Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
But it would be difficult to bring forward the proofs of this, since Knobel himself
acknowledges that there are gaps in the lists which have come down to us, some of
which can be proved to be the fault of the copyists-such, for example, as the want of a
whole section after Josh 15:19 and 21:35. Moreover, the Philistine towns of Ashdod
and Gaza are really mentioned in Josh 15:46, and the others at all events hinted at;
whereas Knobel first of all arbitrarily rejects Josh 15:45-47 from the text, in order that
he may afterwards be able to speak of it as omitted. Again, with many of the places
mentioned as omissions, such as Atbach, Rachal, Siphamoth, etc., it is very
questionable whether they were towns at all in Joshua's time, or, at all events, such
towns as we should expect to find mentioned. And lastly, not only are no catalogues
of towns given at all in the case of Ephraim and Manasseh, but we have only
imperfect catalogues in the case of Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali; and, as we have
already observed, this incompleteness and these gaps can be satisfactorily explained
from the historical circumstances under which the allotment of the land took place.
Secondly, Knobel also maintains, that "Joshua's conquests did not extend to the
Lebanon (Josh 13:4-5), and yet the author mentions towns of the Asherites there
(Josh 19:28,30): Bethel was not taken till after the time of Joshua (Judg 1:22ff.), and
this was also the case with Jerusalem (Judg 1:8), and in the earliest times of the
judges they had no Hebrew inhabitants (Judg 19:12), yet the author speaks of both
places as towns of the Benjamites (Josh 18:22,28); Jericho and Ai were lying in ruins
in Joshua's time (ch. 6:24; 8:28), yet they are spoken of here as towns of Benjamin
that had been rebuilt (Josh 18:21,23); it is just the same with Hazor in Naphtali (Josh
11:13; 19:36); and according to Judg 1:1,10ff., Hebron and Debir also were not
conquered till after Joshua's time." But all this rests (1) upon the false assumption,
that the only towns which Joshua distributed by lot among the tribes of Israel were
those which he permanently conquered, whereas, according to the command of God,
he divided the whole land among the Israelites, whether it was conquered or not; (2)
upon the erroneous opinion, that the towns which had been destroyed, such as
Jericho, Ai, and Hazor, were allotted to the Israelites as "rebuilt," whereas there is not
a word about this in the text. It is just the same with the arguments used by Knobel in
proof of the
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