Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
Canaanites." If, however, we were disposed to adopt the opinion held by Masius and
Rosenmüller , and understand these words as relating to the southern boundaries of
Canaan, "the possessions of the king of Arad and the neighbouring petty kings who
ruled in the southern extremity of Judaea down to the desert of Paran, Zin, Kadesh,"
etc., the fact that Arad and the adjoining districts are always reckoned as belonging to
the Negeb would at once be decisive against it (compare Josh 15:21ff. with ch. 10:40;
11:16, also Num 21:1).
Moreover, according to Josh 10:40,21, and 11:16-17, Joshua had smitten the whole of
the south of Canaan from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza and taken it; so that nothing
remained unconquered there, which could possibly have been mentioned in this
passage as not yet taken by the Israelites. For the fact that the districts, which Joshua
traversed so victoriously and took possession of, were not all permanently held by the
Israelites, does not come into consideration here at all. If the author had thought of
enumerating all these places, he would have had to include many other districts as
well.
Beside the territory of the Philistines on the south-west, there still remained to be
taken (vv. 4, 5) in the north, "all the land of the Canaanites," i.e., of the Phoenicians
dwelling on the coast, and "the caves which belonged to the Sidonians unto Aphek."
Mearah (the cave) is the present Mugr Jezzin , i.e., cave of Jezzin, on the east of
Sidon, in a steep rocky wall of Lebanon, a hiding-place of the Druses at the present
time (see at Num 34:8; also
F. v. Richter , Wallfahrten in Morgenland, p. 133). Aphek , or Aphik , was allotted to
the tribe of Asher (Josh 19:30; Judg 1:31); it was called A'faka by the Greeks; there
was a temple of Venus there, which Constantine ordered to be destroyed, on account
of the licentious nature of the worship ( Euseb. Vita Const. iii. 55). It is the present
Afka , a small village, but a place of rare beauty, upon a terrace of Lebanon, near the
chief source of the river Adonis ( Nahr Ibrahim ), with ruins of an ancient temple in
the neighbourhood, surrounded by groves of the most splendid walnut trees on the
north-east of Beirut (see O. F. v. Richter , pp. 106-7; Rob. Bibl. Res. p. 663; and V. de
Velde , Reise. ii. p. 398). "To the territory of the Amorites:" this is obscure. We
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