Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
Verse 28-30. In vv. 28-30 the towns and boundaries in the northern part of the
territory of Asher, on the Phoenician frontier, are given, and the Phoenician cities
Sidon, Tyre, and Achzib are mentioned as marking the boundary. First of all we have
four towns in v. 28, reaching as far as Sidon, no doubt in the northern district of
Asher. Ebron has not yet been traced. As Abdon occurs among the towns which
Asher gave up to the Levites (Josh 21:30; 1 Chron 6:59), and in this verse also twenty
MSS have the reading Abdon, many writers, like Reland (Pal. p. 514), regard Ebron
as a copyist's error for Abdon. This is possible enough, but it is by no means certain.
As the towns of Asher are not all given in this list, since Acco, Achlab, and Helba
(Judg 1:31) are wanting, Abdon may also have been omitted. But we cannot attach
any importance to the reading of the twenty MSS, as it may easily have arisen from
Josh 21:30; and in addition to the Masoretic text, it has against it the authority of all
the ancient versions, in which the reading Ebron is adopted.
But even Abdon cannot be traced with certainty. On the supposition that Abdon is to
be read for Ebron, Knobel connects it with the present Abbadiyeh , on the east of
Beirut ( Rob. iii. App.; Ritter , Erdk. xvii. pp. 477 and 710), or with Abidat , on the
east (not the north) of Jobail (Byblus), mentioned by Burckhardt (Syr. p. 296) and
Robinson (iii. App.); though he cannot adduce any other argument in support of the
identity of Abdon with these two places, which are only known by name at present,
except the resemblance in their names. On the supposition, however, that Abdon is
not the same as Ebron, Van de Velde's conjecture is a much more natural one;
namely, that it is to be found in the ruins of Abdeh , on the Wady Kurn, to the north
of Acca. Rehob cannot be traced. The name occurs again in v. 30, from which it is
evident that there were two towns of this name in the territory of Asher (see at v. 30).
Schultz and Van de Velde connect it with the village of Hamûl by the wady of that
name, between Ras el Abyad and Ras en Nakura; but this is too far south to be
included in the district which reached to great Sidon. Knobel's suggestion would be a
more probable one, namely, that it is connected with the village of Hammana , on the
east of Beirut, in the district of el Metn , on the heights of Lebanon, where there is
now a Maronite monastery (vid., Seetzen , i. p. 260; Rob. iii. App.; and Ritter , xvii.
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