Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

http://207.44.232.113/~bible/comment/ot/k&d/josh/jos76.html
death; whereas he might very possibly suppose that, under existing circumstances, the
time for allotting the land had not yet arrived. - In vv. 2-6 the districts that were not
yet conquered are enumerated separately.
Verse 2-4. All the circles of the Philistines ( geliloth , circles of well-defined districts
lying round the chief city). The reference is to the five towns of the Philistines, whose
princes are mentioned in v. 3. "And all Geshuri:" not the district of Geshur in Peraea
(vv. 11, 13, Josh 12:5; Deut 3:14), but the territory of the Geshurites, a small tribe in
the south of Philistia, on the edge of the north-western portion of the Arabian desert
which borders on Egypt; it is only mentioned again in 1 Sam 27:8. The land of the
Philistines and Geshurites extended from the Sichor of Egypt (on the south) to the
territory of Ekron (on the north). Sichor ( Sihor ), lit. the black river, is not the Nile,
because this is always called hayª'or (OT:2975) (the river) in simple prose (Gen
41:1,3; Ex 1:22), and was not "before Egypt," i.e., to the east of it, but flowed through
the middle of the land.
The "Sichor before Egypt" was the brook ( Nachal ) of Egypt, the Chinokorou'ra ,
the modern Wady el Arish , which is mentioned in Josh 15:4,47, etc., as the southern
border of Canaan towards Egypt (see at Num 34:5). Ekron ( Arrakoo'n , LXX), the
most northerly of the five chief cities of the Philistines, was first of all allotted to the
tribe of Judah (Josh 15:11,45), then on the further distribution it was given to Dan
(Dan 19:43 ); after Joshua's death it was conquered by Judah (Judg 1:18), though it
was not permanently occupied. It is the present Akîr, a considerable village in the
plain, two hours to the south-west of Ramlah, and on the east of Jamnia, without
ruins of any antiquity, with the exception of two old wells walled round, which
probably belong to the times of the Crusaders (see Rob. Pal. iii. p. 23). "To the
Canaanites is reckoned (the territory of the) five lords of the Philistines," i.e., it was
reckoned as belonging to the land of Canaan, and allotted to the Israelites like all the
rest.
This remark was necessary because the Philistines were not descendants of Canaan
(see at Gen 10:14), but yet
http://207.44.232.113/~bible/comment/ot/k&d/josh/jos76.html (2 of 3) [13/08/2004 01:18:14 p.m.]