Joshua 12:24

The king of Tirzah, one,.... To what tribe this place fell is nowhere said: Adrichomius (u) places it in the tribe of Manasseh; and so does Bunting (w), who says of it, that it was a fair and

Each being confined to a narrow compass, and being king only of one city, or small province belonging to it, which was by the wise and singular providence of God, that they might be more easily and successively conquered by the Israelites one after another, as they were.

Verse 24. King of Tirzah] This city appears to have been for a long time the capital of the kingdom of Israel, and the residence of its kings. See 1Kg 14:17; 1Kg 15:21; 1Kg 15:33. Its situation cannot be exactly ascertained; but it is supposed to have been situated on a mountain about three leagues south of Samaria. All the kings thirty and one.] The Septuagint say εικοσιεννεα, twenty-nine, and yet set down but twenty-eight, as they confound or omit the kings of Beth-el, Lasharon, and Madon. So many kings in so small a territory, shows that their kingdoms must have been very small indeed. The kings of Beth-el and Ai had but about 12,000 subjects in the whole; but in ancient times all kings had very small territories. Every village or town had its chief; and this chief was independent of his neighbours, and exercised regal power in his own district. In reading all ancient histories, as well as the Bible, this circumstance must be kept constantly in view; for we ought to consider that in those times both kings and kingdoms were but a faint resemblance of those now. Great Britain, in ancient times, was divided into many kingdoms: in the time of the Saxons it was divided into seven, hence called the Saxon heptarchy. But when Julius Caesar first entered this island, he found four kings in Kent alone; Cingetorix, Carnilius, Taximagulus, and Segonax. Hence we need not wonder at the numbers we read of in the land of Canaan. Ancient Gaul was thus divided; and the great number of sovereign princes, secular bishops, landgraves, dukes, &c., &c., in Germany, are the modern remains of those ancient divisions.

24. Tirzah] Three miles from the city of Samaria, now called Tellûzah, of proverbial beauty. Son 6:4, “Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah.” It was to Shechem afterwards “what Windsor is to London,” and became the residence of Jeroboam and his successors (1 Kings 14:17). Here Zimri was besieged by Omri, and perished in the flames of his palace (1 Kings 16:18).

24. Tirzah is chiefly famous for having become at a later period the royal residence of the first kings of Israel. See 1 Kings 14:17, note.