Josué 15

Josué 15

William MacDonald notes that "It is almost impossible to trace them with exactness at the present time. This may cause some to wonder why all these details are included in the Bible. The answer is, of course, that these details are important in the sight of God. They are inspired and profitable, full of rich spiritual lessons. (Believer's Bible Commentary) Kenneth Gangel - these chapters are the kind we always dreaded in Sunday school, reading impossible-to-pronounce names. But Joshua 15 takes us right back to Genesis 15 where in verse 7 God says to Abraham, "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it." So as the fifteenth chapter of Joshua unfolds, the fifteenth chapter of Genesis becomes a reality. Although we may pass over chapters like this lightly, surely the Israelites listened with keen interest to this listing of their own cities, areas, and boundaries. (Holman Old Testament Commentary - Joshua) Mattoon - Judah was to receive their inheritance first for it was the largest tribe and the royal tribe. Why? (1) Reuben committed adultery with Bilhah. (2) Simeon committed acts of cruelty at the massacre of Shechem. (3) Levi also made Jacob to stink in the land along with Simeon. (4) Judah was given the right to rule because he offered to take Benjamin’s place in Egypt as a hostage. The first three men remind us again that our sin affects more than ourselves. It does affect other people as well....Judah’s hand would be on the neck of his enemies (Genesis 49:8–12). The Moabites would be on their eastern border. The Edomites on the south side; the Amalekites on the southwest section; and the Philistines would be in the West. Judah would need strong rulers to survive. David was a very strong leader. Judah was the anchorman of the tribes. They would look to Judah for leadership.(Treasures From Joshua) Stephen Grant - The boundary description of Judah’s inheritance is the most detailed of all the tribes. It is “painstaking and true to life in its presentation, describing, it seems, every twist and turn, every dip and rise, every right angle of the lines that marked off this tribe … nine different verbs are used a total of thirty-five times to describe the movement of the southern and northern boundary lines, as they move from east to west, the word boundary occurs an astonishing twenty one times in these twelve verses, a remarkable proportion, since the word occurs a total of eighty-four times in the book” (The New American Commentary, David M. Howard, Jnr.). The attention to geographical detail further emphasises the importance of this tribe, and its territorial integrity, within the nation. (What the Bible Teaches - Joshua Judges Ruth) Woudstra - The special significance of the chapter dealing with Judah is the fact that his lot is mentioned first. Under the superintending providence of God this is an indication of Judah's future prominence. From him was t o come the "scepter" of which Gen. 49:10 had spoken. (The Book of Joshua ) Davis - First of all, then, let us stress that chapter 15 deals with the details of God’s promise. Joshua 15 is simply one of the buds on the tree of Genesis 12 and Genesis 15. The land promise had long ago been given to Abraham (Gen. 12:6–7; 15:7–21), was often reaffirmed, and was picked up in Joshua 1; here we see part of its concrete fulfilment. The reader must remember that both this chapter and following ones describe in detail God’s gift of the land and that means that every town name and border point pulsates with excitement. No close-up description of God’s gifts could ever be boring! Perhaps the contemporary Christian needs some analogy to get a handle on this. (Joshua: No Falling Words) Here is an outline of this long chapter which may help navigate this long chapter with many geographic names describing first the boundaries and then the cities that would be given to the tribe of Judah: I. THE FOUR BOUNDARIES - Joshua 15:1-12 A. The southern boundary - verses 1-4 B. The eastern boundary - verse 5 C. The northern boundary - verses 5-11 | D . The western boundary - verse 12 II THE REST OF CALEB'S STORY - Joshua 15:13-19 III. THE CITIES OF THE INHERITANCE - Joshua 15:20-62 A. The southern cities - verses 21-32 B. The western foothills cities - verses 33-47 C. The hill country cities - verses 48-60 D. The desert cities - verses 61-62 IV. THE SAD ENDING - Joshua 15:63 Now the lot for the tribe of the sons of Judah according to their families reached the border of Edom, southward to the wilderness of Zin at the extreme south - See map above above (or this map) for the wilderness of Zin, which is where Kadesh-Barnea was located. In the map above notice that Edom is located just south of the Dead Sea and borders Judah's southern (and slightly eastern) boundary. The location of Judah on the extreme south is also seen in the map above. Madvig points out that "The description of Judah’s southern boundary is in close agreement with the southern boundary of Canaan as described in Numbers 34:3–5." (The Expositor's Bible Commentary Volume 3)