Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
1 Sam 13:17, but it is a different place from the Ophrah of Gideon in Manasseh (Judg
6:11,24; 8:27). According to the Onom. ( s. v. Aphra ), it was a koo'mee Afree'l in the
time of Eusebius ( Jer. vicus Effrem ), five Roman miles to the east of Bethel; and
according to Van de Velde, v. Raumer , and others, it is probably the same place as
Ephron or Ephrain , which Abijah took from Jeroboam along with Jeshanah and
Bethel (2 Chr. 8:19 ), also the same as Ephraim , the city to which Christ went when
He withdrew into the desert (John 11:54), as the Onom. ( s. v. Ephron ) speaks of a
villa praegrandis Ephraea nomine ( Efrai'm (NT:2187) in Euseb. ), although the
distance given there, viz., twenty Roman miles to the north of Jerusalem, reaches far
beyond the limits of Benjamin.
Verse 24. Chephar-haammonai and Ophni are only mentioned here, and are still
unknown. Gaba , or Geba of Benjamin (1 Sam 13:16; 1 Kings 15:22) which was
given up to the Levites (Josh 21:17; 1 Chron 6:45), was in the neighbourhood of
Ramah (1 Kings 15:22; 2 Chron 16:6). It is mentioned in 2 Kings 23:8; Zech 14:10,
as the northern boundary of the kingdom of Judah, and was still inhabited after the
captivity (Neh 7:30). It is a different place from Gibea , and is not to be found, as I
formerly supposed, in the Moslem village of Jibia , by the Wady el Jib, between
Beitin and Sinjil ( Rob. iii. p. 80), but in the small village of Jeba , which is lying half
in ruins, and where there are relics of antiquity, three-quarters of an hour to the northeast
of er-Râm (Ramah), and about three hours to the north of Jerusalem, upon a
height from which there is an extensive prospect (vid., Rob. ii. pp. 113ff.). This
eastern group also included the two other towns Anathoth and Almon (Josh 21:18),
which were given up by Benjamin to the Levites. Anathoth , the home of the prophet
Jeremiah (Jer 1:1; 11:21ff.), which was still inhabited by Benjaminites after the
captivity (Neh 11:32), is the present village of Anâta, where there are ruins of great
antiquity, an hour and a quarter to the north of Jerusalem ( Rob. ii. pp. 109ff.). Almon
, called Allemeth in 1 Chron 6:45, has been preserved in the ruins of Almît ( Rob.
Bibl. Res. pp. 287ff.), or el-Mid ( Tobler , Denkbl. p.
631), on the south-east of Anâta.
Verse 25-28. The second group of fourteen towns in the western portion of Benjamin.
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