Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
And the lot of the children of Joseph fell from Jordan by Jericho, unto the water of
Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goeth up from Jericho throughout mount
Bethel,
Verse 1-4. Territory of the tribe of Joseph. - V. 1. "And there came out the lot of
the children of Joseph from Jordan by Jericho." "The lot came out," viz., from the
turn (cf. Josh 19:1,17,24). The expression "came up" is used in the same sense in ch.
18:11. The connection of these two words with the rest of the sentence, "from Jordan
by Jericho," may be explained on the supposition that the lot which came out of the
urn determined the inheritance that fell to the tribe, so that we might paraphrase the
verse in this manner: "There came out the lot to the children of Joseph, namely, the
inheritance, which goes out from, or whose boundary commences at, the Jordan by
Jericho," i.e., from that part of the Jordan which is opposite to Jericho, and which is
still more precisely defined by the additional clause, "by the water of Jericho
eastward." The water of Jericho is the present fountain of es Sultan , half an hour to
the north-west of Riha , the only large fountain in the neighbourhood of Jericho,
whose waters spread over the plain, and form a small brook, which no doubt flows in
the rainy season through the Wady Kelt into the Jordan (see Rob. ii. pp. 283-4; Tobler
, Topogr. v. Jerus. ii. pp. 558-9). "The wilderness" is in opposition to "the lot," so that
the sense is, "namely, the desert going up from Jericho to the mountains to Bethel."
According to Josh 18:12, the reference is to the desert of Beth-aven, which was on
the east of Bethel, between the Wady Suwar ( Tuwar ) and Mutyah (see at Josh 7:2).
Towards the east this desert terminates with the Jebel Kuruntul (Quarantana) on the
north-west of Jericho, where it descends precipitously into the valley of the Jordan, or
v. v. , where it rises out of the Jordan valley. According
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