Joshua 21:8 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Book Notes

Joshua 21:8

6 And ^athe children of Gershon had thirteen cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Issachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.

7 ^aThe children of Merari according to their families had twelve cities from the tribe of Reuben, from the tribe of Gad, and from the tribe of Zebulun.

8 ^aAnd the children of Israel gave these cities with their common-lands by lot to the Levites, ^bas the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses.

9 So they gave from the tribe of the children of Judah and from the tribe of the children of Simeon these cities which are designated by name,

10 which were for the children of Aaron, one of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi; for the lot was theirs first.

11 ^aAnd they gave them¹ Kirjath Arba (Arba was the father of ^bAnak), ^cwhich is Hebron, in the mountains of Judah, with the common-land surrounding it.

12 But ^athe fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as his possession.

13 Thus ^ato the children of Aaron the priest they gave ^bHebron with its common-land (a city of refuge for the slayer), ^cLibnah with its common-land,

14 ^aJattir with its common-land, ^bEshtemoa with its common-land,

15 ^aHolon with its common-land, ^bDebir with its common-land,

16 ^aAin with its common-land, ^bJuttah with its common-land, and ^cBeth Shemesh with its common-land: nine cities from those two tribes;

17 and from the tribe of Benjamin, ^aGibeon with its common-land, ^bGeba with its common-land,

18 Anathoth with its common-land, and ^aAlmon with its common-land: four cities.

19 All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their common-lands.

20 ^aAnd the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, the rest of the children of Kohath, even they had the cities of their¹ lot from the tribe of Ephraim.

21 For they gave them ^aShechem with its common-land in the mountains of Ephraim (a city of refuge for the slayer), ^bGezer with its common-land,

Book Notes:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Book Notes

Joshua

JOSHUA. The title of this book is derived from the pious and valiant leader whose achievements it relates and who is commonly supposed to have been its author. The objections to this idea are founded chiefly on the clause, "unto this day," which occurs several times (Joshua 4:9; Joshua 6:25; Joshua 8:28). But this, at least in the case of Rahab, is no valid reason for rejecting the idea of his authorship; for assuming what is most probable, that this book was composed toward the close of Joshua's long career, or compiled from written documents left by him, Rahab might have been still alive. A more simple and satisfactory way of accounting for the frequent insertion of the clause, "unto this day," is the opinion that it was a comment introduced by Ezra, when revising the sacred canon; and this difficulty being removed, the direct proofs of the book having been produced by a witness of the transactions related in it, the strong and vivid descriptions of the passing scenes, and the use of the words "we" and "us," (Joshua 5:1-6), viewed in connection with the fact, that, after his farewell address to the people, Joshua "wrote these words in the book of the law of God" [Joshua 24:26] —all afford strong presumptive proof that the entire book was the work of that eminent individual. Its inspiration and canonical authority are fully established by the repeated testimonies of other Scripture writers (compare Joshua 6:26 with I Kings 16:34; compare Joshua 10:13 with Habakkuk 3:11; Joshua 3:14 with Acts 7:45; Joshua 6:17-23 with Hebrews 11:30; Joshua 2:1-24 with James 2:25; Psalms 44:2; Psalms 68:12-14; Psalms 78:54-55). As a narrative of God's faithfulness in giving the Israelites possession of the promised land, this history is most valuable, and bears the same character as a sequel to the Pentateuch, that the Acts of the Apostles do to the Gospels.

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