom came the Philistines, and the Caphtorim.
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year: lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou art fruitful, and possess the land. And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the river; for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, that thou mayest dispossess them from before thee.
then will Jehovah dispossess all these nations from before you, and ye shall take possession of nations greater and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours; from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the hinder sea shall your border be.
But the children of Israel did not dispossess the Geshurites nor the Maachathites; but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites to this day.
and his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maachah, daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Joshua 13
Commentary on Joshua 13 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 13
At this chapter begins the account of the dividing of the land of Canaan among the tribes of Israel by lot, a narrative not so entertaining and instructive as that of the conquest of it, and yet it is thought fit to be inserted in the sacred history, to illustrate the performance of the promise made to the fathers, that this land should be given to the seed of Jacob, to them and not to any other. The preserving of this distribution would be of great use to the Jewish nation, who were obliged by the law to keep up this first distribution, and not to transfer inheritances from tribe to tribe, Num. 36:9. It is likewise of use to us for the explaining of other scriptures: the learned know how much light the geographical description of a country gives to the history of it. And therefore we are not to skip over these chapters of hard names as useless and not to be regarded; where God has a mouth to speak and a hand to write we should find an ear to hear an eye to read; and God give us a heart to profit! In this chapter,
Jos 13:1-6
Here,
Jos 13:7-33
Here we have,