28–33 (= Joshua 19:1-8). The Territory of Simeon

28. Beer-sheba] at the southern extremity of Palestine, as Dan was at the northern (1 Samuel 3:20).

Verses 28-33. - These "thirteen cities with their villages" and "five cities" are found, with some slight differences, in Joshua 19:1-9 (comp. 15:26-32, 42). They were carved out of the "portion of Judah," which had been found disproportioned during the interval that elapsed between the first settlements, viz. of Judah and the sons of Joseph, and the completion of the settlements westward of Jordan (Joshua 18:1-6; comp. Judges 1:3, 17). From the second of these groups, Tochen (see suggestion in' Speaker's Commentary,' in loc.) is omitted in Joshua 19:7, where only "four cities" are summed. The allusion (ver. 31) to the reign of David is sufficiently explained by the fact that during his persecuted wanderings he was often in the portion of Simeon, to three of the cities of which he sent presents from the spoils of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30:26-31); and Ziklag became his own (1 Samuel 27:6), special mention being made of how it passed into the tribe of Judah. The fuller name of Baal (ver. 33) is given as Baalath-beer in Joshua 19:8, where it is followed by the addition "Ramath [height] of the south." It may be noted that this description of the allotment of Simeon begins with Beer-sheba and ends with Baalath-beer. The expression (ver. 33), and their genealogy" - הִתְיַחְשָׂם infinitive Hithp., used as a noun - will be more properly translated, their table of genealogy, or their registration. The following לָהֶם may then refer to "their habitations" rather than themselves, so that the clause, as a whole, would mean, "These were their dwellings, and their registration was correct to them." Bertheau, however, takes the meaning to be, "And there was their family register to them," i.e. "They had their own family register." 1 Chronicles 4:28The ancient dwelling-places of the Simeonites, which they received within the tribal domain of Judah at the division of the land by Joshua; cf. Joshua 19:1. - There are in all eighteen cities, divided into two groups, numbering thirteen and five respectively, as in Joshua 19:2-6, where these same cities are enumerated in the same order. The only difference is, that in Joshua thirteen cities are reckoned in the first group and four in the second, although the first group contains fourteen names. Between Beersheba and Moladah there stands there a שׁבע which is not found in our list, and which might be considered to be a repetition of the second part of בּאר־שׁבע, if it were not that in the list of the cities, Joshua 15:26, the name שׁמע before Moladah corresponds to it. The other differences between the two passages arise partly from different forms of the same name being used, - as, for example, בּלהה for בּלה (Josh.), תּולד for אלתּולד, בּתוּאל for בּתוּל; and partly from different names being used of the same city, - e.g., בּית־בּראי (1 Chronicles 4:31) instead of בּית־לבאות, "the house of lions" (Josh.), שׁערים instead of שׁרוּחן (Josh.). All these cities lie in the south land of Judah, and have therefore been named in Joshua 15:26-32 among the cities of that district. As to Beersheba, now Bir es Seba, see on Genesis 21:31; and for Moladah, which is to be identified with the ruin el Milh to the south of Hebron, on the road to Ailah, see on Joshua 15:26. Bilhah (in Joshua 15:29, בּעלה), Ezem, Tolad, and Bethuel (for which in Joshua 15:31 כּסיל is found), have not yet been discovered; cf. on Joshua 15:29 and Joshua 15:30. Hormah, formerly Sephat, is now the ruin Sepata, on the western slope of the Rakhma table-land, 2 1/2 hours south of Khalasa (Elusa); cf. on Joshua 12:14. Ziklag is most probably to be sought in the ancient village Aschludsch or Kasludsch, to the east of Sepata; cf. on Joshua 15:31. Beth-marcaboth, i.e., "carriage-house," and Hazar-susim (or Susa), i.e., horse-village, both evidently by-names, are called in Joshua 15:31 Madmannah and Sansannah. Their position has not yet been discovered. Beth-Birei, or Beth-lebaoth, is also as yet undiscovered; cf. on Joshua 15:32. Shaaraim, called in Joshua 15:32 Shilhim, is supposed to be the same as Tell Sheriah, between Gaza and Beersheba; cf. Van de Velde, Reise, ii. S. 154. The enumeration of these thirteen cities concludes in 1 Chronicles 4:31 with the strange subscription, "These (were) their cities until the reign of David, and their villages." וחצריהם, which, according to the Masoretic division of the verses, stands at the beginning of 1 Chronicles 4:32, should certainly be taken with 1 Chronicles 4:31; for the places mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:32 are expressly called cities, and in Joshua 19:6, cities and their villages, הצריהם, are spoken of. This subscription can hardly "only be intended to remind us, that of the first-mentioned cities, one (viz., Ziklag, 1 Samuel 27:6), or several, in the time of David, no longer belonged to the tribe of Simeon;" nor can it only be meant to state that "till the time of David the cities named were in possession of the tribe of Simeon, though they did not all continue to be possessed by this tribe at a later time" (Berth.). Ziklag had been, even before the reign of David, taken away from the Simeonites by the Philistines, and had become the property of King Achish, who in the reign of Saul presented it to David, and through him it became the property of the kings of Judah (1 Samuel 27:6). The subscription can only mean that till the reign of David these cities rightfully belonged to the Simeonites, but that during and after David's reign this rightful possession of the Simeonites was trenched upon; and of this curtailing of their rights, the transfer of the city of Ziklag to the kings of Judah gives one historically attested proof. This, however, might not have been the only instance of the sort; it may have brought with it other alterations in the possessions of the Simeonites as to which we have no information. The remark of R. Salomo and Kimchi, that the men of Judah, when they had attained to greater power under David's rule, drove the Simeonites out of their domains, and compelled them to seek out other dwelling-places, is easily seen to be an inference drawn from the notices in Joshua 19:33-43 of emigrations of the Simeonites into other districts; but it may not be quite incorrect, as these emigrations under Hezekiah presuppose a pressure upon or diminution of their territory. We would indeed expect this remark to occur after Joshua 19:33, but it may have been placed between the first and second groups of cities, for the reason that the alterations in the dwelling-places of the Simeonites which took place in the time of David affected merely the first group, while the cities named in Joshua 19:32., with their villages, remained at a later time even the untouched possession of the Simeonites. 1 Chronicles 4:28 Interlinear
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