Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
lake Jamun was two hours to the west of the red convent, so that the boundary, which
starts from the west, and is drawn first of all towards the north, and then to the northeast
and east, must have run last of all from the red convent, and not from the Jamun
lake to the Jordan. As Jabneel is mentioned after Adami Nekeb , it must be sought for
to the east of Adami Nekeb, whereas the Jamun lake lies in the very opposite
direction, namely, directly to the west of the red convent. The three places mentioned,
therefore, cannot be precisely determined at present. The Jordan, where the boundary
of Asher terminated, was no doubt the upper Jordan, or rather the Nahr Hasbany , one
of the sources of the Jordan, which formed, together with the Huleh lake and the
Jordan itself, between Lake Huleh and the Sea of Tiberias, and down to the point
where it issues from the latter, the eastern boundary of Asher.
Verse 34. From the Jordan below the Lake of Tiberias, or speaking more exactly,
from the point at which the Wady Bessum enters the Jordan, "the boundary (of
Asher) turned westwards to Asnoth-tabor, and went thence out to Hukkok." This
boundary, i.e., the southern boundary of Asher, probably followed the course of the
Wady Bessum from the Jordan, which wady was the boundary of Issachar on the
north-east, and then ran most likely from Kefr Sabt (see at v. 22) to Asnoth-tabor ,
i.e., according to the Onom. ( s. v. Azanoth ), a vicus ad regionem Diocaesareae
pertinens in campestribus , probably on the south-east of Diocaesarea , i.e.,
Sepphoris , not far from Tabor, to which the boundary of Issachar extended (v. 22).
Hukkok has not yet been traced. Robinson (Bibl. Res. p. 82) and Van de Velde (Mem.
p. 322) are inclined to follow Rabbi Parchi of the fourteenth century, and identify
this place with the village of Yakûk , on the north-west of the Lake of Gennesareth;
but this village is too far to the north-east to have formed the terminal point of the
southern boundary of Naphtali, as it ran westwards from the Jordan. After this
Naphtali touched "Zebulun on the south, Asher on the west, and Judah by the Jordan
toward the sun-rising or east." "The Jordan" is in apposition to "Judah," in the sense
of "Judah of the Jordan," like "Jordan of Jericho" in Num 22:1; 26:3, etc.
The Masoretic pointing, which separates these two words, was founded upon some
false notion respecting this definition of the boundary, and caused the commentators
http://207.44.232.113/~bible/comment/ot/k&d/josh/jos122.html (1 of 2) [13/08/2004 01:19:11 p.m.]