Joshua 15:59

15:59 Following this verse, the Greek Old Testament includes another district of 11 cities: Tekoa, Ephrathah (that is, Bethlehem), Phagor, Etam, Kulon, Tatam, Saris, Karem, Gallim, Bether, Manoch—eleven towns with their surrounding villages. The inclusion of this district accounts for Bethlehem; this town’s omission would be surprising. Perhaps an early copyist of the Hebrew text accidentally omitted this twelfth district.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(59) Five of these six have been identified.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Nibshan,.... Of Nibshan no mention is made elsewhere:

and the city of Salt some take to be Zoar, so called because near the salt sea, or where Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt, Gen 19:22; but rather this city might be so called, because salt was made here.

and Engedi, or Engaddi, is a well known place, near the salt sea; See Gill on Eze 47:10. Jerom says (y), there was a very large village of Jews in his time called Engaddi, near the dead sea, from whence comes the opobalsam; the same place is called Hazazontamar, from the palm trees which grew there, Ch2 20:2. It was famous for vineyards also, Sol 1:14; it lay, according to Josephus (z), three hundred furlongs or about forty miles from Jerusalem:

six cities with their villages; the sum total agrees with the particulars.

(y) De loc. Heb. fol. 91. B. (z) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 1. sect. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Eltecon: given afterwards to the tribe of Dan, (chap. xix. 44,) and then to the Levites, chap. xxi. 13. The Alexandrian Septuagint here add many cities, which are omitted in Hebrew. (Calmet) --- "Theco and Ephrata, (this is Bethlehem) and Phagor, and Artam, and Koulon, and Tatami, and Sores, and Karem, and Gallim, and Baither, and Manocho, eleven cities and their villages." (Haydock) See St. Jerome in Micheas v. 1. (Calmet) (Deuteronomy xxvii. 4.) --- Dr. Wall says, "these cities were doubtless in the Hebrew copy of the Septuagint" and "they are of such a nature, that it is scarcely possible to think them an interpolation." The former critic thinks "the omission in the Hebrew was occasioned by the word villages occurring immediately before, and at the end of the words thus omitted; and indeed the same word occurring in different places, has been the cause of many and great omission in the Hebrew manuscripts. He thinks it less likely that the Jews should have designedly omitted Bethlehem here, because that place is mentioned as belonging to Juda, in several other parts of Scripture." But is Ephrata ever joined with it, except in this passage, and in the text of Micheas? "And, therefore, though this remarkable omission was probably owing, at first, to some transcriber’s mistake, its not being reinserted might be owing to the reason specified by St. Jerome, out of malice to Christianity." (Kennicott, 2 Diss. 56.) --- Reland is astonished to find a place which was to be rendered so famous by the birth of the Messias, not enumerated in this place among the cities of Juda. But he observes that it is found in the Alexandrian version, p. 643. (Palest.) --- St. Jerome will not decide absolutely whether the Jews have erased these cities, or the Septuagint have inserted them. As he undertook to translate the Hebrew as he found it, he has not admitted these cities into his translation, though there seems to be abundant reason for supposing that they are genuine. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

[59. Bethanoth is found in the ruined village Beit-ainun, about three miles northeast of Hebron. “The principal ruin is a building eighty-three feet long and seventy-two broad. The remains of the town lie on a gentle slope north of this edifice. The foundations remain, and the streets and forms of the dwellings can still be traced.” — Robinson.] Between the 59th and 60th verses the LXX in the Codex Alexandrinus and Vaticanus insert another group of eleven cities, namely, Tekoah, Ephratha or Bethlehem, Phagor, Aitan, Khulan, Tatam, Thobes, Karem, Galem, Thether, and Manocho. Whether these cities have been added by the LXX without authority, or were really found in the earliest MSS. of this book, is a question which is not easy to determine. Hengstenberg maintains the former opinion and Keil the latter. Some find a motive for the erasure of the whole group from the Hebrew text in the desire of the Jews to deny that Jesus sprang from the tribe of Judah.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.