Joshua 13:4

From the south, all the land of the Canaanites,.... That is, of those Canaanites who were particularly so called, in distinction from those of the other nations or tribes, and who dwelt in several

From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites: All the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians.

i.e. From those southern parts of the sea-coast now possessed by the Philistines, all the more northern parts of the sea-coast being yet inhabited by the Canaanites, almost as far as Sidon, as it here follows; for there is no mention made of any conquests of Joshua upon the sea-coast. The Canaanites, properly so called, are said to dwell by the sea, , and these are here spoken of, though some of them dwelt in other parts of the land. Mearah; a strong place; it matters not whether it was a city, or an impregnable cave, which some writers mention to be in those parts. Aphek; not that of Judah, of which but another in the tribe of Asher, of which . To the borders of the Amorites: the Amorites were a strong and very numerous people, and we find them dispersed in several parts, some within Jordan, and some without it; some in the south, and others in the north, of whom he speaks there.

Joshua 13:4 From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that [is] beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites:Ver. 4. All the land of the Canaanites.] Who yet held out against the Israelites, but hindered them not from dividing the land. No more shall those remnants of corruption hinder the saints from possession of their mansions prepared for them by Christ.

XIII. OF THE TO BE DIVIDED (Joshua 13:1-14). (b) According to its boundaries. (1) Joshua was old and stricken in years.—Rather, he had aged, and was advanced in days. Old is too absolute a word. He did not live beyond a hundred and ten years (Joshua 24:29), and this was not a great age for the time. But in several instances the Hebrew word here employed is used not so much in respect of the number of years men lived, but rather in regard to the weakening of the vital powers. So it is said in Genesis 27, “Isaac was old,” i.e., he had aged, for he lived forty-three years after that. So in regard to David, “the king was very old,” i.e., much aged, in 1 Kings 1:15, for he could not have been more than seventy when he died. The hardships and anxieties of his life had aged him. So it was perhaps with Joshua. Moses was a signal exception; he had not aged at one hundred and twenty. But Jehovah constantly talked with Moses, and knew him face to face; and may we not say that that heavenly intercourse even sustained the vital powers? The work of the Lord, though it be successfully carried on, as it was by Joshua, may wear men out by its very excitement. But personal intercourse with Him is like eating of the tree of life, and “in His presence is the fulness of joy.” In this personal intercourse Moses was more highly favoured than his successor, Joshua. (1, 7) There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed . . . Now therefore divide this land.—The land had still to be inherited—i.e., not overrun, or conquered, as far as it could be said to be conquered by defeating the armies that took the field; all this was done already, but the land had not passed out of the hands of its actual possessors into the hands of Israel. It is remarkable that we have here a distinct order given to Joshua to divide to Israel land which was not yet conquered. In these verses several nations are named—viz., the Philistines, the Geshurites, the Avites, the Giblites, the Sidonians, besides anything more which may be included in the sometimes generic, and sometimes more specific, name of the Canaanites. Of these tribes, the Philistines and “all the Sidonians” (or Phœnicians) were certainly not yet conquered. Can we say that they were ever conquered at any period in the history of the kingdom of all Israel, except in so far as they were reduced to the condition of tributaries?

Verse 4. The land of the Canaanites] This lay on the south of the country of the Philistines, towards the sea-coast. Mearah] Supposed to be the city Maratha, on the Mediterranean Sea. - Calmet. Or the river Majora, which falls into the Mediterranean Sea, between Sidon and Berytus. See PLINY, Hist. Nat. lib. v., c. 20. Aphek] See Clarke on Joshua 12:18. To the borders of the Amorites] Though the term Amorite is sometimes used to designate the inhabitants in general of the land of Canaan, yet it must be considered in a much more restricted sense in this place. As no Amorites are known to have dwelt in this quarter, Calmet supposes we should read Aramites or Syrians. Joshua, says he, proceeds from Sidon to Aphek, a city of Syria, between Heliopolis and Babylon where was the temple of the Venus of Aphek, and which is spoken of in 1Kg 20:26; 2Kg 13:17, as the capital of the kings of Syria. From this Joshua passes on to the frontiers of the Syrians, towards Gebal or Gabala, which, according to Ptolemy, was situated in Phoenicia. This conjecture of Calmet is not supported by any authority either from the ancient versions or MSS. Houbigant, however, approves of it: the emendation is simple as it consists in the interchange of only two letters in the same word, הארמי haarammi, for האמרי haemori.

4. from the south] The LXX. here gives a proper name, “from Teman.” This was the former southern limit of the Avites’ territory. all the land of the Canaanites] Here some would insert a full stop, as though the words summed up what had gone before. and Mearah] “Mara of Sydonys,” Wyclif. This place is only mentioned in this passage. The word meârâh means in Hebrew “a cave” (see margin), and it has been commonly supposed that the reference is to a remarkable cavern near Zidon. A village called el-Mughâr has been found in the mountains of Naphtali some 10 miles west of the northern extremity of the Sea of Galilee, which it has been thought may possibly represent the ancient Mearab. See Menke’s Bible Atlas, Plate iii. unto Aphek] A city in the extreme north of Asher, now Afka, N. E. of Beyrout, and apparently beyond Sidon. It was called by the Greeks Aphaca, and was noted for a temple of Venus destroyed by Constantine. to the borders of the Amorites] i.e. on the extreme north border of the Amorites, or the land once inhabited by them, and which afterwards passed to Og, king of Bashan.

Read “on the south,” and connect the words with the verse preceding. They indicate the southern limit of the still unconquered territory in this neighborhood, as Joshua 13:3 gives the northern one.

4. [From the south — This is to be connected with the Avites in the preceding verse, and stands in contrast with northward in the same verse. The Masoretic pointing is here noticeably wrong.